Setting up IVF Charity / Interest Free Loan Service

Siarad

I have just recently had IVF as a single woman.  It's very early days but I'm currently pregnant.  It was obviously very expensive, just over £10,000 so far.  Fortunately I'm now in a job where I am earning a lot more than I have in my life before and my parents were in a position to lend me some money.  

However, this and recent news stories have really got me thinking about the difficulties and restrictions of IVF costs, particularly for lesbians and single women who, in most areas, have little or no access to IVF on the NHS unless they can prove 12 failed private IVF attempts (a cost upwards of £30,000.)

It makes me feel that there would be a real space for a charity / crowd-funded service that would help to provide money for free IVF treatment or interest-free, affordable, not-for-profit loans for lesbians and single women looking to start a family through IVF but who are on lower-incomes or worried about affording it.

I would really welcome any advice that people can offer on the following points:  

-----Does anything like this exist already that people know of? 
-Preliminary research suggests that there are companies that offer IVF loans but the majority appear to be interest-free temporarily only and to be for-profit.  
- I'm thinking more of something that either pays for treatment on behalf of users or has a permanently interest-free, long and affordable time period for repayment.  

-----Would it be more helpful / feasible / practical to offer free treatments or interest-free loans? 
-Interest-free loans might make it easier to offer the services to more people as those who were paying back the loans would be putting some money back in for the next people who need the service.  However might this leave them paying back debt, albeit interest-free and thus defeat the object?  
- Is there anyway of combing the two?  
- Crowd funding would probably be needed, certainly at the start in order for there to be any money to lend.

----- Is crowd-funding the best way to approach this or is there a better way?

----- What would any organisation like that this need to be accountable so people knew the money was going where it said it was going?  

----- How feasible would it be for the organisation to make payments direct to the IVF provider on behalf of users so the organisation is satisfied the money is being used for the right purposes?
-Where does GDPR come in with this?

----What else would I need to think about?

---- What organisations / professionals might be able to advise me on this?  (Cheaply or for free, I can't afford to put large amounts of my own money into this.)

I'm aware this may be an ambitious prospect and might take a lot to set up, however, if there is nothing like it, it feels like it would be a good thing to set up, would address some of the inequalities in fertility treatment and would enable people to start a family who may not otherwise be able to.


 

Sandtree

Clearly interest free loans are more feasible because you get the money paid back so can use it to fund the next set of loans but more people will be interested in free treatment than interest free loans. You could combine the two but you then end up in a mid way house and it depends on your ability to raise donations to provide the contribution towards the costs.

It would be perfectly feasible for you to pay directly to the clinics and no issue from a GDPR perspective as long as you get permissions and have the right controls in place. Be aware however by paying directly to the clinic and as a loan you would become jointly liable for the clinics actions so any medmal lawsuit could be directed at you/your charity. If you pay the loan to the individual such liability doesnt exist but you risk them deciding to use the money for a new kitchen rather than IVF

Other considerations will be your scope... are you local or national? Can you get any form of volume discounting? Assuming you dont have unlimited funds, how do you select which you give funding to and which you decline? Do you run into any discrimination law issues if you will fund a lesbian couple but not a straight or gay couple? Similarly if you are going to put restrictions around age, weight etc. You need to check want licensing etc you need to be a credit provider... just look over at the loans section here etc about the number of people looking for loopholes to get out of repaying loans such as unaffordable lending... dont assume just because you are a charity that people wont also look to avoid repayment.