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American Board of Opticianry and National Contact Lens Examiners Inc at a glance

· Public charity

American Board of Opticianry and National Contact Lens Examiners Inc

American board of opticianry and national contact lens examiners, inc.'s (abo-ncle) mission is to identify qualified ophthalmic providers by examination and continuing education, and to encourage and support the profession through growth of ophthalmic skills and abilities.

$968k
Granted FY2025still arriving
3
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$505k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Health$1.7MCommunity Improvement$505kEducation$457kEmployment$10k
02FY2025 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 3 grants below total $545,235, the rows itemized in this filing. The $968,488 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $423,253 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $40k
  • $250k+1 grant · $505k
$30,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$4.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNITED OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION INC$505,235
EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION IN OPHTHALMIC OPTICS$30,000
THE SOUTH CAROLINA ASSOCIATION OF OPTICIANS$10,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 89% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF MASSACHUSETTS: $10k → 7%CONTACT LENS SOCIETY OF AMERICA: $32k → 6%COMMISSION ON OPTICIANRY ACCREDITATION: $25k → 18%NATIONAL FEDERATION OF OPTICIANRY SCHOOLS: $110k → 13%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $153k → 17%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF OHIO: $6k → 9%POINT HOPE FOUNDATION: $50k → 10%CONTACT LENS SOCIETY OF AMERICA: $45k → 6%NATIONAL ACADEMY OF OPTICIANRY: $153k → 11%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF KENTUCKY: $5k → 15%CONTACT LENS SOCIETY OF AMERICA: $31k → 6%NATIONAL FEDERATION OF OPTICIANRY SCHOOLS: $100k → 13%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $140k → 17%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF OHIO: $10k → 9%CONTACT LENS SOCIETY OF AMERICA FOUNDATION: $13k → 6%NATIONAL ACADEMY OF OPTICIANRY: $140k → 11%EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION IN OPHTHALMIC OPTICS INC: $31k → 15%CONTACT LENS SOCIETY OF AMERICA: $25k → 6%NATIONAL FEDERATION OF OPTICIANRY SCHOOLS: $65k → 13%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $138k → 17%EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION IN OPHTHALMIC OPTICS: $85k → 6%NATIONAL ACADEMY OF OPTICIANRY: $138k → 11%EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION IN OPHTHALMIC OPTICS: $30k → 15%NATIONAL FEDERATION OF OPTICIANRY SCHOOLS: $55k → 13%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $120k → 17%NATIONAL ACADEMY OF OPTICIANRY: $73k → 11%EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION IN OPHTHALMIC OPTICS INC: $21k → 15%NATIONAL FEDERATION OF OPTICIANRY SCHOOLS: $50k → 13%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $73k → 17%NATIONAL ACADEMY OF OPTICIANRY: $65k → 11%NATIONAL FEDERATION OF OPTICIANRY SCHOOLS: $17k → 13%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $68k → 17%NATIONAL FEDERATION OF OPTICIANRY SCHOOLS: $15k → 13%OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $27k → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
MN
MI
NY
MA
OH
KY
VA
MD
TN
SC
FL
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 58% of American Board of Opticianry and National Contact Lens Examiners Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.

American Board of Opticianry and National Contact Lens Examiners Inclessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

77%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$2.1M · 9 repeat orgs$600k to everyone else

9 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
3

Total granted

$2.1M
$85k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

-28%
-17%

Still filing today

78%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 6% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $515k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Community ImprovementEducationOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • OA
    OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
    7× · 2017–2023 · $717k · revenue +36% · 40% of their budget
  • NA
    NATIONAL ACADEMY OF OPTICIANRY INC
    5× · 2017–2021 · $568k · revenue -28%
  • NF
    National Federation of Opticianry Schools
    7× · 2017–2023 · $412k · revenue -80% · 78% of their budget

Funded once

  • PI
    POINTHOPE INC
    one grant, 2023 · $50k · revenue -53%
  • TC
    THE COMMISSION ON OPTICIANRY ACCREDITATION
    one grant, 2020 · $25k
  • OA
    Opticians Association of MA Inc
    one grant, 2023 · $10k · revenue -17%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
World Optometry Foundation
Health
2
New York State Optometric Association Inc

To promote and further the profession of optometry.

