Organization
The ALS Association: what they fund and how to apply
The ALS Association is a United States nonprofit that funds ALS research and delivers care services through local teams, state by state. A few programs run nationwide: loaned equipment, communication devices, and a free virtual home assessment. The cash grants for respite, ramps and home modifications come from your state team, not from a national form, and they differ sharply. Start with 800-782-4747 or your own state’s care team.
How to use this page
Read the nationwide list first, because those programs are open to you wherever you live. Then treat the state examples as proof that you have to ask, not as a menu. We checked their programs listing on 27 July 2026. Everything below traces to a page on als.org that we opened. Where we could not confirm something, we say so rather than guessing.
What they provide
Their programs listing separates programs into Nationwide and state groups. The nationwide ones are the reliable part. Twelve are listed, and the ones a caregiver is most likely to need are below.
Equipment, daily living aids and communication devices (Independence & Mobility Program)
Nationwide. The program keeps an inventory of durable medical equipment, aids for daily living, and communication devices, provided free of charge. It is a loan pool, so the equipment goes back into circulation.
Equipment categories they list:
- Mobility aids: walkers, wheelchairs.
- Bathroom items: shower chairs, complex shower transfer systems.
- Transfer devices: patient lifts, transfer boards.
- Bedroom items: bed rails, over the bed tables, mattress overlays.
- Daily living aids: gait belts, aids for dressing, writing, eating and drinking.
- Ramps: portable and threshold ramps only.
On the communication side they list low tech communication boards, tablets with speech apps, speech generating devices including eye controlled ones, and smart home equipment for environmental controls.
Who it is for, in their words: people who have no coverage for the equipment they need, and in some cases people who do have coverage but have an immediate and critical medical need.
To start, they ask you to work with your ALS clinic or neurologist to identify the right equipment, then contact your local care services team member. For communication equipment there is a separate form your speech language pathologist completes.
They also print a warning worth taking seriously: the specific items you request may not always be available, availability is subject to stock and demand, and they cannot guarantee every requested item will be provided.
Free virtual home assessment, with a written report
Nationwide, and one of the most concretely useful things on this list. A qualified home assessor with ALS specific knowledge reviews your home over a video call on Zoom, FaceTime or Google Meet. It is offered at no cost to people diagnosed with ALS.
They look at the entrance and exit, bathrooms, bedrooms, hallways and leisure areas, and talk through toileting, transfers, bed options, caregiving, wheelchair use and smart home technology. Afterwards you and your care team get a written report with recommendations.
Their published timing: families are contacted within 10 business days of the request, visits are usually scheduled within 1 to 2 weeks of that contact, and the written report follows roughly 7 business days after the assessment. Contact your local care services team or email vha@als.org.
Insurance help, including denials and appeals
Two separate things, both nationwide.
The ALS Insurance and Benefits Resource Line is run with the Patient Advocate Foundation, a United States nonprofit that provides case management and financial aid to people with serious illness. It gives free telephone access to insurance and benefits experts who help with eligibility and enrollment in disability benefits and with coverage problems. Phone 1-844-244-1306, or see als.pafcareline.org.
The ALS Insurance Navigator is a self-serve guide to fighting a denial. It covers filing an internal appeal, filing an external appeal, appealing an adverse external decision, and requesting legal assistance. Use it when your insurer has refused equipment or care your doctor ordered.
ALS Insurance Navigator and the Resource Line
Caregiver education and peer support
Nationwide, there is a Caregiver Education Certification Course covering the physical and emotional impact of ALS, safety, and which interventions help or harm. Support groups run both virtually and in person. The Creative Pursuits Program is for people with ALS and caregivers together.
Several states add their own caregiver training on top. Virtual Caregiver Labs, listed in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, teach hands on use of patient lifts, communication devices, respiratory equipment and feeding tubes. Michigan also lists an in person version.
Powerful Tools for Caregivers is a free six week Zoom course, 90 minutes a week, listed in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Compassionate Kinship for Caregivers pairs you with a trained volunteer peer mentor in a similar set of states.
