The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association (SCAA) was founded and incorporated in 2005. It is a nonprofit tax exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Code. SCAA is an outgrowth of the pioneering work done by the National Center for Early Defibrillation (NCED), a unit of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2003 NCED launched a Survivor Network and an Ambassador Network and decided to take a broader look at its mission to include all Sudden Cardiac Arrest issues including ICD therapies. As part of this examination, a decision was made to re-launch as an independent organization --the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association -- governed by its own Board of Directors coming out of the former Survivor and Ambassador communities. Today, SCAA carries forward the original mission of NCED to broaden public access to early defibrillation and has expanded its efforts to include public awareness of SCA, its prevention and treatments for those at risk, and advocacy for a wide range of issues related to SCA. SCAA works with Kindest for online donations at https://www.kindest.com/donate/sudden-cardiac-arrest-association.