Methodology
Overview
Data in this report comes from an online, mixed-methods survey conducted by Word In Black’s (WIB) Insights & Research Division of Black news readers across the U.S. The survey was conducted from Sept. 8 to Oct. 24, 2025. The mixed-methods study was designed to better understand attitudes, behaviors, and motivations around organ donation in this community, focusing on key breakdowns by region, gender, age, and education.
Sample Recruitment
Respondents were recruited via 10 publisher partner networks nationwide, affiliated with Word in Black, across all four key U.S. regions (Table 1). Participating publishers received a detailed marketing kit with banner ads, newsletter templates, social media posts, and sample editorial copy to promote the survey. Each outlet was asked to run a four-week campaign across their digital platforms, newsletters, and social channels to drive reader participation.
The target population for this survey included individuals 18 or older located in the U.S. who identified as Black/African American, or multiracial, including Black. Power analyses for the experimental and subgroup comparisons indicated that a total sample of 1,800 would be sufficient to detect small-to-moderate differences at α = .05 with 80% power.
Table 2. Word In Black Publisher Distribution
| Region | Publication City |
| Northeast | New York, NY |
| South | Baltimore, MD.; D.C.; Houston, TX; Dallas, TX; Atlanta, GA |
| West | Seattle, WA; Sacramento, CA; |
| Midwest | Detroit, MA; St. Louis, MO |
Procedure
Prior to beginning the survey, participants provided informed consent. Questionnaires consisting of measures assessing organ donation knowledge and beliefs and registration status were completed on participants’ personal computers (see full Survey for all items). Upon completing the questionnaires, participants were given the option to enter a drawing to win one of 25 $100 gift cards.
Questionnaire Development and Survey Testing
The questionnaire was developed by Word in Black researchers and reporters in consultation with investigators at CalMatters – a non profit, non partisan newsroom. The survey platform was tested on both PCs and mobile devices by the WIB research team and a team of publishers. A four-day test pilot was also run to ensure the platform and survey logic were working as intended before officially launching the survey. See full survey instrument here.
Results
Descriptive Statistics
Participants
A sample of 7,131 participants – recruited through WIB’s online readership – completed the survey. The final sample consisted of 1,588 participants. 5,543 responses were dropped from the final data set for completing less than 70% of the survey, taking less than 2.5 minutes to take the survey, failing both attention checks, and for having duplicate IP addresses. Free-response questions were also examined and respondents were removed from the analytical dataset for providing low-quality open-ended responses (e.g., gibberish, copy-paste text, irrelevant content, or strings of random characters). An additional eight people who selected ‘other’ and self-described their race as something other than Black or African American, or Multiracial, including Black or African American, for race were removed.
The majority of remaining participants were 65 and older (44%) and female (75%); 45% had obtained a postgraduate or professional degree (e.g., master’s, PhD, JD, MD) and 18% had a household income of $100,000 to $149,000 (see Table 1 for full demographic breakdown).
Table 1. Demographic Breakdown of Survey Respondents
| N = 1588 | Survey Sample (%) | |
| Black or African American | 1483 | 93% |
| Multiracial, including Black or African American | 97 | 6% |
| Other | 8 | 1% |
| Gender | ||
| Woman | 1184 | 75% |
| Man | 375 | 24% |
| Non-binary, genderqueer, or gender nonconforming | 17 | 1% |
| Prefer not to say | 12 | 1% |
| Income | ||
| Less than $25,000 | 96 | 6% |
| $25,000 to $34,999 | 77 | 5% |
| $35,000 to $49,999 | 120 | 8% |
| $50,000 to $74,999 | 246 | 15% |
| $75,000 to $99,999 | 249 | 16% |
| $100,000 to $149,999 | 289 | 18% |
| $150,000 to $199,999 | 147 | 9% |
| $200,000 or more | 164 | 10% |
| Prefer not to say | 200 | 13% |
| Education | ||
| Less than high school graduate | 3 | 0% |
| High school diploma or GED | 44 | 3% |
| Vocational, technical, or trade certificate | 47 | 3% |
| Some college or associate degree | 309 | 19% |
| Bachelor’s degree | 449 | 28% |
| Postgraduate or professional degree (e.g., master’s, PhD, JD, MD) | 711 | 45% |
| Prefer not to say | 25 | 2% |
| Ethnicity | ||
| Black/African American | 1298 | 82% |
| African | 75 | 5% |
| Multi Ethnic/ Multi Racial | 171 | 11% |
| Caribbean | 24 | 2% |
| Afro Latina | 10 | 1% |
| Prefer not to say | 10 | 1% |
| Age | ||
| 18-24 | 25 | 2% |
| 25-34 | 95 | 6% |
| 35-44 | 134 | 8% |
| 45-54 | 239 | 15% |
| 55-64 | 394 | 25% |
| 65+ | 701 | 44% |
| Region | ||
| Midwest | 330 | 21% |
| Northeast | 214 | 13% |
| South | 765 | 48% |
| West | 277 | 17% |
| Prefer not to say | 2 | 0% |
Table 2. Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Black Adult Population
| Demographic Characteristic | *U.S. Black Adult Population (%) ** |
| Gender | |
| Women | 52 |
| Men | 48 |
| Nonbinary/Other | — |
| Age Group | |
| 18–29 | 24 |
| 30–44 | 28 |
| 45–59 | 25 |
| 60+ | 23 |
| Region | |
| Northeast | 17 |
| Midwest | 18 |
| South | 52 |
| West | 13 |
| Education | |
| High school or less | 37 |
| Some college / Associate | 33 |
| Bachelor’s degree or higher | 30 |
| Population estimates drawn from the 2023 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 1-Year Public Use Microdata Sample for Black or African American adults aged 18 and older. | |
Group differences were examined using chi-square tests of independence to assess whether donor registration, knowledge, and belief patterns varied significantly across demographic groups. Only statistically significant patterns (p < .05) or substantively meaningful ones were highlighted in this report.
We used an AI-assisted approach to analyze open-ended responses. ChatGPT, a large language model, identified initial themes across participants’ comments, and the researcher reviewed and refined these themes to ensure accuracy before finalizing the results.
Limitations
While this survey provides valuable insight into how Black Americans think and feel about organ donation and transplantation, the results should be interpreted as descriptive of the study participants rather than as nationally representative estimates. The survey was distributed through Word In Black’s publisher network and related partners, and participation was voluntary. Respondents in the final sample skew older, more female, and higher SES (in terms of education and income) than the broader U.S. Black adult population (Table 2). Because of this, some findings may reflect the perspectives of older, more engaged, or more health-aware readers. Results are presented unweighted, and any differences between groups should be interpreted as indicative rather than definitive. Future survey waves may employ quota sampling or weighting to align sample composition with U.S. Census benchmarks.