Illinois · Nonprofit
AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES
AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES (Illinois) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $170,000 to it, the largest being THE AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY ($110,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $25M
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $170k
- Net assets
- $35M
What American Board of Medical Specialties does
Mission
In collaboration with its member boards, abms creates standards for initial and continuing board certification of physicians and medical specialists. (continued in sch o)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
In partnership with its member boards, abms is a leader in setting rigorous standards for board certification across 38 medical specialties and 89 medical subspecialties. While member boards tailor these standards to their specific specialties and subspecialties, abms supports the member boards in the overall implementation of the standards by providing learning opportunities and resources regarding evaluation, assessment and policy development relative to certification. These supports are critical to the abms community. At present, in the united states, abms member boards have certified more than one million physicians and medical specialists.
Internationally, abms contracts with the singapore ministry of health to develop and maintain a program of physician assessment and certification for singapore's physicians and medical specialists, as well as consults with other countries and communities across the world seeking to explore or establish physician and medical specialty certification programs.
Abms convenes leaders and stakeholders from across the abms and the greater health care communities to discuss current and emerging issues in today's health care system, seeking to understand ways in which abms and its member boards can address those issues to improve the quality of patient care.
In terms of advocacy, abms communicates information about and emphasizes the importance of board certification to diplomates, medical professionals, health care organizations, insurers, legislators and the general public. These communications provide these audiences and advocates with factual information about the importance of board certification and the marker of trust signified by the credential. Certificationmatters.org, a free, publicly accessible website offered by abms to provide information about board certification. Any individual may access this site to determine if a physician or medical specialist is board certified by an abms member board. In terms of research and professional development, abms and its member boards actively study and support research into the impact that certification programs have on both the profession of medicine as well as improving patient safety and health care. Abms is also committed to physician professional development as part of its member boards' continuing certification programs, including continuing medical education and quality and practice improvement activities.
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $34M to $41M (+20%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Richard E Hawkins Md
President & CEO
Board chair
J Brantley Thrasher Md Facs
Chair (as of 07/25)
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $55k → $10k.
Left out of every figure on this page: $15k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Board of Pediatrics Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES raised.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 65% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES draws 82% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 4 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Organizations like AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 5 related entities
- Abms Holding LLC · disregarded
- Abms Assessment Services LLC · disregarded
- Abms Solutions LLC · disregarded
- Abms Strategies LLC · disregarded
- Abms Research and Education Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES?
- AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES (Illinois) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $170,000 to it, the largest being THE AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY ($110,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $170,000 in grants to AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES?
- THE AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY is the largest funder on record, with $110,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICAL SPECIALTIES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 4 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing