How much does Brightfocus Foundation give?

Brightfocus Foundation reported 57 itemized grants totaling $13,267,808, out of $16,943,701 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 27 and 51 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Brightfocus Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (100%), Science & Tech (0%), Education (0%).

Who are Brightfocus Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Washington University ($6.4M), University of California San Francisco ($5.4M), Johns Hopkins University ($4.0M).

Does Brightfocus Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 11% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Where is Brightfocus Foundation based?

Brightfocus Foundation is based in MD.

Foundation Dossiers Also receives grants: funding profile →

Maryland · Public charity

Brightfocus Foundation

BRIGHTFOCUS FOUNDATION funds exceptional research worldwide to defeat alzheimer's disease, macular degeneration, and glaucoma and provides expert information on these heartbreaking diseases. Please refer to schedule o for a complete overview of our mission.

$17M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 57
Itemized grants FY2025: 27
Organizations funded FY2024: 11%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Itemized, FY2025: $13M; The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2025: $200,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $409,500
Organizations funded a year: 27 to 51; FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 23
Total assets, FY2025: $65M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 11% of the organizations Brightfocus Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 13% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $950k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationHealthScience & TechHuman ServicesOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	37	$11M	5%
FY2024	27	$7.0M	11%
FY2023	33	$9.9M	9%
FY2022	51	$17M	33%
FY2021	46	$16M	24%
FY2020	45	$15M	44%
FY2019	42	$12M	40%
FY2018	38	$11M	55%

100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Health$123MScience & Tech$325kEducation$14k

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Washington University	$6,421,163	8	0%
University of California San Francisco	$5,366,350	9	n/a
Johns Hopkins University	$3,997,591	8	0%
Mayo Clinic	$3,877,797	9	n/a
Mass General Brigham Incorporated	$3,499,600	6	n/a
Regents of the University of California at Irvine	$3,071,396	7	n/a
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	$3,043,526	7	0%
Indiana University School of Medicine	$2,855,222	7	n/a
Emory University	$2,645,888	7	0%
Northwestern University	$2,600,000	7	0%

