The Funding Project has built a national family financial advocacy model for families navigating NICU, 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. There was no national initiative, Family Resource Library, series of Funding Guides or hospital rollout in mind. There was simply a child who needed something, an insurance company that changed its answer and a father who did not want to ask anyone for help.
The Day Insurance Changed Its Answer
Tammy still 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 a series of hyperbaric chamber treatments that would cost 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, and she said exactly what she was thinking: "Mom and Dad will pay for it." Hal's response was immediate: "No. I am NOT asking for help."
That sentence stayed with Tammy. Hal was not saying Jacob would go without something he believed could help him. He was saying that taking care of his child was his responsibility, and asking someone else for financial help felt deeply uncomfortable. Tammy told him she would figure it out. Within about three weeks, she had raised nearly the $13,000 needed for the treatments.
On Jacob's 11th birthday, he was able to shape his lips to blow out the candles on his birthday cake. It may sound like a small thing, but to his family, it was a very big deal.
A few months later, Hal called Tammy over to the computer at The Bike Rack and showed her a photograph of a swimming pool. After watching Tammy raise money for the treatment, Hal had begun applying for help himself and secured $10,000 toward an above-ground pool for his son.
Soon Hal was telling other adaptive-bike families, "My sister Tammy can help you get an adaptive bike." Tammy turned the process she had used for Jacob into an adaptive-bike funding packet families could follow themselves: understand the need, organize the information, identify possible funding sources, explain the story, make the ask, follow up and keep going after the first no. That original packet still exists today. The packet did not disappear when the books came along. The idea behind it expanded.
When the Process Travels
Over the years, Tammy saw that the greatest barrier was not always finding a funding source. Sometimes it was getting a parent to believe it was okay to ask.
One father seeking an adaptive bike for his child stopped after a single application was denied. Tammy kept talking with him until he finally explained how difficult asking felt after years of taking care of his family himself. About a week later, he sent her an ask letter nearly three pages long. One line captured the shift: "We give help, we do not ask for it. Well, up until now."
Another mother later told Tammy she had reused what she learned while seeking an adaptive bike and raised nearly $8,000 for other needs insurance did not cover. She continued using the same process for years. The lesson was no longer about one bike or one check. It was about giving a parent a process she could return to when the next need appeared.
Melissa Copp and the Confidence 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 affecting 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 bought the Disability Funding Guide and sat down with Tammy to talk through the family's needs and a plan for moving forward. Their biggest goal was a fully accessible home for their boys, a need exceeding $100,000.
What followed was extraordinary. The family ultimately received support that included 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. After the story reached that enormous audience, the family's mortgage was paid off within 48 hours.
Tammy describes the outcome as once in a lifetime. The repeatable part was the process that came before it: 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. She eventually became Executive Director of the Raising Wheels Foundation, helping other families herself.
The Copp family's experience also illustrates why Rare Disease and Complex Medical Needs is now a dedicated area within The Funding Project's Family Resource Library. Families navigating rare, genetic, undiagnosed, evolving or medically complex conditions may be managing specialty care, therapies, equipment, accessibility, travel, insurance gaps and several overlapping needs at once. The diagnosis may be rare, but the financial questions are often painfully familiar.
The Mother Who Pointed Tammy Toward the NICU
After Melissa's story became known, another mother asked Tammy, "Can I be the next Melissa Copp?" Tammy told her no. She did not want any parent believing that extraordinary outcome could be promised.
Then the mother said something Tammy never forgot: "If I had your book when my baby was two days old in the NICU, it would have changed our lives."
She was talking about timing. What might it mean for a family to learn much earlier that funding possibilities exist, that there are questions worth asking and that they do not have to discover every resource by trial and error? Years later, the NICU became personal to Tammy again when her own grandson spent time there. His photograph now appears on The Funding Project's NICU materials.
That experience helped shape The Funding Project's NICU Financial Advocacy Initiative, the first hospital-centered rollout of its broader national model. At the center is the NICU Financial Advocacy Care Pack, a diaper-bag backpack designed to go home with families. It may include the NICU Funding Guide, NICU Companion Workbook, digital access, planning materials, thoughtfully selected mom and baby essentials and Spanish-language materials where appropriate.
The goal is concrete: get Care Packs into NICUs and into parents' hands, so a family has something to return to months later when insurance says no, equipment is recommended or another financial question appears.
One National Model, Many Doorways
Today, The Funding Project's National Children's Financial Advocacy Initiative is the umbrella for the organization's national work. The Family Resource Library is the delivery system, bringing together four core Funding Guide and Companion Workbook sets for NICU, childhood cancer, disability and autism, along with Spanish NICU resources, digital materials, personalized guidance and the dedicated Rare Disease and Complex Medical Needs resource area.
The categories are doors, not walls around the family. A baby may begin life in the NICU and later need disability-related equipment. A child with a rare genetic condition may have mobility, accessibility and complex medical needs. Cancer treatment may create unexpected rehabilitation or equipment needs. Families can enter through the doorway that reflects their child's journey and still find 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.
The next challenge is reach. Hospitals and health systems can place resources directly into families' hands. Patient advocacy organizations and biopharmaceutical partners can help strengthen disease-aligned education and rare disease access. Foundations, companies, donors and community partners can support printing, Care Pack distribution, bilingual access, national awareness and the broader Family Resource Library.
More than two decades after Tammy told Hal she would figure out how to pay for Jacob's treatment, the question beneath the work is still remarkably similar: What does this family do next?
The Funding Project exists because families should not have to answer that question alone. Families should know where to begin.