From One Family's Funding Crisis to a National Model
The Funding Project has built a national family financial advocacy model for families navigating NICU stays, childhood cancer, disability, autism, rare disease and complex medical needs. Founder and Executive Director Tammy Simmons did not set out more than two decades ago to create that model. It began with one child, an insurance reversal and a father who did not want to ask anyone for help.
The Day Insurance Changed Its Answer
Tammy remembers walking into The Bike Rack, her family's longtime bicycle business in St. Charles, Illinois, and finding her brother Hal at the computer. Hal's son Jacob was one of triplets born thirteen weeks early, weighing just two pounds. Jacob experienced a brain bleed in the NICU that resulted in cerebral palsy.
When Jacob was about 10, the family hoped to pursue hyperbaric chamber treatments costing nearly $13,000. Insurance had initially indicated it would pay, then reversed its decision. Tammy knew the treatment would somehow be paid for. Her parents could step in if necessary, but Hal did not want to ask anyone for help.
That moment stayed with Tammy. Within about three weeks, she had raised nearly the $13,000 needed for the treatments. A few months later, after seeing what was possible, Hal began applying for help himself and secured $10,000 toward an above-ground pool for Jacob.
Soon Hal was sending adaptive-bike families to Tammy for help finding funding. Tammy created an adaptive-bike funding packet based on the same process she had used for Jacob: understand the need, organize the information, identify possible sources, explain the story, ask, follow up and keep going after the first no. That original packet still exists today. The idea behind it simply expanded.
The Confidence to Ask
Over the years, Tammy saw that one of the greatest barriers was not always finding a funding source. Sometimes it was helping a parent believe it was okay to ask.
In 2016, Tammy met Melissa Copp at an Abilities Expo in Houston. Melissa and her husband Jody were raising two boys with a rare genetic mitochondrial condition that affected their ability to stand or walk independently. Their sons relied on assistive equipment, and Melissa had recently faced an insurance denial for her youngest son's medically necessary wheelchair.
Melissa purchased the Disability Funding Guide and worked with Tammy to understand the family's needs and develop a plan. Their biggest goal was a fully accessible home, a need exceeding $100,000. The family ultimately received extraordinary support, including an accessible home through Magnolia and the Tim Tebow Foundation, a backyard makeover through Make-A-Wish, support for a Disney trip through Variety, and national attention from Chip and Joanna Gaines.
Tammy describes that outcome as once in a lifetime. The repeatable part was the process: understand the need, create a plan, organize the story, identify possibilities, ask and keep going. Melissa later said the Disability Funding Guide gave her the confidence to ask for what her family needed.
The Mother Who Pointed Tammy Toward the NICU
After Melissa's story became known, another mother told Tammy, "If I had your book when my baby was two days old in the NICU, it would have changed our lives."
The comment made Tammy think about timing. What could change if families learned earlier that funding possibilities existed and that they did not have to discover every resource through trial and error? Years later, the NICU became personal again when Tammy's own grandson spent time there.
That experience helped shape The Funding Project's NICU Financial Advocacy Initiative, the first hospital-centered rollout of its broader national model. At its center is the NICU Financial Advocacy Care Pack, designed to go home with families and give parents practical resources they can return to when an insurance denial arrives, equipment is recommended or another financial question emerges.
One National Model, Many Doorways
Today, The Funding Project's National Children's Financial Advocacy Initiative serves as the umbrella for its national work. The Family Resource Library brings together Funding Guides and Companion Workbooks for NICU, childhood cancer, disability and autism, along with Spanish NICU resources, digital materials, personalized guidance and a dedicated Rare Disease and Complex Medical Needs resource area.
These categories are doorways, not walls around the family. A baby may begin life in the NICU and later need disability-related equipment. A child with a rare condition may face mobility, accessibility and complex medical needs. Families can enter through the resource that reflects their child's journey while still accessing a financial advocacy process they can understand and use.
Through The Funding Project's partnership with Help Hope Live, families may also have a bridge to additional nonprofit fundraising support when that path is appropriate.
More than two decades after Tammy told Hal she would figure out how to pay for Jacob's treatment, the question beneath the work remains remarkably similar: What does this family do next? The Funding Project exists so families have a place to begin.