Skip to content
The Foundation for AIDS Research at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

The Foundation for AIDS Research

Amfar is dedicated to ending the global aids epidemic through innovative research.

$4.2M
Granted FY2024still arriving
9
Grants FY2024still arriving
8
States reached
$186k
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, FY2017 to 2024.

Science & Tech$22MHealth$7.5MEducation$4.7MPhilanthropy$838kInternational$467kCivil Rights$156kArts & Culture$49k
02FY2024 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 9 grants below total $748,500, the rows itemized in this filing. The $4,204,529 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $3,456,029 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 · FY2024

  • $10k–50k4 grants · $138k
  • $50k–250k5 grants · $611k
$52,430
Median grant
8
States reached
$53M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO$185,970
THE WISTAR INSTITUTE$160,410
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY$142,820
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY$69,079
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE$52,430
FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER CENTER$40,825
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY$40,716
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI$31,250
COMPASS INC$25,000
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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–22, $218k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%NATIONAL HOSPITAL OF TROPICAL DISEASES: $115k → 17%NATIONAL HOSPITAL OF TROPICAL DISEASES: $53k → 17%AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC): $50k → 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
IL
MI
NY
MA
OR
IA
IN
OH
PA
CT
CA
UT
NE
MO
VA
MD
DC
GA
TX
FL

Grants abroad, by region: $3.4M on the FY2024 return

Schedule F, as filed: 4 regions. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

East Asia and the Pacific$2.2M · 64% · 45 grants

Stated purpose: TREAT ASIA · RESEARCH

Europe (including Iceland and Greenland)$1.0M · 29% · 3 grants

Stated purpose: RESEARCH

South Asia$194k · 6% · 3 grants

Stated purpose: TREAT ASIA

Sub-Saharan Africa$52k · 2% · 1 grant

Stated purpose: RESEARCH

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.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$31M · 37 repeat orgs$776k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +41% since the first grant, against +34% for those funded once.

37 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2024, 32 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

37
16

Total granted

$31M
$699k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+41%
+34%

Still filing today

57%
69%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $77k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthEducationInternationalArts & CultureHuman ServicesRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
    8× · 2017–2024 · $3.5M · revenue +64%
  • BI
    BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER INC
    5× · 2017–2021 · $1.4M · revenue +99%
  • TW
    THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY
    6× · 2019–2024 · $577k · revenue +45%

Funded once

  • SU
    State University of Iowa
    one grant, 2021 · $150k
  • Northwestern Universitygraduated
    one grant, 2019 · $76k · revenue +34%
  • NI
    National Institutes of Health
    one grant, 2019 · $75k
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
New York University

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.

Education
2
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

We educate the next generation of leaders to improve the health of our society.

Education
3
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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.

Education
4
Access to Advanced Health Institute

Aahi is a nonprofit biotech research institute, bringing together the best experts, technologies, and platforms to create accessible, high-quality products and solutions for harnessing the immune system to alleviate disease.

Health
5
University of Southern California

The central mission of the university of southern california is the development of human beings and society as a whole through the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit. the principal means by which our mission is…

Education
6
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Sanford burnham prebys medical discovery institute's mission is to advance the biomedical sciences by cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders, providing meaningful opportunities for researchers of all backgrounds to learn,…

Health
7
New York Genome Center Inc

Operate a state-of-the-art, world-class genomic research center that creates and uses advanced genomics to understand the genetic basis of disease. for more information, see schedule o.

Health
8
Trustees of Boston University

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.…

—
9
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
10
William Marsh Rice University

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…

Education
11
Cornell University

Education, research, medical services and other public services.

Education
12
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Georgetown University; the most unlike its peers is New Hope for Cambodian Children. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

43 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. 43 of the 63 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
42/43
Grantees still filing
36/43
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO: $15,078,231 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCOMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED: $1,370,766 · OtherMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATEDUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: $1,286,080 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTONMASS GENERAL BRIGHAM INCORPORATED: $917,984 · OtherREGENTS UNIV OF CALIFORNIA: $910,000 · Other+20 more: $3,059,474 · Other+20 moreJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $3,499,667 · EducationJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSIT…TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $858,769 · EducationTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERS…President and Fellows of Harvard College: $548,482 · EducationPresident and Fellows o…Emory University: $536,669 · EducationEmory UniversityYale University: $453,289 · EducationYale UniversityTHE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY: $438,101 · EducationTHE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERS…CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: $335,749 · EducationTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $301,673 · Education+7 more: $590,850 · Education+7 moreBETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER INC: $1,369,473 · HealthBETH ISRAEL …THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY: $577,315 · HealthTHE WISTAR I…THE J DAVID GLADSTONE INSTITUTES: $406,250 · HealthTHE J DAVID …BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER CORPORATION: $281,250 · HealthBOSTON MEDIC…THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $262,500 · HealthTHE SCRIPPS …HEALTH GLOBAL ACCESS PROJECT INCORPORATED: $247,991 · HealthHEALTH GLOBA…Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Inc: $231,250 · HealthFoundation f…MAYO CLINIC: $200,000 · Health+9 more: $373,530 · Health+9 moreCHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA: $837,920 · PhilanthropyDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $45,000 · PhilanthropyNEW VENTURE FUND: $500,000 · EnvironmentINTERNATIONAL AIDS VACCINE INITIATIVE INC: $199,362 · InternationalNEW HOPE FOR CAMBODIAN CHILDREN: $20,024 · InternationalAIDS VACCINE ADVOCACY COALITION INC: $217,682 · Human Services
Other$22,622,535Education$7,563,249Health$3,949,559Philanthropy$882,920Environment$500,000International$219,386Human Services$217,682

