Our current fundraising campaigns. Donations are made securely through Givebutter, and every gift helps move research forward for children with Sanfilippo syndrome.
Featured Campaign
Save Elle
Help Us Fight Childhood Dementia
We found hope. Now we need help funding it.
This is our daughter Elle.
Elle is 8 years old. She loves the beach, dancing, singing, trampoline parks, playing with her sisters, playgrounds, and spending time with friends. She is joyful, loving, determined, and has a smile that will light up an entire room.
This past year, Elle was diagnosed with a rare form of childhood dementia—Sanfilippo syndrome. Sanfilippo is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Children with Sanfilippo gradually lose the abilities they have worked so hard to gain—the ability to communicate, learn, walk, and eventually recognize the people they love.
There is currently no approved treatment for children like Elle. But there is hope.
Over the past year, we have searched around the world, speaking with scientists, physicians, biotechnology companies, foundations, advocates, and other Sanfilippo families. That search led us to a potential path toward treatment: scientists have spent years developing a gene-therapy approach for Sanfilippo Type C. There is a path to move it forward, and there are children waiting.
What is standing in the way now is funding.
Our Goal: $500,000
The full path toward treatment will require millions of dollars. But we don’t have to raise it all at once—we have to take the next step, and then the next. Our campaign goal is $500,000.
We don’t need one person to do everything. We need thousands of people willing to do something. $10 matters. $25 matters. $50 matters. $100 matters. Every gift moves us forward.
How You Can Help
- Donate what you are able. A gift of any size truly matters.
- Share the campaign with everyone you know through social media, email, and personal connections.
- If you have connections to philanthropy, media, biotech, healthcare, research, or other opportunities that could help advance this mission, please reach out to us.
We believe Elle’s story is still being written. Thank you for loving our daughter, for standing with families affected by Sanfilippo, and for helping us fight for a cure.
—David and Chelsea Walline
The Elizabeth Sophia Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.