In 2006, the nonprofit Donate Life America launched the Donor Designation Collaborative as a nationwide effort to improve organ, eye and tissue donation rates in the United States.

The primary goal of the collaborative is to obtain 100 million donor designations — commitments of people to donate their organs upon their death that are recorded in a searchable donor registry.

A secondary goal is to attain a 50 percent designation rate among licensed drivers in every state — that is, half of all people applying for or renewing a driver's license or ID card are registering to be donors.

A national report card prepared by Donate Life America shows that some inroads are being made, with a 10 percent increase in solid organ donor designations over the past 18 months; that brings the total number of registered donors in the United States to nearly 70 million.

Still, there is plenty of room for more, with only 35 percent of licensed drivers and ID card holders currently registered to be organ donors through their state registry or motor vehicle department.

April is the sixth annual National Donate Life Month, in which a special push is made to get people to sign up to be designated donors.

To find out how, visit http://www.donatelife.net.

Here are other facts of organ donation.

- Nearly 100,000 people are on the national organ transplant waiting list.

- More than a fifth of the people on that list — nearly 20,000 — are Californians.

- The waiting list for organ transplants is growing at the rate of 1,000 per month. Another name is added to the waiting list every 13 minutes.

- Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die waiting.

- The current five-year survival rate for heart transplant recipients is 72 percent for men and 68.5 percent for women.

- More than half the people on the waiting list for a donated organ are racial or ethnic minorities. Chances of getting a transplant increase if donor and recipient share the same racial/ethnic background.

- It is estimated that registered donors have helped more than 300,000 people through tissue donation and given sight to more than 14,000 through cornea donation.

- In 2007, just four states had a designation rate of at least 50 percent: Iowa (67 percent), Colorado (60 percent), Ohio (52 percent) and Utah (50 percent).

- California does not require family consent for organ, eye or tissue donation. (However, Donate Live California, which was formed in 2004, recommends keeping everyone informed, to help avoid confusion or delays.)

- Until recently, no registry existed for Californians who wished to give consent to be an organ and/or tissue donor. Historically, while signing a donor card and placing the pink dot on a driver's license served as a symbol of intent, it did not place donors on any list or registry.

- Since July 1, 2006, those who renew or apply for a driver's license or state ID can also register their decision to be a donor in the Donate Life California Registry, and the pink "DONOR" dot symbol is pre-printed on the applicant's driver's license or ID card.

- In addition to April being National Donate Life Month, Aug. 1 is National Minority Donor Awareness Day and November is National Donor Sabbath. (It is observed two weekends before Thanksgiving as members of faith communities participate in services and programs to educate their congregations about donation and transplantation and the critical need for donors.)

Sources: donatelife.net; donatelifecalifornia.org; organdonor.gov; health.discovery.com.