A thing you still want to do
Make-A-Wish is for children with critical illnesses and its own eligibility says critical does not mean terminal. Most wish kids recover. These are the ones for adults.
Dream Foundation
Answer above to checkAdults with a life expectancy of 12 months or less.
A final wish, funded and arranged. Ranges from a trip or meeting someone, to a recliner or a working air conditioner.
What they require
- 18 or older
- Diagnosed with a life-limiting illness, life expectancy 12 months or less
- Under a doctor’s care when you apply
- Living in the US, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico
- Without the resources to do it yourself
They describe themselves as the only national dream-granting organization for terminally ill adults. Separate application tracks exist for hospice patients and for veterans. Your medical team fills in part of it, so ask them early.
Wish of a Lifetime from AARP
Answer above to checkAnyone 65 or older. No diagnosis required.
A wish experience with reasonable costs covered. Not cash, and not help with bills or rent.
What they require
- 65 or older
- Living in the US or its territories
- Unable to make the wish happen on your own
- Well enough to experience it
- Able to get a doctor’s approval if one is needed
The gate is age, not illness, so a dying 70-year-old qualifies here whether or not any prognosis is documented. You can nominate yourself.
Medical bills, copays, and premiums
These pay the health system on your behalf. They are diagnosis-specific and run on funds that open and close as money runs out, so apply the day you find an open one.
TotalAssist, from Patient Advocate Foundation
You fit the gatesPeople with a covered diagnosis facing out-of-pocket costs.
Medication copays, coinsurance, deductibles, insurance premiums, office visit charges on the day of treatment, and treatment administration charges.
What they require
- A diagnosis matching one of roughly 150 open funds
- Income within the fund’s limit
- Insurance status as the fund requires
Patient Advocate Foundation and PAN Foundation merged in March 2026 and TotalAssist launched 1 July 2026. Anything written before this year lists the two separately and sends you to the wrong place. Funds are per-diagnosis and close when exhausted, so check back rather than assuming a no is permanent.
HealthWell Foundation
Answer above to checkInsured people whose income is under 500% of the federal poverty level.
Copays, premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs for covered treatments.
What they require
- You have some form of health insurance
- Income within 500% of federal poverty guidelines
- Being treated in the US or US territories
- Your condition is among their open disease funds
Funds open and close. If yours is closed, sign up for their alert so you hear the day it reopens instead of checking manually.
Rent, food, utilities, and getting to treatment
The costs nobody counts. Being ill is expensive in ways that have nothing to do with medicine, and these cover that side.
Family Reach
You fit the gatesFamilies facing the non-medical costs of a cancer diagnosis.
Help with housing, utilities, food, and transportation, plus financial coaching.
What they require
- A cancer diagnosis in the family
- Referral routes exist through hospital social workers as well as direct application
Start with your hospital social worker if you have one. They often have a direct line into these programs and can submit on your behalf the same week.
Your hospital or hospice social worker
You fit the gatesAnyone in treatment or on hospice. Most people never use them.
Applications submitted on your behalf, local funds that are not listed anywhere public, transport, equipment, and benefits paperwork.
What they require
- Being a patient. That is the whole gate.
Free, already included in your care, and the single most under-used resource in American healthcare. Ask for the social worker by name at your next appointment. Hospice includes social work and chaplaincy at no extra cost.
Leaving your voice behind
Not money. Worth knowing about while you can still do it.
StoryCorps Legacy
You fit the gatesPeople of any age with a serious illness, and their families.
A recorded, facilitated conversation you keep, and with your permission a copy archived at the Library of Congress.
What they require
- A serious illness
- Access through a partner organization: a hospital, clinic, hospice, or disease-specific group
It runs through partners rather than direct public sign-up, so the question to ask your care team is whether they are a StoryCorps Legacy partner. If they are not, the free StoryCorps app records the same conversation without the facilitator.
Two things worth knowing before you apply anywhere
Most of these want a doctor to confirm something, and that step is what takes weeks. Ask your care team for it before you start the form, not after.
A closed fund is not a permanent no. Diagnosis funds open and close as money moves, and several of these let you set an alert for the day yours reopens.
The rest of it, in order.
Money is one part. The documents that decide who speaks for you, what hospice actually covers, and what to hand over are on the main list.
What to do, in order