i wrote to the dana-faber institute for information and this is what they say:

The first way to register is to come in to Dana-Farber. If you are outside of our service area, we can send you a kit, which you can then take to a local lab or doctor's office to have your blood drawn.

It costs us $65.00 per donor to have the HLA (Human Leukocyte Antigen) test done. We receive some money from the government as part of an effort to recruit more donors of ethnic minority (Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, or Hispanic or Latino). This funding initiative is a policy of the NMDP. Therefore, if you are not Caucasian, the testing fee is waived. If you are unable to afford the fee, there may be other options to defray some of the cost of the tissue typing. If you have health insurance within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the State of Rhode Island, the cost of the test may be covered.

The second way to join is to donate platelets here at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Platelets are a component of the blood that causes clotting and are needed for patients undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments. They have a shelf life of only 5 days; so new donors are always needed. If you donate platelets three times at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, we will HLA type and enter you in the NMDP Registry at our cost. For more information on platelet donation, please call the Kraft Family Blood Donor Center at 617/632-3206.