—
3
Association for Ocular Pharmacology & Therapeutics

To serve as a global forum and network for the publication, dissemination and exchange of information and knowledge of eye diseases.

Health
4
American Academy of Ophthalmology Charitable Educational & Scientific Fund

The organization's primary purpose is to support the charitable mission of the american academy of ophthalmology.

Animals
5
Oklahoma Optometric Association

The oklahoma association of optometric physicians is a professional association dedicated to advocacy, education, and other resources for oklahoma optometric physicians. mission statement: unite. empower. advocate.

—
6
Virginia Optometric Association

To improve the vision care and health of the public and to promote the art and science of the profession of optometry.

Community Improvement
7
International Society of Ocular Oncology Co Krystal Crowe

The primary purpose of the entity is to advance and promote the practice of ocular oncology by coordinating with general opthamology, oncology, pathology and allied sciences by the encouragement of research, by the improvement of teaching,…

Community Improvement
8
Texas Ophthalmological Association

Education in advancing ophthalmological medicine

—
9
West Virginia Academy of Eye Physicians & Surgeons Inc

Providing Education and Legislative Support to Ophthalmologists throughout the State of West Virginia

—
10
Oregon Academy of Ophthalmology

Ophthalomology training seminars and conventions

—
11
World Council of Optometry Inc

To facilitate the development of optometry around the world and support optometrists in promoting eye health and vision care as a human right through advocacy, education, policy development and humanitarian outreach.

—
12
Optical Society of America Inc

To promote the generation application and archiving of knowledge of optics and photonics and to disseminate the knowledge worldwide.

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Opticians Association Inc; the most unlike its peers is Pointhope Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

11 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 11 of the 14 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
2/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $716,500 · OtherOPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICANATIONAL ACADEMY OF OPTICIANRY INC: $567,500 · OtherNATIONAL ACADEMY OF OPTICIANRY INCNational Federation of Opticianry Schools: $411,500 · OtherNational Federation of Opticianry SchoolsCONTACT LENS SOCIETY OF AMERICA INC: $87,977 · Other+7 more: $149,500 · Other+7 moreUNITED OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION INC: $505,235 · Community ImprovementUNITED OPTICIANS ASSOCI…POINTHOPE INC: $50,000 · Community ImprovementPOINTHOPE INCEDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION IN OPHTHALMIC OPTICS: $166,238 · Education
Other$1,932,977Community Improvement$555,235Education$166,238

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetOPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: $716,500 over 7y, 40% of budgetNATIONAL ACADEMY OF OPTICIANRY INC: $567,500 over 5y, 19% of budgetUNITED OPTICIANS ASSOCIATION INC: $505,235 over 1y, 36% of budgetNational Federation of Opticianry Schools: $411,500 over 7y, 78% of budgetEDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION IN OPHTHALMIC OPTICS: $166,238 over 4y, 100% of budgetCONTACT LENS SOCIETY OF AMERICA INC: $87,977 over 3y, 20% of budgetPOINTHOPE INC: $50,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetOPTICIANS ASSOCIATION OF OHIO: $16,000 over 2y, 7.3% of budgetPROFESSIONAL OPTICIANS OF FLORIDA INC: $16,000 over 2y, 4.4% of budgetOpticians Association of MA Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 9.3% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization American Board of Opticianry and National Contact Lens Examiners Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from American Board of Opticianry and National Contact Lens Examiners Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    3get no government money at all
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to American Board of Opticianry and National Contact Lens Examiners Inc?

    Find your warmest path to American Board of Opticianry and National Contact Lens Examiners Inc through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 14 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home