· Public charity
Retina Research Foundation
The mission of the RETINA RESEARCH FOUNDATION is to reduce retinal blindness worldwide by funding programs in research and education.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k15 grants · $650k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $584k
- $250k+1 grant · $700k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON | $700,000 |
| BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE | $220,046 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - IRVINE (UCI) | $94,954 |
| MEEI OCULAR GENOMICS INSTITUTE HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL | $90,000 |
| UNIV OF MICHIGAN ANN ARBOR MI | $90,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY | $88,883 |
| UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE | $45,000 |
| TEXAS A&M HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER | $45,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO (UCSF) | $45,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH - GALVESTON | $45,000 |
| NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY | $45,000 |
| SCHEPENS EYE RESEARCH INSTITUTE HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL | $45,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF ILLINIOS AT CHICAGO | $45,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA | $45,000 |
| UT HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER AT SAN ANTONIO | $45,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 51% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +63% since the first grant, against +50% for those funded once.
24 repeat relationships: 19 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $90k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BCBaylor College of Medicine8× · 2017–2024 · $2.5M · revenue +67%
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY5× · 2020–2024 · $208k · revenue +63%- VUVanderbilt University Medical Center5× · 2020–2024 · $208k · revenue +76%
Funded once
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITYgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $30k · 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.
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.
THE MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY ("THE INFIRMARY") IS A NOT-FOR-PROFIT TEACHING HOSPITAL CONDUCTING PATIENT CARE AND RESEARCH. THE INFIRMARY IS A TEACHING HOSPITAL OF HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL AND AN INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH.…
The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.
As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…
The mission of Rush is to improve the health of the individuals and diverse communities we serve through the integration of outstanding patient care, education, research and community partnerships.
Education, research, medical services and other public services.
See Disclosure Above.
Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…
Nyu is a private university with approximately 60,000 matriculating students in 20 schools and institutes. nyu's primary missions are education, research and scholarship, and patient care.
The washington university is a co-educational, nondenominational university with a long and distinguished history of teaching, research and (cont'd on schedule o)
Drexel university fulfills its founder's vision of preparing each new generation of students for productive professional and civic lives while also focusing its collective expertise on solving society's greatest problems. drexel is an…
Dartmouth College educates the most promising students and prepares them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership, through a faculty dedicated to teaching and the creation of knowledge.
Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…
How this is measured
10 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. 10 of the 27 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 Baylor College of Medicine ↗
- Who funds NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Vanderbilt University Medical Center ↗
- Who funds University of Kentucky Research Foundation ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY INC ↗
- Who funds WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc ↗
- Who funds University of Miami ↗
- Who funds CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Vanderbilt University Medical Center · University of Pittsburgh · American Heart Association Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Retina Research Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Retina Research Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- University of Miami: 5% of income from government
- Northeastern University: 4% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Retina Research Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Retina Research Foundation 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.
Play a game based on Retina Research’s filings →