Organ transplantation has been an important means of rescuing the lives of end-stage patients with organ failure. However, an acute shortage of donor organs has become a common dilemma for organ transplantation all over the world so as to seriously restrict the development of organ transplantation. Many foreign countries have established a relatively mature organ donation system to foster favorable conditions for alleviating a shortage of donor organs. This review summarized the global measures and current domestic efforts of facilitating organ donation to provide theoretical rationales for further optimizing organ donations and transplantation system in China.