Most nonprofits have to spend a meaningful share of every donation on salaries, rent, and the cost of simply keeping the lights on. The Isa Elaine Foundation is structured to avoid that, by design.
100% to the mission
Christopher and Rachel Lazzara, Isa’s parents, personally underwrite the Foundation’s operating costs. Because overhead is already covered, 100% of every outside gift flows directly to the work, not to administration. When you give, your full gift goes where it was meant to go.
Overhead is covered by the family. Your gift funds the mission, all of it.
The mission, in three pillars
Every dollar is organized around three commitments the Foundation made on day one. To date, the Foundation has given $760,000 to the mission.
Research
The largest share funds science that can lead to treatments. In December 2025, the Foundation committed a flagship $500,000 gift to launch the Isa Elaine Foundation Research Fund at Stanford Medicine, supporting work led by Dr. Juliet Knowles in partnership with the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. Because BPAN appears to share much of its underlying biology with adult Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, this research has the potential to reach far beyond one rare disease.
In April 2026, the Foundation added a $200,000 gift to the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health, seeding the Isa Elaine Foundation Brain Iron Disorders Care Program. It supports research into iron-deposition diseases like BPAN and brings specialized care within reach of families in the Southeast. The program opened and welcomed its first patients on July 30, 2026.
Family care
Research takes time, so the Foundation also supports families living with BPAN today. That work runs through the NBIA Disorders Association, $60,000 to date: an initial $50,000 partnership gift, plus a recent $10,000 gift sponsoring a table at the NBIA family conference. It will grow toward direct help with the costs families face now: specialized equipment, home adaptations, travel to specialist clinics, and respite for caregivers.
Policy & advocacy
Finally, a portion of the work is about visibility, making childhood dementia impossible for decision-makers to ignore, so that public research investment grows to match the scale of the need.
Accountable by design
The Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit (legal name Isabella Foundation, Inc.). It stays intentionally small, and holds itself to claims and commitments that can withstand scrutiny, from families, partners, and the public alike.
Ways to give
You can make a one-time or recurring gift online, mail a check, or talk with us about a major or legacy gift. However you choose to give, every dollar reaches the mission.