Zeta Beta Tau has achieved several incredible service milestones in 2025, thanks to the work of the many brothers who volunteer for Gift of Life Marrow Registry. This illustrates our strong commitment to the Fraternity’s precept of service for all brothers.

When a chapter hosts a Gift of Life swab event, the brothers collect cheek swabs from peers on campus and send the results back to Gift of Life, who enters the participant’s information into a national registry for stem cell and bone marrow donors. Younger donors (ages 18 to 35) are necessary to the registry’s success, as transplant patient survival is higher with younger donors. Gift of Life and ZBT’s partnership is critical.

In the eight years since, Gift of Life was named as the official community service partner of ZBT:

• 16,000 swabs for new registry participants have been collected by ZBT brothers.
• 500 plus genetic matches have been identified from those names
• 50 of those cases resulted in life-saving transplants.

The numbers, strong though they are, don’t fully tell the story. There are incredible examples from brothers who saved a life by making a transplant, and then in return had their lives changed by the experience. Read more on their stories.

• Julian M. Dahan, Alpha Delta (University of Southern California) 2022
• Alpha Alpha Chapter at Purdue University
• Eliott S. Nazarian, Alpha Gamma (Vanderbilt University) 2016
• Scott F. Postema, Beta Epsilon (Michigan State University) 2018
• Tony Joe Connell, Gamma Mu (University of Memphis) 2017

“On behalf of everyone at Gift of Life, thank you for all that you have done — and continue to do — to advance our lifesaving mission. Without amazing partners like you and your members, none of this would be possible,” said Traci Ackerman, Manager of Strategic Partnerships. “I’m so proud to call ZBT a partner and look forward to many more meaningful collaborations ahead.”

Undergraduate chapters truly embrace Gift of Life as a partner to help them meet their service goals. A majority of chapters host a swab drive every semester, adding thousands of potential matches to the registry each year, and many have supplemental fundraising events for GOL as well. ZBT also invites Gift of Life to national programs like the upcoming Dover Days and International Convention.

“We are proud to continue to work together to add lifesaving blood stem cell and bone marrow donors to the registry. Every individual brother has the power to make a difference through Gift of Life,” Zeta Beta Tau CEO Libby Anderson said.

See more at ZBT’s Donor Circle page through Gift of Life.

To get involved with Gift of Life, contact Assistant Director of Heritage Programs and Partner Relations Julian D. Albright, Epsilon Mu (University of Kansas) 2023, at jalbright@zbtnational.org.