With the help of many generous people, corporations and family foundations, in less than two years, we have raised a total of $1,360,000 net to the foundation which has allowed us to put in place FOUR first of their kind, major care focused partnerships with Boston Children’s Hospital, Outer Cape Health Services and Joslin Diabetes Center for T1D and endocrinology care. These programs address the pediatric/child, the young adult, the most at risk and underserved populations to complement the spectrum of care from youngest to maturing at risk adults with T1D. The new programs have been designed in close collaboration and the input of Sean Doherty, the founder and former Chair of the T1D Fund and the current president of T1D Action, an organization devoted to better care for people living with T1D. This engagement between T1D Action and the Lillylulu Foundation is leading to further strategic collaboration which is underway between the organizations with a keen focus on care initiatives and providing proven impact through clinical results.

Boston Children’s Hospital T1D Program (2025)

Boston Children’s Hospital and the Lillylulu Foundation have announced a multiyear partnership to establish the new T1D Clinical Innovation Fund at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) with a generous gift of $550,000 from Lillylulu. The T1D Clinical Innovation Fund builds on a successful type one diabetes (T1D) program launched by BCH in 2023 with a gift of $250,000 from Lillylulu.

T1D is an autoimmune disease affecting 2 million Americans, more than half of whom are diagnosed as children. T1D destroys the body’s ability to produce insulin naturally in the pancreas. Patients living with T1D rely on 24/7 infusions or injections of insulin and navigate constant balancing of blood sugar and insulin levels, which impact – and are impacted by – every aspect of daily life. Normal medical appointments can only do so much, as patients and families affected by T1D are largely left on their own to manage this complicated disease.

The establishment of this first initial Fund was designed to have an immediate impact on closing the gap for underserved families and improving health outcomes for children with T1D. The Fund supports a dedicated diabetes resource nurse, Geoffrey Rowe, RN, who provides patients/families with access to and education on T1D care, technology and implement innovative processes for proactive outreach which in 2024 resulted in over 1,900 interactions in person, by phone and virtually via internet to high-risk families. Helped fellow physicians better understand diabetes management technology.

Demand - This type of support continues to grow, as nearly 300 new patients are diagnosed at Boston Children’s each year, joining 2,500 patients already registers with the program … SO, we have more than doubled down … The establishment of this new T1D Clinical Innovation Fund at Boston Children’s Hospital will have an immediate impact on closing the gap for underserved families and improving health outcomes for children with T1D. The T1D Clinical Innovation Fund will support the critical need for a Senior Diabetes Nurse Educator who will serve as the Care Program lead and vital care liaison, applying their clinical expertise to ensure health information flows between the patient and the rest of the team, including the resource nurse, social workers, nutritionists, and endocrinologists staff. In addition, a new dedicated Diabetes Resource Nurse will be added and will provide patients with access to and education on T1D care, technology and implement innovative processes for proactive outreach to high-risk families. This new resource will put the program in position to more than double the impact that the existing Diabetes Resource Nurse program has achieved.

We are all so encouraged by this unique partnership and program and we believe this is creating the roadmap for other programs and institutions to follow. The Lillylulu/BCH program hopes to build support from the Boston T1D community and expand its impact to as many families as possible to help meet the overwhelming demand for basic care.

T1D Action (2025)

The Lillylulu Foundation and T1D Action are joining together in a strategic partnership to accelerate their shared mission to provide better care to people living with type one diabetes (T1D).  Led by John Lashar and Sean Doherty, these two organizations will capitalize on their long relationship and complementary strengths to supercharge impact through targeted grants to healthcare institutions in direct support of under-resourced T1D medical provider teams. Their work will begin by building partner and financial support in the Boston area, with a goal of providing care augmentation blueprints to committed T1D philanthropists and activists around the country.