Multidisciplinary clinics
Their ALS Certified Centers and Clinics model puts neurology, therapy, respiratory and other disciplines in one visit rather than making you book each separately. Your clinic team is also the route into the equipment program, so if you are not attached to one yet, this is the highest value call you can make.
Cash grants: state programs only, and genuinely different in each state
This is the part people get wrong. There is no nationwide grant you can apply to. The money programs sit under individual states, with their own amounts, rules and contacts. Real examples from their current listing:
- Alabama respite: pays up to 80 hours of respite care per fiscal year. Care must come through a respite agency. Alabama residents only.
- Illinois respite: $1,000 to $3,000, available twice a year, and restricted to residents of Southern Illinois.
- Florida respite: a $2,000 grant, one application per family per year, for a full time caregiver living in the same household.
- Minnesota: the Senator Tomassoni Caregiver Support Program funds in home care costs. Funds are stated as available through June 2028.
- Pennsylvania: a grant program for home modifications, speech generating devices, power wheelchairs or respite, limited to 31 named counties.
- Tennessee: the Bronczek Blessings Angel Fund pays for home modifications, respite care, groceries, lawn care and more.
- Massachusetts: the Foundation for Life Grant pays funds directly to vendors for ALS related costs.
Compare that with New York, where the only state program listed is a lending library of books and DVDs, and Texas, where the listings are a caregiver program, workshops, and a youth and children program with no grant attached.
Ramps and home access, again state by state
Three different ramp programs exist under three different names, and none of them covers the whole country.
- Ramp Reutilization Loan Program: temporary reusable steel ramps, listed in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
- Modular Ramp Program: listed in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.
- Maurer-Heinsen Home Access Program: covers a portion of the cost of temporary modular ramp installation, listed in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The cost split matters. The Illinois modular ramp listing states they provide funding or materials equal to 60% of the cost of a modular ramp from AmRamp St. Louis, a commercial ramp vendor, capped at $4,800, and that you are responsible for the rest. The ramp parts are then donated back to their reuse program. That is a real out of pocket figure to budget for.
Smart home devices
The SMART Home Program offers a limited number of Amazon Alexa compatible devices as part of their equipment lending, for calling contacts, controlling lights and outlets, and controlling a television. It is listed under Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, not nationwide.
Other nationwide items
- Remote Language Interpretation Program: ask your local care services staff for an interpreter.
- Educational Materials: fact sheets, publications and resource guides, free.
- Empowering Your ALS Journey: a webinar series with expert speakers.
- My ALS Journey: a web based tool for tracking your own progression and decisions.
Who is eligible
For the nationwide programs, an ALS diagnosis is the basic requirement. The equipment program adds a coverage test: it is aimed at people with no insurance coverage for the item they need, and in some cases at people who have coverage but an immediate and critical medical need.
For state grants, eligibility is set locally and the restrictions are sharper than most people expect. These are the real rules published on their state pages, and they are the reason to read your own state’s page rather than a summary:
- Residence, sometimes sub-state. Illinois respite is Southern Illinois only. The Pennsylvania grant program lists 31 specific counties.
- Household. Florida respite is for a full time caregiver living in the same household as the person with ALS.
- One application per family per year on the Florida and Minnesota programs.
- Other benefits can disqualify you. Illinois respite excludes caregivers of patients on Medicaid assistance, aging assistance, hospice, long term disability or nursing home insurance, and veterans with ALS.
- Florida excludes people living in a skilled nursing facility, veterans receiving service connected benefits, and anyone receiving care through Florida’s Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long Term Care Program.
- Who you can pay. Minnesota lets you hire an individual of your choice, but not the spouse or partner, parent or child of the person with ALS.
- Registration. Florida requires that you are registered with the ALS Association before applying.
We found no published national income limit, no national grant amount and no national application form. If a page tells you otherwise, ask them to point you at it.
How to apply
There is no single form. The order below is the one that wastes the least time.
