About the Foundation

Our story

Trip 12 Future Foundation began with our daughter, Isabella.

Isabella came into the world in October 2016 — an emergency delivery, three weeks in the NICU, and then home with what we were told was a clean bill of health. But around her first birthday, the questions started: developmental delays, daily tremors, eye problems, ear infections that came back month after month for years. We took on each one as it came, sure she'd grow out of it.

For years we chased answers through specialists, scans, and test after test — including a $5,000 genetic test that came back “normal.” Tens of thousands of dollars later, we had no diagnosis, no explanation, and a little girl whose challenges kept stacking up. When the pandemic shut down most testing and office visits, we felt defeated. We stopped searching for the cause and just treated symptoms.

Then, on the morning of October 18, 2021, one Zoom call with a genetic counselor changed everything. A clinical whole-exome sequence — a $22,000 test that insurance barely touched, and the one we almost didn't do — found what years of testing had missed: Isabella has a rare deletion in her TRIP12 gene. The news hit us like a ton of bricks. There was no cure, almost no research — a single published paper at the time — and, because the diagnosis was so new and so rare, not one state-funded program she qualified for. The floor fell out from under us.

What happened next is why this foundation exists. We taught ourselves the science, textbook by textbook. And we asked our community for help with the things insurance wouldn't touch: a seizure-alert service dog, a communication tablet to help a mostly non-verbal little girl find her words, private speech and behavioral therapy, a custom mouth guard. People gave what they could — some a dollar, because a dollar was what they had — and shared her story so others would too. It worked. It changed Isabella's life.

And it left us with a conviction we couldn't put down: every family that hears a diagnosis like this one hits the same wall of costs, unknowns, and closed doors — and most of them face it alone. So we did the paperwork, formed a board, and turned our family's fight into a public charity. What our community did for Isabella, Trip 12 Future Foundation now does for families across the country.

Watch Isabella's story

The film below is the fundraiser that started it all — Isabella's journey, an introduction to the TRIP12 gene, and the community that showed up for her.

Our mission

Trip 12 Future Foundation Inc. is organized to provide financial assistance, support services, and educational resources to individuals and families affected by the TRIP12 gene disorder and related neurodevelopmental conditions. Our work is designed to relieve financial hardship, advance health, and support families facing significant medical and developmental challenges associated with rare genetic disorders.

We operate as a 501(c)(3) public charity and serve individuals throughout the United States.

Governance & accountability

We hold ourselves to a high standard of transparency and stewardship:

• Written Conflict of Interest and Recusal Policies. Any request for assistance involving a founder or family member is reviewed solely by our independent director, with founders recused from all discussion and decision-making.
• Consistent criteria for everyone. The same eligibility criteria and documentation requirements apply to all applicants.
• Direct-to-provider payments. Whenever possible, assistance is paid directly to medical providers, therapy clinics, and vendors rather than to individuals.
• Complete records. We document every assistance award, including applications, approvals, and payments.
• No private benefit. No part of the Foundation's net earnings benefits any private individual.