Joslin Diabetes Center (2025)

After many months of working together, in January 2025, the Lillylulu Foundation partnered with Joslin Diabetes Center Young Adult Program to establish The Young Adult T1D Initiative Fund with an initial gift of $250,000 to launch this groundbreaking multi-year collaboration. Young adults face a myriad of significant clinical and psychosocial challenges. Changes in living situation, insurance coverage (i.e. need for their own insurance at age 26), competing responsibilities (i.e college attendance or transition to part- and full-time work), along with an increased prevalence of high-risk behaviors, and psychiatric disease. All of which contribute to barriers for the management of their type 1 diabetes. The impact of these barriers is well-documented for young adults. This group is at higher risk for deterioration of diabetes management, such as increased Hba1c, and hospital admissions for diabetic keto-acidosis. These poor outcomes have been attributed to loss in follow-up, reduced frequency of visits, lack of support with diabetes self-management and diminished ability to navigate the health and insurance systems to ensure continuous supplies of insulin and devices. Socio-economic and racial barriers only increase disparities in care especially for this vulnerable age group. Compounding these factors, the adult care system historically has less frequent and shorter visits, as well as less psychosocial infrastructure, such as social workers and child life specialists, than their pediatric counter parts. This results in less support for our vulnerable young adults as they struggle to navigate the increasingly complex healthcare and insurance systems. The Joslin Young Adult Program, at the Joslin Diabetes Center -- one the world’s largest diabetes clinics -- aims to support each and every young adult to succeed while living with diabetes. Led by Elena Toschi, MD, with the support of the Young Adult Coordinator, the program has explored some of the challenges listed above, and through innovation and quality improvement projects has demonstrated that an intensive follow-up treatment model in young adults with type 1 diabetes increases visits attendance and often leads to improvement in HbA1c as well as an increase in the adoption of CGM. However, the high cost of frequent visits was one of the major barriers for this young adult cohort to participate in this program and attend visits.

The Young Adult T1D Initiative will provide two critical resources to address the most pressing needs within this population and the gift from Lillyulu will provide a dedicated social worker and diabetes resource nurse to augment and support Dr. Toschi’s team. It is abundantly clear to the Joslin clinical team that supporting young adults with diabetes self-care goes beyond adjusting medication and insulin doses. We have found that so often the barriers to progress are areas where no formal support exists.

We have been very busy over the last several months and we are incredibly excited with the partnerships and approach to better care that we have embarked upon. As we focus on greater support for our partners at BCH, OCHS and Joslin, it is clear to all of us that while these three organizations differ in scale and mission, the commonality is a significant lack of resources to support basic care for T1D patients, particularly with those underserved, most a risk and most in need. Our collective progress has been remarkable but our greatest and hardest work remains in front of us. We thank all of you for these amazing partnership case studies that signify passion, will, teamwork, determination and love. Our success would not be possible without the support and influence from countless corporate and personal donors as well as family foundations - you are the driving force behind our ability to have this kind of impact and outcome. The momentum we are experiencing is beyond anything we every expected. THANK YOU.

While this is not an easy endeavor, coming together as a group to make an impact on people’s lives keeps us motivated. The realities of living with T1D-the struggles and inequity with care and the deficiencies with treating chronic disease do not stop or go away. We remain deeply grounded and focused on our mission because of this.

Outer Cape Health Services (2024)

In March of 2024 Outer Cape Health Services, a federally qualified 501c3 community health center with locations in Harwich Port, Provincetown, and Wellfleet and the Lillylulu Foundation announced a partnership to create an integrated endocrine services care model by linking the consultant endocrinologist, the nurse care manager and the patient’s primary care provider (PCP). The establishment of this partnership, funded by an initial $100,000 commitment from the Lillylulu Foundation, will provide for added OCHS resources, commencing with a nurse care manager position overseeing T1D patient care plans. This collaborative program will have an immediate impact on addressing the gap that exists for patients that require customized and tailored care which is a major obstacle for T1D patients everywhere. The program is being led by Dr. Zona Batacchi who practices general endocrinology with a special interest in thyroid, diabetes, and metabolic disorders. This program is literally being built from scratch and the Appendix outlines the programmatic tasks being undertaken. The dire need for basic care and an integrated, collaborative approach on Cape Cod is allowing for much needed immediate impact-one patient at a time.