Show all 137 grantees

All grantees of Brightfocus Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Washington University	$6,421,163	8	0%
University of California San Francisco	$5,366,350	9	n/a
Johns Hopkins University	$3,997,591	8	0%
Mayo Clinic	$3,877,797	9	n/a
Mass General Brigham Incorporated	$3,499,600	6	n/a
Regents of the University of California at Irvine	$3,071,396	7	n/a
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	$3,043,526	7	0%
Indiana University School of Medicine	$2,855,222	7	n/a
Emory University	$2,645,888	7	0%
Northwestern University	$2,600,000	7	0%
Mass General Brigham Incorporated	$2,559,558	5	n/a
Regents of the University of California at San Diego	$2,084,000	4	n/a
Baylor College of Medicine	$2,048,508	6	0%
Oregon Health & Science University	$1,942,138	6	n/a
Trustees of Boston University	$1,900,000	4	0%
Regents of the University of Michigan	$1,900,000	4	n/a
The Jackson Laboratory	$1,875,000	5	0%
Duke University	$1,845,634	8	0%
Nihnia	$1,587,987	3	n/a
The Research Foundation for The State University of New York	$1,395,818	5	0%
Weill Medical College of Cornell Univers	$1,385,000	5	n/a
University of Wisconsin Madison	$1,364,000	5	n/a
Mass General Brigham Incorporated	$1,285,000	3	n/a
University of Massachusetts	$1,230,000	4	n/a
University of Miami	$1,220,000	2	0%
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Inc	$1,184,838	3	0%
University of Kentucky Research Foundation	$1,160,000	4	0%
University of Washington	$1,076,339	5	n/a
Children's Hospital Corporation	$1,059,656	5	0%
University of Pittsburgh	$1,029,310	5	0%
Regents Univ of California	$1,000,000	4	n/a
Georgia Tech Research Corporation	$949,993	4	0%
Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc	$942,000	4	n/a
Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary	$919,715	2	0%
Trustees of Tufts College	$905,544	4	0%
The Ohio State University	$900,000	2	n/a
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	$899,041	4	n/a
University of Chicago	$860,000	3	0%
State University of Iowa	$850,000	2	n/a
New York University	$850,000	3	0%
Regents of the University of California at Berkeley	$849,999	4	n/a
C2N Diagnostics	$750,000	1	n/a
Regents of the University of Colorado	$716,435	3	n/a
William Marsh Rice University	$709,443	2	0%
University of Florida	$670,000	3	n/a
Human Computation Institute Inc	$655,910	2	2%
Case Western Reserve University	$650,000	3	0%
University of South Florida	$650,000	2	n/a
Michigan State University	$634,992	3	n/a
The J David Gladstone Institutes	$600,000	3	0%
Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium	$600,000	2	0%
Vanderbilt University	$600,000	2	0%
Unt Health Science Center	$600,000	3	n/a
Wake Forest University Health Sciences	$600,000	2	0%
Hebrew Rehabilitation Center	$597,336	2	0%
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center	$594,500	2	n/a
University of California Davis	$585,000	3	n/a
Good Samaritan Foundation	$581,790	2	6%
Helen Keller Foundation for Research & E Research & Education Inc	$575,000	5	52%
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies	$550,000	3	0%
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois	$548,050	3	n/a
University of Utah	$539,930	3	n/a
Georgia Institute of Technology	$513,366	3	n/a
The Schepens Eye Research Institute	$510,000	3	n/a
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Cente	$510,000	3	n/a
Drusolv Theraputics Inc	$500,000	1	n/a
Cornell University	$500,000	2	0%
Brigham Young University	$500,000	2	n/a
Vanderbilt University Medical Center	$496,512	2	0%
International Society for Molecular Neurodegeneration Inc	$469,000	4	100%
Anthrotronix Inc	$450,000	1	n/a
University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc	$449,985	1	0%
Board of Regents Nevada System of Higher Education	$446,943	1	n/a
University of Texas	$436,312	1	n/a
University of Denver	$435,050	5	0%
Rector & Visitors of the University of Virginia	$380,000	2	n/a
University of Rochester	$380,000	2	0%
University of Connecticut Health Center	$350,000	2	n/a
Baylor University	$320,000	1	0%
Boston Medical Center Corporation	$310,000	2	0%
Mass General Brigham Incorporated	$300,000	1	n/a
Colorado State University	$300,000	1	n/a
Northeast Ohio Medical University	$300,000	1	n/a
University of Kansas Center for Research Inc	$300,000	1	0%
University of Washington School of Medicine	$300,000	1	n/a
Texas A&M Agrilife Research	$300,000	1	n/a
Phi Chi Medical Fraternity Inc	$300,000	1	n/a
The University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brainhealth	$300,000	1	n/a
Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Inc	$300,000	3	0%
St Louis University	$300,000	1	0%
Georgetown University	$300,000	1	0%
Seattle Institute for Biomedical and Clinical Research	$300,000	1	2%
Shriners Hospitals for Children	$300,000	1	0%
Louisiana State University	$239,195	1	n/a
The Milken Institute	$210,000	2	0%
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	$200,000	1	0%
University of Alabama at Birmingham	$200,000	1	n/a
Pennsylvania State University	$200,000	1	n/a
University of Oklahoma	$200,000	1	n/a
Augusta University Research Institute Inc	$200,000	1	0%
The Medical College of Wisconsin Inc	$200,000	1	0%
Seattle Children's Hospital	$200,000	1	0%
Utah State University	$200,000	1	n/a
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	$200,000	1	n/a
Temple University - Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education	$200,000	1	0%
Albany Med Health System	$200,000	1	n/a
The Univ of Tx Health Science Ctr of Sa	$200,000	1	n/a
Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology	$199,896	1	0%
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center	$199,381	1	0%
West Virginia University Research Corporation	$185,000	1	0%
The Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund	$185,000	1	0%
University of Texas Health Science Center Houston	$185,000	1	n/a
Methodist Hospital	$184,377	1	n/a
Regents of the University of Idaho	$180,864	1	n/a
Research Foundation of the City University of New York	$180,000	1	0%
University of Iowa	$180,000	1	n/a
The University of Tennessee	$180,000	1	n/a
Mayo Clinic	$169,856	1	n/a
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston	$160,000	1	n/a
Oklahoma State University Foundation	$160,000	1	0%
University of Tennessee Health Science Center	$150,000	1	n/a
State University of New York at Binghamton	$150,000	1	n/a
University of Houston	$150,000	1	n/a
The University of Akron	$150,000	1	n/a
Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska	$150,000	1	n/a
Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center	$150,000	1	0%
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute	$150,000	1	0%
The Zachary & Elizabeth M Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation	$133,597	1	n/a
Accesscircles Inc	$100,000	1	34%
The Arvo Foundation for Eye Research Inc	$95,720	5	3%
Careliving Inc	$75,000	1	n/a
LuMind IDSC Foundation	$65,000	1	2%
Rd Meeting Inc	$52,358	2	3%
International Society for Eye Research	$43,900	3	21%
Dean McGee Eye Institute	$30,000	1	0%
Usaging	$25,000	1	n/a
Association for Ocular Pharmacology & Therapeutics	$20,000	2	13%

Brightfocus Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 3 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 66 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 66.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Alzheimer's Disease & Related Disorders Association IncIL38.7× affinity16 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Alzheimer's Disease & Related Disorders Association Inc · The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York · American Heart Association Inc · Vanderbilt University Medical Center · Washington University · University of Pittsburgh · Knights Templar Eye Foundation · Cystic Fibrosis Foundation · University of Southern California · The Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research · Trustees of Boston University · Mayo Clinic

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Brightfocus Foundation with peer funders

About Brightfocus Foundation

How much does Brightfocus Foundation give?: Brightfocus Foundation reported 57 itemized grants totaling $13,267,808, out of $16,943,701 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 27 and 51 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Brightfocus Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (100%), Science & Tech (0%), Education (0%).
Who are Brightfocus Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Washington University ($6.4M), University of California San Francisco ($5.4M), Johns Hopkins University ($4.0M).
Does Brightfocus Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 11% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Brightfocus Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Alzheimer's Disease & Related Disorders Association Inc, The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, American Heart Association Inc.
Where is Brightfocus Foundation based?: Brightfocus Foundation is based in MD.