- Open als.org/support/states and select your state to find your local care team. This is the page everything routes through.
- If you would rather talk to a person first, call Care Services on 800-782-4747. That line is for general, non-medical information and referral.
- Ask one direct question: which programs are open in my state right now, and what is the deadline. Ask them to name each program.
- For equipment, contact your ALS clinic or neurologist first. They identify the equipment, which is what the loan program expects before you ask.
- For a communication device, ask your speech language pathologist to complete their communication equipment form. It goes through the clinician, not you.
- Request the virtual home assessment early, before you need a modification. Email vha@als.org or ask your care team.
- If insurance has denied something, call the Resource Line on 1-844-244-1306 rather than appealing alone.
Have this ready before you call: written confirmation of the ALS diagnosis, the name of your ALS clinic and neurologist, your insurance details including whether the item was denied, your address and county, and a rough cost estimate for whatever you are asking about.
Expect conditions attached after an award. Florida’s respite grant requires a 45 minute recorded orientation, use of the funds within six months, two feedback surveys, and receipts or a time log at the end. Minnesota requires a caregiver evaluation and re-evaluation, and says to allow up to two weeks for staff to make contact.
What they do not cover
The honest version, so you can plan around the gaps.
- Roughly half the country has no state program listed at all. Their listing shows state programs for 25 states plus the District of Columbia. If your state is not there, ask anyway, but do not plan on it.
- No guaranteed equipment. They state plainly that requested items may not be available and that they cannot guarantee any specific item.
- Only portable and threshold ramps are in the nationwide equipment list. A permanent ramp is a state program, or not offered.
- Not the full cost of a ramp. The Illinois modular ramp program covers 60% up to $4,800 and you pay the remainder.
- Not ongoing daily care. Respite grants are short breaks. 80 hours a year, or a payment of $1,000 to $3,000, is relief, not a care plan.
- Not a cash payment to you in every case. The Massachusetts grant pays vendors directly.
- Not a replacement for insurance. The equipment program is aimed at gaps and delays in coverage, not at everything you would rather not claim for.
- Not medical advice. Their main phone line is explicitly for non-medical information and referral.
- Not always open. Programs pause. Florida’s respite page currently reads that applications are closed.
We also could not verify several program names that circulate widely online, including national grants described as care assist, activities of daily living, or transportation grants. None of them appear on their current programs listing, and the page many sites still link to for a national financial assistance program returns an error. We have left those names off rather than repeat them.
The thing people misunderstand
“The ALS Association helps with that” is true and unhelpful at the same time. Support is delivered locally, and what your state team can offer is genuinely different from what a friend in another state received. Two families with the same diagnosis and the same need can get different answers, and neither team is wrong.
So do not assume a program exists because you read about it, and do not assume it does not exist because it is missing from a list. Ask your own state’s care team, by name, program by program. Also ask when applications reopen, because closed windows are common and grants can be seasonal.
Contact
Only routes we confirmed on their own site are listed here.
- Care Services, general information and referral: 800-782-4747. Non-medical.
- Find your local team: als.org/support/states, a state by state selector.
- All programs, filterable by state: als.org/support/programs.
- Insurance and benefits help: 1-844-244-1306 or als.pafcareline.org.
- Virtual home assessment: vha@als.org.
- Full department list: als.org/contact-us.
- National office: 1300 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22209.
State contacts we confirmed, for the programs named above: Alabama infoAL@als.org, Illinois infoIL@als.org or 314-876-7008, Pennsylvania infoPA@als.org or 412-821-3254, Tennessee infoTN@als.org or 615-331-5556, Minnesota Tomassoni-MN@als.org or 888-672-0484.
Related on this site
We are not affiliated with The ALS Association. We describe them here as a resource, nothing more, and receive nothing for linking to them. Names, amounts, eligibility rules and contacts were checked against als.org on 27 July 2026 and can change without notice. Confirm current terms with them and with your own state’s care team. Educational content only, not medical, financial or legal advice.