Jada Bascom Foundation

The Jada Bascom Foundation would use the Elevate Prize funding to enroll 1 million potential stem cell and bone marrow donors in one year using social media platforms. We will partner with Be The Match, the U.S. national marrow donor program and a network of registries from 53 countries around the world. 

Specifically,  

- the funds would help us to increase staffing required to carry out the project both at the Jada Bascom Foundation and the U.S. marrow donor program, Be the Match;

-design and implement marketing and development plan;

-cultivate the relationships and grow the number of countries belonging to the existing network 53 country donor enrollment network;

-promote existing cellular therapy registries in country worldwide.

The Jada Bascom Foundation (JBF) was founded in 2009 by Jeana Moore to enroll potential stem cell donors to save the lives of patients in need of a transplant.  Jeana was inspired to enroll potential donors after her granddaughter, Jada, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia at only one month old.  After 4 chemotherapy treatments Jada's parents were told that the treatments were not working and without a bone marrow transplant Jada would not survive.  After a search of 11 million potential donors a perfect match was found in Germany.  Think of that 1 out of 11 million.  Jada is now a healthy active 13 year old thanks to Torsten Huber her bone marrow donor!

The JBF has carried out many innovative and cost effective projects over the last 10 years including: 

• Steps To-Marrow I walk across America
• Steps To-Marrow II walk across Europe
• Passage of Jada’s Law in Washington State which requires WA state to include information about how to join Be The Match with every drivers license and ID card mailed
• Steps To-Marrow III walk across Arizona focused on Native American and Latinx donor education and enrollment.

JBF is committed to save the lives of patients in need of a bone marrow transplant. 

Despite the efforts of Be The Match and other registries around the world the public at large remains ignorant of the great need for informed and diverse potential donors. 

Cellular therapy can be the cure for over 70 different diseases. Only 30% of patients in need of a stem cell or bone marrow transplant will find a match within their family; 70% need to find a match in an unrelated donor.  Worldwide, over 50,000 patients per year are looking for a matched donor outside their family. Nearly 50% of the patients that find a donor find his or her perfectly matched donor in another country. (bethematch.org)

The JBF was founded to support registries around the world by educating the general public about what it means to be a stem cell donor, the urgent need for a diverse set of donors and how to join their national donor program increasing the survival rate of patients in need of transplants worldwide.  We have developed/implemented strategies for potential donor enrollment in the last year and a half during the global pandemic and are looking to the future of the education and enrollment of potential stem cell donors in a post global pandemic world. 

Do your own experiment; ask 10 friends the name of their national bone marrow registry; Why it is important to join their national bone marrow registry; and how to join their national registry.  I predict at best you will find 3 out of 10 who will be able to answer these simple questions.  It points to a failure to educate the general public on this important issue. 

The existing network of 53 marrow donor programs worldwide is not currently being used to its full potential. The JBF project of using social media platforms to raise awareness regarding the urgent need for diverse donors and how to join your national registry will strengthen the existing bonds, increase national awareness for each of the registries, increase donor enrollment worldwide, bring new ideas to stem cell enrollment bringing registries around the world to the cutting edge of donor education and enrollment in a post-pandemic world. 

As of January 2021 there are 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide- 59.5 % of the global population. (https://www.statista.com/stati...) A component of our project will inform internet users about how they can bring this information to members of their community who do not have access to the internet.

Our goals are to enroll one million potential stem cell and bone marrow donors in one year using social media platforms; to promote existing cellular therapy registries in 53 cooperating registries worldwide; and to strengthen the existing global transplant network. 

Steps to be taken:

• Create partnership with Be The Match, the U.S. marrow donor program,
• Strengthen relationships in existing 53 country network of registries around the world, 
• Design and implement marketing and development plan to enroll 1 million donors using social media platforms,
• Train participating registries how to utilize marketing and development plan,
• Raise the funds to bring this project to fruition,
• Jada Bascom Foundation staffing needs - hire part time marketing and development employee and 1 part time IT specialist,
• Evaluate needs of participating registries around the world,
• Support Be The Match in coordinating worldwide effort to use social media platforms to enroll 1 million potential donors in one year beginning on Jan 1, 2022,
• Investigate potential resources ie: MIT Innovation Challenge, Social Media Platforms ie Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, additional potential funding organization,
• Utilize existing systems to track enrollment of potential donors with registries around the world.