You can fill out the application, either for a pregnancy/NICU stay or for post-loss. We will also need a verification from a third party.

Families must either be dealing with high-risk pregnancy or pregnancy that develops complications, NICU stay, or loss from pregnancy through infant loss up to 1 year.

1. A healthcare provider verification form submitted online on our website at www.colettelouise.com that is appropriately filled out by the third party with complete name, title, and contact information
2. A healthcare provider writing a letter on the appropriate letterhead and emailing said letter directly to us at michelle@colettelouise.com. The email must come from whoever wrote the letter and it must be from their official work email and include their full name and contact information in either the letter or the email.
3. In cases of loss, documentation submitted or sent from either healthcare provider or parent applying that is official government or hospital paperwork. This may include a death certificate, the official paperwork that hospital completes for a death, or a detailed medical write up (not discharge paperwork) that shows the logo and contact information for the hospital or doctor as well as contact information for follow up.

We review applications once a week. The applications that we review are those that are COMPLETE by 5 p.m. CST on Wednesday. Applications that come in after 5 p.m. CST on Wednesday will be held over until they are complete.

A complete application is one which gives us all the information we need to know, mainly name, address, income from last year and expected for this year (this cannot be filled in as N/A or unknown), reason for applying, as well as a completed verification.

This varies depending on the week, number of other applications, and each individual case (income level, length of stay, need, etc.). We right now give away $5,000 per week. Generally, our absolute cap is at $1,000 per family, with families often receiving less than that. We are always trying to increase donations so that we could help more families and/or provide additional funds to families we help.

The very first thing we look at is to make sure a family's application is complete and that they qualify under one of the following categories: (1) high-risk pregnancy or pregnancy that has developed complications; (2) current or recent NICU stay; or (3) loss (ranging from miscarriage, pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and infant under 1 year old).

Then, we look at financial need. If a family is under 300% of the Federal Poverty Level, we qualify them under financial need. If a family is over 300%, we look at income from the previous year as well as income from this year. If there is at least a 25% drop in income, then we also qualify them this way.

After that, it is looking at our total pot, what clients need, and what would really make a difference to a family. Providing as much information as possible to describe the situation and your need helps us immensely.

The program is designed to be a one-time assistance. However, we know that things change and develop complications so we do allow families to reapply. If a family is reapplying, but they have changed the category they previously received help in (for example, they received help while pregnant and now baby is in NICU), then we generally look at it as a new case.

If they are reapplying and it is still the same general category, then we reserve these for review until after we have gone through the first time applicant families. We then look at how much the family has already received, how much we have left to distribute, and then what has changed in circumstances. This means that we are much more likely to approve a reapplication if there have been significant differences between first and second application, such as a NICU stay being extended, loss of income, another crisis happening, etc. You can help us by sharing some of that information and/or telling families to share the details.

Unfortunately, this cannot be a case of this family only received x in support and then reapplying.

Our primary goals are to have healthy pregnancy outcomes, to allow parents to be present and involved in their child’s NICU stay, and to allow families to memorialize their children. With that in mind, our goal for financial assistance is to remove obstacles to achieving these goals. Our top categories for payment are transportation assistance (either through gas gift cards or Lyft access), phone bills, utilities, rent/mortgage, burial or cremation costs, car payments, car insurance, but that is not a complete list. Chances are if it removes an obstacle, we will consider paying it.

If you receive an email with an approval letter, congratulations! The letter will have links to share the best email and whether you have concerns with a virtual gift card. Virtual gift cards are then sent to the family's choice of email within a week from submitting.