Frequently Asked Questions
The Seed Scout Purpose, Mission & Process
The Seed Scout is a comprehensive known sperm donor matchmaking service for family planning. We've developed an extensive, personalized screening process for donors so we can provide you with the best options to meet your unique needs.
We believe that navigating the donor journey should be a fun, exciting step toward building your family. Here's how the process works:
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We learn about what you're looking for!
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We show you a curated catalog of donors that match your criteria.
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Once you've chosen your two favorites, we introduce you to them.
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Once you and your donor mutually match, we walk you through all the necessary next steps.
We support both IVF and IUI journeys - just note that all clients must work with either a fertility clinic or a nurse-midwife to use our services.
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So how are we different from a sperm bank and why does it matter?
More Options: The Seed Scout has a wide range of options and choices as compared to sperm banks, inclusive of donors from various different backgrounds. We are proud to have over 900 donors and we are adding more each week.
Family Limit: The family limit at The Seed Scout is three. This means that your donor will only match with a maximum of two other families. Therefore, the number of half-siblings that your children will have will be exponentially lower than sperm bank donors where family caps generally do not exist. Some donor sibling cohorts can have over 100 children!
Personal Experience: You get to meet your donor beforehand at The Seed Scout. A donor contributes half of your children’s future genetics, so getting to know them beyond a very basic profile is incredibly important. You will have peace of mind knowing that they are a good person.
Donor Contact: Your future children have the opportunity to reach out and/or know details about their donor at the age of your/their choosing. At sperm banks, even “open ID” does not guarantee that a donor will be responsive if and when a child reaches out. Donor conceived people are strongly advocating that all donors should be known donors.
Annual Medical History Update: The Seed Scout donors provide you with an annual update on family medical history. Sperm banks are not obligated to provide any updates on donor family medical history even if they are aware of such updates.
Age of Donors: Donors at The Seed Scout must be at least 24 years old. Sperm banks will recruit college-aged donors who are often not mature enough to make such an important decision.
Donor’s Family Photos: The Seed Scout provides you with photos of your donor’s family so you can see what their parents and siblings look like. Sperm banks only provide a few photos of the donor, sometimes only one baby photo.Anyone who is looking for assistance in finding a known sperm donor to help grow their family is a perfect match for us. This includes LGBTQIA+ couples, single parents by choice and couples with male-factor infertility.
Additionally, To ensure that our donors are treated with respect and dignity, we screen our clients to ensure that they uphold our values as a company before beginning their journey with The Seed Scout.
Logistics & Cost of The Seed Scout?
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Our Fees: We believe in full transparency when it comes to costs. Pricing varies depending on your specific needs, but general service rates can be found here.
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Donor Fees: For our standard package, clients provide a $5,000 payment to the donor. For the exclusive package, the donor fee is $13,000. These payments go directly to the donor at the time of donation and are separate from any clinic-related donation fees paid to the donor's clinic.
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Other Costs: Additional expenses (including donation clinic fees, medical testing, a legal agreement, and other required logistics) typically total around $7,000. These fees are paid directly to the respective providers, attorneys, and clinics involved in the process.
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Yes! Through Sunfish, patients gain access to financial support and flexible payment options designed to bring clarity and certainty to their fertility journey. Paired with dedicated support and no hidden costs, Sunfish ensures families feel fully supported every step of the way.
Through our process, donors are able to complete 4 donations within a one week FDA window. On average, most donors make between 2-5 vials per donation. As a result, you can expect anywhere from 8-20 vials from these 4 donations. We can often help you estimate how many a donor would make based on their initial semen analysis.
Our best estimate for the known donor process is that it can take approximately one month to choose a donor and 3-4 months to move through the next steps. There are so many variables that dictate how long this process takes, which means timelines vary from client to client.
Regardless of your timeframe, please contact us to set up your free call because we can still give you information about your options and suggestions for moving forward.-
The donor fee is the amount you pay directly to your chosen donor as compensation for their time, effort, and commitment throughout the process. This fee acknowledges their personal involvement and is paid at the time of donation.
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The donation fee, on the other hand, refers to the medical or clinic costs associated with the actual sperm collection and processing. These fees are paid directly to the fertility clinic and cover the lab work, storage, and any related medical procedures.
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Our agency fee is due when you sign up. The donor fee is not due until later in the process, typically a few months after you begin, when your donor is ready to donate. Other expenses, such as clinic fees, legal fees, testing, and therapy, are paid directly to those providers as you complete each step. This means most costs are spread out over the course of the process rather than being due all at once.
Ultimately, this decision is yours and should be guided by your fertility team and your insurance coverage. In terms of the Seed Scout process, there are meaningful benefits to choosing IVF. In addition to the fact that the success rate per attempt is significantly higher, it also permits a larger number of donor options in your original catalog. This is because IUI requires extraordinarily high semen analysis variables (which not all donors qualify for) and requires the donor to live within driving distance of a collection facility so that 4 donations can be completed within 1 week. If you are hoping to have more than 1 child, it also allows you to "preserve" your fertility/egg quality at your current age as opposed to attempting IUI at a later age for child #2 or #3.
