Spare Key, a nonprofit that gives financial help to families with ailing children, will expand from its Minnesota base into three more states: Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota.
The agency is now run by Erich Mische, a longtime political operative who was a top aide to former Sen. Norm Coleman in St. Paul and Washington D.C.
The organization provides housing payments for families who with a child who is seriously ill or critically injured and in the hospital. The goal is to help make it easier for parents to be at the hospital.
Since 1997, it has made payments of nearly $1.6 million for 1,500 families.
"While we will continue our commitment to Minnesota families, our capacity to serve families in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin in 2013 is a significant achievement for this organization," Mische said in a statement.
Most of the group's referrals come from hospital social workers, he said.