Start your own foundation to meet your special needs?

by Anna
(The Special Life)

If someone in your family has a disability, then you already know that the extra financial burden can be quite overwhelming. If you have a special need child, it is even more cumbersome, because you also have to contend with constant equipment changes as your child grows.

It ain't easy, we know.

Each of us struggles to figure our way through the financial maze of special funding for disabilities, and looks for non-profit groups that may be willing to help. But I was struck today by an article in a Florida newspaper that told of one's family plan of setting up a charitable foundation to help support their two special need kids.

" The family plans to start the Abby and Gabby Foundation by next year, which will supply their children with the equipment necessary for their development, but provide for other children as well. Used equipment from the Morley children will go to Southwest Florida Therapy Association., Inc. in Port Charlotte. It will be donated to another family with similar needs."

It's an interesting concept. There's no doubt that this family can use all the financial help they can get, and I for one, don't begrudge them a penny of anything they may collect through their foundation.

It does raise an interesting opportunity though. Should there be an easy way for individual families to accept funds from the community directly? I'm not an accountant or tax lawyer, but surely there is an opportunity for a new 'official' product to be developed that meets the needs of special needs families to request funding without create a bureaucratic nightmare.