We enroll clients in monthly cohorts that begin on the 1st of each month, with roughly 25–35 families per cohort. Your registration fee reserves your spot. Cohorts allow us to monitor donor availability and keep the process fair for every client.
Start with a consultation with us so we can give you personalized recommendations (clinic/physician choice, etc). Then, schedule your clinic appointment and genetic testing - both need to be in progress before you officially start with us.
Before your start date, you should have three things in place: (1) be established with a fertility clinic, (2) know which treatment path you plan to pursue (IVF vs IUI), and (3) have a general sense of what you’re looking for in a donor.
We also recommend choosing a start month when you’ll have some availability during the first part of the month to review donor profiles and make selections. For example, if you’ll be traveling internationally with limited internet access, it may be better to choose a different start month when you’ll be able to participate more actively in the process.
All About The Seed Scout Donors
None of our donors come from anonymous sperm banks, Facebook groups, or apps or websites.
We recruit exclusively through trusted, community-based channels including referrals from our current donors, Instagram posts from retired donors, and in-person outreach at conferences and events. We’re proud to have built our own private network of over 900 donors who are ready, willing, and excited to help families grow.
Your personalized catalog will include roughly 20–70 profiles pulled from our pool of 900+ donors. From there, your package gives you access to 4 extended donor profiles and 2 donor introductions.
With our standard package, a donor can donate to up to 3 families through The Seed Scout. Our exclusive package means the donor donates only to your family. There is also a Two-Family Buy Out option, which allows you to be the donor's final match if you match second.
Our contract with every donor includes a clause stating they have not and will not donate through any banks, Facebook groups, apps, websites, or other matchmaking services - and we require that the same clause be included in your legal agreement.
Donors are always permitted to have children of their own, and may donate to a close friend or family member.
Paige, a board-certified pediatrician, created a comprehensive medical history form that each donor fills out before donating. We review all potential donors' medical questionnaires regarding their personal and family medical history and ask any necessary follow up questions. You have the option to hire a third party genetic counselor to review a donor's health history, evaluate risks, and help you make an informed decision.
Unfortunately, there is no method for The Seed Scout to confirm a donor’s medical history for accuracy. However, we have found that our donors tend to be incredibly thorough when describing their family medical history because we do not disqualify donors for having a medical history.
We have a long list of health conditions we ask about to help prompt them. We always encourage donors to check with their parents and siblings to ensure their health background is as complete as possible. We also inform donors that they are to provide updates about their family medical history to their recipient families on at least an annual basis until children reach 18 years of age.We’re proud to have built one of the most diverse donor networks available. You can view a snapshot of our numbers on our instagram or home page of the website.
This diversity allows us to better support intended parents seeking donors who share their ethnic or cultural background, especially in communities that are often underrepresented in traditional sperm banks.
Donor motivation is inherently subjective, but a few patterns come up again and again: a desire to support like-minded families (many of our donors are gay men who have historically been excluded by traditional sperm banks, hoping to support other LGBTQ+ families), a personal wish to pass something forward while still having a connection to the family, and compensation. What often draws donors to us specifically, over a bank, is the model itself — our 3-family cap, mutual-match process, and yearly updates.
Motivation is our first line of defense - we prioritize donors who are here for the right reasons. Donors also sign multiple contracts explicitly prohibiting outside donations, and we are very clear about the implications for donor-conceived children. While we can never offer a 100% guarantee, this is one of the most important things to us and we take it extremely seriously.
We want you to feel excited and confident about your donor, as most of our clients do! Since this is subjective, we can’t guarantee every client will find the donor they want to move forward with.
If we have fewer than 10 options that reasonably meet your criteria, we'll let you know before your start date. If that happens, and you haven’t received any options yet, you can choose not to move forward and receive a full refund. You can also keep your start date, see any options we have to start and continue receiving options for up to 6 weeks, during which we’ll make a good faith effort to send donors matching your criteria.
Refund terms for this 6-week window are outlined in your client contract, and we’re happy to walk through them with you anytime.
Legal Protection for Your Family
It is important to note that we are not able to provide legal advice. Laws are constantly evolving and we cannot predict what the Supreme Court or State Courts will rule in the future. We can help guide you in the process of picking a lawyer.
Second-Parent Adoption: We require a second-parent adoption for the non-biological parent (if applicable).
Legal Agreement Parties: We require that both parents, the donor and the donor’s spouse (if applicable) sign the agreement.
Attorneys: We require that the couple/individual and the donor have their own independent attorneys.
Psych Evaluations: We require multiple psychological evaluations (donor session, client session and donor/client session).
Location of Insemination: We require inseminations to occur at a medical clinic or with a nurse-midwife.
