The DNA Detectives Announces the Kits of Kindness Donation Program

**The KOK program has been temporarily put on hold as of 3/15/2020. Thank you for your understanding.**

On 1 Jan 2016, The DNA Detectives introduced the Kits of Kindness DNA testing kit donation program. To date, the program has been responsible for over 1000 people receiving donated DNA kits. As a direct result of this program, many have discovered and reunited with previously unknown biological family members and/or gained closure to self-identity questions. 

The DNA Detectives Kits of Kindness Program was established to facilitate donations from those who wish to assist in purchasing DNA kits for those searching for birth family who cannot afford to DNA test. In many cases, donations come from those who have received volunteer help in their searches and wish to "pay-it-forward." We also receive regular donations from members of the genetic genealogy and adoption search communities who support our goals. 

If you would like to donate a kit please write to us at kits@TheDNADetectives.com. Monetary donations of any amount can be sent through PayPal to kits@TheDNADetectives.com or through this link: click here. One hundred percent of monetary donations go toward kit purchases and mailing costs. (Please note that DNA Detectives is not a 501(3)(c), so this is not a tax deductible, charitable donation.) If you have a kit on hand that you would like to donate to someone through our program, please contact us at the above address for an address to which to mail it. 

In order for us to be efficient, all requests for donated kits must be made by filling out an application at this link: https://tinyurl.com/KOKapp

Requests sent to any other email address, through a Facebook account message or in the comments below will not be accepted. Requests are reviewed about once every two weeks and approved recipients are placed on a waiting list, so please do not expect an immediate response to your email. If the request is urgent, please include that in your subject line. 

Priority for donated kits goes to members of the DNA Detectives Facebook group who are searching for immediate birth family and are experiencing financial difficulties. Other types of requests are also considered. We prefer to hear directly from the person who needs the test, but will accept third party requests if the person in need does not have access to a computer. 

When submitting a request, please include:

-- The details of your birth family search and what other methods you have already tried previously

-- If you are adopted, please include the the state and year of your birth

-- The reason for your inability to purchase a DNA kit

-- Your Facebook profile (if you have one)

-- The mailing address where you would like the kit sent. Please separate this out from the rest of the text so it is easy to see and use appropriate punctuation to ensure the kit arrives at the intended destination.

Requests can be made for any of the four autosomal DNA testing kits, AncestryDNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage DNA and/or Family Tree DNA's Family Finder as well as the Family Tree DNA Y-37 kit for males. (We typically recommend starting with the AncestryDNA kit due to the size of their database, so most of the kits provided to our recipients have, so far, been from AncestryDNA.)

Thank you to all of those who have supported the Kits of Kindness Program in the past and those who will do so in the future! The program and your support of it is making a difference in many lives.