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetJOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: $3,499,667 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetBETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER INC: $1,369,473 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: $858,769 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA: $837,920 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY: $577,315 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $548,482 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetEmory University: $536,669 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetNEW VENTURE FUND: $500,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetYale University: $453,289 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY: $438,101 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetTHE J DAVID GLADSTONE INSTITUTES: $406,250 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetFRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER: $393,464 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: $335,749 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK: $301,673 over 6y, 0.0% of budgetBOSTON MEDICAL CENTER CORPORATION: $281,250 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $262,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetHEALTH GLOBAL ACCESS PROJECT INCORPORATED: $247,991 over 3y, 7.1% of budgetFoundation for the National Institutes of Health Inc: $231,250 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetAIDS VACCINE ADVOCACY COALITION INC: $217,682 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetMAYO CLINIC: $200,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetINTERNATIONAL AIDS VACCINE INITIATIVE INC: $199,362 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetThe George Washington University: $184,158 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGLOBAL ACTION FOR TRANS EQUALITY INC: $155,612 over 2y, 8.3% of budgetUniversity of Miami: $150,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetHARVARD PILGRIM HEALTH CARE INC: $99,810 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION INC: $86,823 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSWARTHMORE COLLEGE: $80,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern University: $76,416 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetChildren's Hospital Corporation: $68,565 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: $52,430 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFENWAY COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: $47,928 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFred Hutchinson Cancer Center: $47,911 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetDONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC: $45,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPREP4ALL INC: $43,000 over 2y, 4.2% of budgetThe Research Foundation for The State University of New York: $33,334 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetVitalant: $30,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAFRICAN AMERICAN AIDS POLICY AND TRAINING INSTITUTE: $25,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetCOMPASS INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetRESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HYGIENE INC: $19,744 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFOUNDATION FOR THE AIDS MONUMENT: $15,000 over 1y, 18% of budgetAids Walk San Francisco Foundation: $7,500 over 1y, 0.7% 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 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ↗
  • Who funds CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ↗
  • Who funds THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY ↗
  • Who funds President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
  • Who funds Emory University ↗
  • Who funds NEW VENTURE FUND ↗
  • Who funds Yale University ↗
  • Who funds THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE J DAVID GLADSTONE INSTITUTES ↗
  • Who funds FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER ↗
  • Who funds CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK ↗
  • Who funds BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER CORPORATION ↗
  • Who funds THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE ↗
  • Who funds HEALTH GLOBAL ACCESS PROJECT INCORPORATED ↗
  • Who funds Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Inc ↗
  • Who funds AIDS VACCINE ADVOCACY COALITION INC ↗
  • Who funds MAYO CLINIC ↗
  • Who funds INTERNATIONAL AIDS VACCINE INITIATIVE INC ↗
  • Who funds The George Washington University ↗
  • Who funds GLOBAL ACTION FOR TRANS EQUALITY INC ↗
  • Who funds University of Miami ↗
  • Who funds HARVARD PILGRIM HEALTH CARE INC ↗

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.

Elton John AIDS Found…Family Health Interna…Magee-Womens Research…Cornell UniversityEmory UniversityUniversity of Pittsbu…Broadway Caresequity …Foundation to Promote…New Venture FundVanguard Charitable E…American Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…
Elton John AIDS Foundation IncNY15.7× affinity5 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Elton John AIDS Foundation Inc · Family Health International Inc · Magee-Womens Research Institute and Foundation · Cornell University · Emory University · University of Pittsburgh · Broadway Caresequity Fights AIDS Inc · Foundation to Promote Open Society · New Venture Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc

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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Foundation for AIDS Research funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Foundation for AIDS Research. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 12%
  • Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc: 37% of income from government
  • Fenway Community Health Center Inc: 27% of income from government
  • Boston Medical Center Corporation: 23% of income from government
  • Johns Hopkins University: 12% of income from government
  • Yale University: 12% of income from government
  • Children's Hospital Corporation: 10% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% of income from government
  • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Inc: 6% of income from government
  • University of Miami: 5% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
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 63 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Foundation for AIDS Research’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