Death with Dignity National Center
Respect the will of the people
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
In the last 50 years, advances in medical technology have fundamentally changed how Americans die. These advances have led to positive outcomes for many individuals, but there are others for whom the extension of their lives through modern medicine has led to a painful and protracted dying process.
Terminally ill individuals seek—and deserve—the freedom to decide how they die. For some, this includes the option of a hastened death as a means to end their suffering and maintain autonomy until their final breath. The Death with Dignity National Center promotes policy reform that makes this option available to mentally capable individuals with six months or less to live. In the process, we strengthen the nationwide movement for greater choice and control at the end of life.
Additionally, we mount legal defense of existing assisted-dying laws at the state and federal levels based on our successful efforts to defend the groundbreaking Oregon Death with Dignity Act.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Public Education
The Death with Dignity National Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that focuses on public education and legal defense. Death with Dignity provides targeted education to a wide variety of groups who have an interest in death with dignity laws based on Oregon’s landmark Death with Dignity Act, including physicians, lawyers, medical students, elected officials, members of the media, college students, and church officials.
Communications
Our website, www.deathwithdignity.org, receives over 97,000 visits per year. We respond to over 2,500 phone calls and emails per year from people across the country, providing educational materials and referrals to terminally ill patients and their family members, students, and others interested in death with dignity as a social issue and as an end-of-life option for qualified terminally ill individuals.
Dignity50, formerly Oregon Plus One
Through our core program, Dignity50, we promote Death with Dignity laws based on our model legislation, the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, as a stimulus to nationwide improvements in end-of-life care and as an option for dying individuals. We accomplish our mission by working to defend and promote Death with Dignity laws in court and in the court of public opinion.
Through our State Leadership Incubator, we provide educational resources in the form of online trainings and one-on-one consultations to advocates in states that lack Death with Dignity statutes, empowering them to work effectively toward achieving end-of-life care policy reform. We also provide these advocates with seed funding to grow their nascent organizations, allowing them to expand their capacity to effectively educate their communities about, and increase support for, death with dignity in their respective states.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance - Organization 2010
Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance - Organization 2014
Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance - Organization 2018
Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance - Organization 2019
Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance - Organization 2020
Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance - Organization 2021
Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance - Organization 2022
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of jurisdictions that have adopted death with dignity laws
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Dignity50, formerly Oregon Plus One
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Ten jurisdictions have death with dignity laws: Oregon-1997; Washington-2008; Vermont-2013; California-2015; Colorado-2016; Washington, DC-2017; Hawaii-2018; Maine, New Jersey-2019; New Mexico-2021.
Number of grassroots organizations supported
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Dignity50, formerly Oregon Plus One
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Through our State Leadership Incubator program, we provide financial and/or strategic support to grassroots groups in: CO, AZ, FL, CA, GA, ME, NC, NM, NH, VT, OH
Number of requests for data
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Public Education
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Students, medical professionals, the media, terminally ill patients and family members request information from us as a recognized and trusted resource on issues pertaining to end-of-life care.
Number of people on the organization's email list
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Communications
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Email is one of our key advocacy and fundraising tools. We have focused on developing an effective email strategy to engage donors, advocates, and volunteers in specific states and nationwide.
Number of Facebook followers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Communications
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We share news/research related to end-of-life care in the US, partner organizations news, personal stories from terminally ill Americans. This helps grow the movement for improved end of life care.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Death with Dignity National Center works to stimulate changes in end-of-life care by promoting death with dignity policy reform, which provides a dignified and humane option for terminally ill people whose dying process is full of suffering and indignity.
In our decades of work at the local and national levels, we have learned the road to lasting policy change begins not in the halls of power, but at the grassroots. As part of our core program, Dignity50, we provide training, strategic guidance, and critical funding to community leaders on the front lines of the death with dignity movement in states across the country. This coordinated, state-by-state approach catalyzes policy reform in a growing number of states and strengthens the nationwide movement for greater choice and control at the end of life.
