The Weight Loss Surgery Foundation of America Seeks Financial Support to Continue Issuing Life-Saving Surgery Grants

The WLSFA aims to develop partnerships with corporate and institutional funding sources to augment current patient-funded donations collected at conferences.

WESTERVILLE, OH, UNITED STATES, November 24, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- According to its president, Laura Van Tuyl, the mission of the WLSFA continues to be: "Raise funds to issue weight loss surgery grants to people referred to weight loss surgery by a bariatric surgeon but who lack the funds to pay for it and have no insurance that covers it."

Van Tuyl explained that since the Foundation's inception, the WLSFA has secured 90% of its grant funding for the 35 grants awarded so far, from an annual weight loss surgery (WLS) patient-focused conference it sponsors. When the Foundation started, there were few patient-oriented WLS conferences. "We would draw 300 plus attendees and dozens of sponsors and generate tens of thousands of dollars in 'profit' that would fund the grants," reports Bill Streetman, a member of the Foundation's board of directors. "Close relationships with bariatric surgeons, hospitals, and surgical centers enabled us to negotiate significant discounts and fund a couple of surgeries annually from dozens of applicants," he adds.

Today's reality is that many patient-focused conferences (national, regional, local… both in-person and virtual) compete for the attendance of weight loss surgery patients and, importantly, their money. "Sadly, we have seen attendance drop to a level that only covers the conference costs, leaving no funds for grants," laments Van Tuyl.

"Many people view the WLSFA as a 'conference provider' when, in reality, we are a Grant Process," said Streetman. He added that "The real 'product' of the WLSFA is the process we developed for delivering WLS grant funding, which includes packaging, a call for applicants, reviewing applicant eligibility, selecting grantees, coordinating with the patient, the surgeon, and the surgical center, arranging insurance to protect all parties involved, issuing and funding the grants." "Conferences," Van Tuyl adds, "were simply the means of generating the cash that supported our mission, while our actual product was the management of the grant process."

The Foundation never positioned itself as the grant source, but rather as an administrator of a grant. The entire process is highly structured, clinical, procedural, and specific, i.e., documented and transparent, while protective of personal information and sensitive data. The board members are all volunteers, and the organization does not have any administrative staff.

Currently, the WLSFA is seeking new funding sources, particularly from corporate organizations involved with or marketing to the weight loss surgery community or the broader weight management community. A corporate partner could gain positive publicity by sponsoring a surgery in their name, which would be managed and administered by the WLSFA.

Approximately 250,000 weight loss surgeries are conducted each year in the USA. Many WLS patients are also consumers of commercial weight loss and weight management programs, and/or take GPL-1 medications as part of their journey, increasing the market size for a potential surgery sponsor.

To discuss the possibility of cost-effectively reaching these markets by sponsoring a weight loss surgery, contact the WLSFA as detailed below. Van Tuyl closed by saying, "We would love to be the back-end, the administrative side, of a weight loss surgery grant given in a sponsor's name, to a patient who otherwise would have no chance of receiving this life-saving surgery and escaping obesity."

To contact the WLSFA about being a sponsor or funding a surgery, contact Bill or Laura:

Email: bill@wlsfa.org
Phone/Text: 614-327-7440

Weight Loss Surgery Foundation of America
WLSFA
+1 614-327-7440
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