CiDrep SickKids Foundation is a public 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports sick children in the United States in two complementary ways: by funding direct care for families when insurance and other resources are exhausted, and by conducting equity-first computational research to help every child receive earlier, fairer care.
| Since 2017, we’ve been helping sick children get well and comfortable during difficult times.
Our Foundation's Work
MISSION STATEMENT - Two Missions, One Purpose.
Family Support
We provide funds to families of sick children when insurance and other financial resources have been exhausted or are unavailable, covering surgery, therapy, medication, equipment, housing, and travel for care. Donate today
Research
We conduct equity-first computational research in pediatric epilepsy. Our flagship program - Pediatric Epilepsy - integrates electronic health record, neuroimaging, genomic, and geo-coded social-determinants-of-health data from the All of Us Research Program to develop fair, interpretable machine-learning tools for the children who need them most. Learn more about our research →
Mission Statement
The CiDrep SickKids Foundation funds sick kids when insurance and other financial resources have been exhausted or unavailable, and conducts pediatric health research to expand the evidence base for safer, more equitable care.
MISSION-CRITICAL CAUSE
We are impacting children's health by bridging the gaps in health care through reactive and preventative programs and initiatives — funding the care and well-being of sick children needing surgery, therapy, medication, equipment, housing, and travel for care, while building research tools that help clinicians identify and support children at the highest risk earlier in their care journey.
VISION STATEMENT
Every child receives cost-free care, gets well, and feels comfortable during difficult times - supported by health systems and tools designed to serve every child equitably, regardless of geography, race, or family income.
Our Diversity and Inclusion Philosophy
We are doing our part to dismantle systemic racism and inequality, and to champion equal opportunity. To that end, we provide funds and design our research to serve children from historically marginalized communities - including children with disabilities, children of color, children whose families have experienced incarceration, children from LGBTQ+ families, first- and second-generation immigrants, and children from low-income families.
Our research program carries this philosophy into how we build technology: every model we develop is paired with a structured fairness audit across race, ethnicity, rurality, and insurance status, and equity is engineered in from day one - not retrofitted.
Our Fight
Approximately 4.6 million children in the United States lacked health insurance in 2024 — a 6 percent uninsured rate that is the highest in nearly a decade. The number of uninsured children grew by 716,000 between 2022 and 2024 - an 18 percent increase, with Georgia among the states hit hardest. The children losing coverage are disproportionately children of color, children in rural communities, and children in low-income households. CiDrep SickKids exists to bridge the gap - funding direct care for families when insurance has been exhausted, and conducting research to help health systems identify and reach the children who need support earliest. We've been on this mission since 2017.
Data source: Population Reference Bureau, American Community Survey. Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. (https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2025/09/12/u-s-and-state-by-state-child-health-coverage-trends/) analysis of the 2024 American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau. We refresh this figure annually.
About The Foundation
Leadership
Michael Craige, PhD, MBA
Founder, Director and Scientific Director
Dr. Craige founded CiDrep SickKids in 2017 and leads both the Foundation's family-support program and its computational pediatric health research portfolio. His research focuses on the responsible application of computational methods - with transparency, fairness, and equity at the center - to integrate clinical, genomic, and neuroimaging data and uncover the hidden drivers of pediatric epilepsy.
The CiDrep SickKids Foundation is a public 501(c)(3) charitable organization (the "Foundation"), incorporated under the laws of the State of Georgia as a nonprofit corporation without share capital. The Foundation receives, accumulates, and distributes funds — and the income therefrom — for the benefit of CiDrep SickKids, any hospital providing care for children, medical research organizations, or any child or person, in respect of medical care, research, and other activities related to the health of children.
The Foundation is registered under the IRS Income Tax Act (United States) (the "Act"), and donors can deduct contributions made to the Foundation under IRS Section 170. The Foundation is also qualified to receive tax-deductible bequests, devises, transfers, or gifts under Sections 2055, 2106, and 2522.