We also provide information, education, and support about death with dignity as an end-of-life option to patients, family members, legislators, advocates, healthcare and end-of-life care professionals, media, and the interested public.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
In order to act as a leader catalyzing policy reform, we build national-state partnerships with local groups. Through these partnerships, we are able to effectively transfer policy knowledge, research, and analysis to grassroots activists engaged in regional or local work.
For example, in Maine, which adopted a death with dignity statute in 2019, we were the only national organization active during the entire 5+ years of work it took to achieve policy reform. We partnered with a local organization to provide strategic support; raise funds; and educate legislators, residents and interest groups about the benefits of death with dignity. In turn, local leaders shared on-the-ground knowledge that helped our team refine our communications and education strategy. Together, we achieved a landmark victory, and the dedicated Mainers with whom we worked are well equipped to educate their fellow citizens about death with dignity as a compassionate end-of-life option.
Through over 25 years of end-of-life policy practice, we have developed a sophisticated analysis of policy opportunities throughout the country. This helps guide our investments of movement resources to states with the highest potential for success.
Other strategies include evaluating policy reform lessons from other social movements and applying them to our own and building relationships across issue advocacy nonprofit organizations to facilitate policy reform in the broadest sense possible.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Death with Dignity National Center has been at the forefront of the assisted-dying movement since its inception nearly 30 years ago. Our policy work led to the passage by voters of the nation's first assisted-dying statute, the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, in 1994. The Act, which we defended successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court, has been used as a model for death with dignity statutes in other states. We have played a central role in successful efforts to expand policy reform to Washington State (2008), Vermont (2013), California (2015), Washington, D.C. (2017), Hawaiʻi (2018), Maine (2019), and, most recently, New Mexico (2021). And we have spearheaded robust efforts in states that did not result in policy reform but greatly increased public support for death with dignity and helped us hone our national strategy.
The breadth of our work, the depth of our experience, and the strength of our reputation put us in a position to lead the death with dignity movement into the future. We have the capability to provide both a broad spectrum of services to a multitude of states, while still allowing us to focus in on the specific needs of each state through our unique mix of social movement expertise, funding capabilities, and wealth of knowledge gained from managing and assisting efforts in many states. Our process of maintaining a narrowly- focused mission and continually re-examining the tasks and activities necessary to achieve our mission helps us maintain effectiveness and efficiency and allows us to act quickly to address emergent issues.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In a quarter-century's worth of work, we have changed end-of-life policy to provide greater comfort and control to the terminally ill, both through the promotion of death with dignity policy reform and by influencing key decision-makers to increase awareness and availability of options such as hospice and palliative care.
Ten jurisdictions representing nearly 73 million Americans now have policies authorizing death with dignity. And a 2017 New England Journal of Medicine analysis found that residents of Oregon, where the death with dignity movement began, were more likely to die at home—something 85 percent of Americans wish for— and have other end-of-life wishes honored than residents of any other state.
Currently, we are working with 10 local partner organizations in a diverse group of states. We hope to double the number of partner organizations in the next two years. We will accomplish this by promoting and increasing participation in our Dignity50 State Leadership Incubator, through which we provide essential tools and training to dedicated activists seeking to launch and grow organizations dedicated to promoting death with dignity in their respective states.
We will continue to provide thought leadership in the media, education to a wide range of constituencies, and referral services for terminally ill patients and their families.
And we are actively engaged in defending existing assisted-dying laws through the U.S. court system, which has been a cornerstone of our work since the mid-1990s.
In Washington, D.C., we have joined a coalition of organizations focused on defending D.C. laws, including the Death with Dignity Act passed in 2017, from congressional interference. Some members of Congress are attempting to nullify D.C.'s assisted-dying law through the federal budget process. We have defeated their efforts in the past and will continue to work to protect the District's statute.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Death with Dignity National Center
Board of directorsas of 01/19/2024
George Eighmey
Eli D Stutsman
Carol Pratt
Lee&Hayes
George Eighmey
Midge Levy
Deborah Ziegler
Lisa Vigil Schattinger
Max Roman
Gil Tenzer
Elaine Fong
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
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Gender identity
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Disability
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