Most of our donors and followers know that Tony Foundation exists to provide assistance to families dealing with cancer. What you may not know is how we assist them, and what the process is for providing that help.

First, it’s important for us to note that we are responding to a unique need. Before we started Tony Foundation, we discerned that there is an “assistance gap” for younger, working parents who are diagnosed with cancer. In particular, an entire family faces difficult consequences when their primary breadwinner has cancer and is no longer able to work due to their illness.

This is the situation that faced TF founder Tony Laudadio, and it confronts other young families every day. What we provide for qualified, selected families in this situation is direct financial assistance. These emergency funds can be spent however the family sees fit, no strings attached. We require no receipts, no explanations — when a family has been professionally vetted and selected for assistance, we know they need financial help and we trust them to use it however it will do the most good.

Selecting families

So, how are families selected for assistance? This is another aspect of Tony Foundation that makes our model unique.

So much has happened over the past few months, it’s sometimes hard to remember that we started TF only about a year ago. We are, truly, still in our infancy. And we are made up entirely of volunteers doing what we can as time allows. Given that fact, we made a decision at the very beginning to partner with an oncology center that has multiple locations in Central Texas to identify and evaluate potential recipients for assistance.

This team of advisors has been invaluable in helping us deliver aid where it is most needed. These medical and social workers know the families through their patient visits and treatments, they vet them according to our requirements, and they make expert recommendations to us. This is how we were connected with Johnny and Briana, and other families that you will meet soon. It makes us feel great knowing that the donations from our supporters will go to worthy recipients in this manner.

We do sometimes get questions about how to apply for assistance. Due to our arrangement, we unfortunately cannot accept non-referred applications at this time. It is our desire as we grow financially to be able to help more and more families by adding to our process at some point in the future. All of our volunteers and donors are working so hard to get us to that point. Thank you!