· Public charity
The American Optometric Association
Health care and public policy related to eye care will uniformly recognize optometrists as primary health care providers and ensure the public has access to the full scope of optometric care.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- $10k–50k3 grants · $55k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $200k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Optometry Cares - The AOA Foundation | $200,000 |
| Patients Rising Now Inc | $25,000 |
| National Consumers League | $20,000 |
| Amvets National Service Foundation | $10,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $1.6M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +2% since the first grant, against -13% for the ones you funded once.
5 repeat relationships — 4 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down.
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, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- OCOptometry Cares - The AOA Foundation8× · 2017–2024 · $1.6M · revenue +263% · 39% of their budget
- NCNATIONAL CONSUMERS LEAGUE INC3× · 2022–2024 · $75k · revenue +10%
- PRPATIENTS RISING INC2× · 2023–2024 · $50k · revenue +2%
Funded once
- TOTEXAS OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION INCone grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue -7%
- COCALIFORNIA OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATIONone grant, 2022 · $99k · revenue -29%
- VOVIRGINIA OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATIONone grant, 2022 · $75k · revenue -17%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
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.
To maintain and enhance excellence in optometric practice.
Health care and public policy related to eye care will uniformly recognize optometrists as primary health care providers and ensure the public has access to the full scope of optometric care. optometrists and other professionals will look…
Education in advancing ophthalmological medicine
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.
The american society of ophthalmic plastic and recontructive surgery (asoprs) was founded to establish a qualified body of surgeons who have training and experience in the highly specialized field of oculofacial plastic surgery. the…
Advance the profession of opticianry through education, credentialing and advocacy.
To serve as a global forum and network for the publication, dissemination and exchange of information and knowledge of eye diseases.
The missouri optometric association promotes the advancement of optometry by advocating for and educating its members and protecting access to the highest quality eye and vision care for the citizens of missouri.
To serve the total visual health care needs of the people through public and professional education, membership services and legislative advocacy.
The organization's mission is to promote and expand opticianry by being the single unified voice of america's opticians. in support of this mission, we are committed to promoting professional stature through leadership, education,…
The North Dakota Optometric Association is a nonprofit affiliation of licensed optometrists and associated businesses dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the vision welfare of the people of North Dakota. The North Dakota…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Optometry Cares - the Aoa Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Hillvets Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
10 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds Optometry Cares - The AOA Foundation ↗
- Who funds TEXAS OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds CALIFORNIA OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds AMVETS NATIONAL SERVICE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds VIRGINIA OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL CONSUMERS LEAGUE INC ↗
- Who funds THE COLORADO OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds PATIENTS RISING INC ↗
- Who funds IDAHO OPTOMETRIC PHYSICIANS INC ↗
- Who funds HILLVETS FOUNDATION ↗
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The American Optometric Association funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The American Optometric Association?
Find your warmest path to The American Optometric Association 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.