Skip to content
Helen Keller International at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Helen Keller International

Guided by her remarkable legacy of its co-founder, helen keller, helen keller intl partners with communities that are striving to overcome longstanding cycles of poverty.

$21M
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
4
States reached
$1.2M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.

Food & Nutrition$10MInternational$6.8MHealth$6.4MEducation$787k
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 5 grants below total $1,714,543, the rows itemized in this filing. The $20,533,701 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $18,819,158 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–50k1 grant · $22k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $256k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.4M
$179,695
Median grant
4
States reached
$166M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS$1,168,916
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO$267,857
FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL (FHI360)$179,695
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY$76,438
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA (USC)$21,637
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 (FY18–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 99% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%SEVA FOUNDATION: $226k → 10%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS: $1.4M → 16%UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA (USC): $27k → 16%FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: $328k → 14%COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE: $2.3M → 13%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $239k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS: $1.2M → 16%UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA (USC): $22k → 16%FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: $311k → 14%COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE: $1.7M → 13%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $103k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS: $1.2M → 16%FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: $220k → 14%COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE: $1.2M → 13%JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $76k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS: $1.2M → 16%FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: $209k → 14%COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE: $704k → 13%CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES: $422k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS: $1.1M → 16%FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: $208k → 14%COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE: $668k → 13%CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES: $388k → 19%UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS: $272k → 16%FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL (FHI360): $180k → 14%COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE: $237k → 13%CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES: $364k → 19%FAMILY HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: $121k → 14%CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES: $45k → 19%IFPRI-INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $369k → 14%IFPRI-INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $144k → 14%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.

Grants abroad, by region: $19M on the FY2025 return

Schedule F, as filed: 3 regions. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

Sub-Saharan Africa$17M · 89% · 118 grants

Stated purpose: AZYTHROMYCIN PROJECT · NTD (NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASE) · VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENTATION PROJECT

South Asia$2.0M · 11% · 13 grants

Stated purpose: TRANSFORMING LIVES THROUGH NUTRITION · INTEGRATED NUTRITION ACTION · BANI (BANDARBAN AGRICULTURE AND NUTRITION INITIATIVE

East Asia and the Pacific$118k · 1% · 3 grants

Stated purpose: TRANSFORMING LIVES THROUGH NUTRITION

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. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

99%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$24M · 9 repeat orgs$226k to everyone else

9 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
1

Total granted

$24M
$226k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+30%
+50%

Still filing today

44%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

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

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

’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
InternationalScience & TechFood & NutritionEducationOther
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

  • COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE INC
    6× · 2018–2023 · $6.8M · revenue +36%
  • RT
    Research Triangle Institute
    3× · 2018–2020 · $6.1M · revenue +30%
  • JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2023–2025 · $418k · revenue +4%

Funded once

  • SF
    SEVA FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $226k · revenue +50%
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
04the grantee network

5 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

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 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 5 of the 10 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
5/5
Grantees still filing
4/5
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS: $6,451,896 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVISFHI 360 DISASTER RELIEF FUND: $1,575,942 · OtherFHI 360 DISASTER RELIEF FUNDCATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES: $1,218,727 · OtherCATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICESUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO: $786,861 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO+1 more: $49,073 · OtherCOOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE INC: $6,758,511 · InternationalCOOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND R…+1 more: $225,682 · InternationalResearch Triangle Institute: $6,124,464 · Science & TechResearch Triangle InstituteINTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $513,363 · Food & NutritionJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $418,357 · Education
Other$10,082,499International$6,984,193Science & Tech$6,124,464Food & Nutrition$513,363Education$418,357

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

25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCOOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE INC: $6,758,511 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetResearch Triangle Institute: $6,124,464 over 3y, 0.3% of budgetINTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $513,363 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $418,357 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSEVA FOUNDATION: $225,682 over 1y, 3.1% 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.

  • Who funds COOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE INC ↗
  • Who funds Research Triangle Institute ↗
  • Who funds INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds SEVA FOUNDATION ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Helen Keller International funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Helen Keller International. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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.

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 10 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

Play a game based on Helen Keller International’s filings →

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