Minnesota · Nonprofit
AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION
AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION (Minnesota) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,408,170 to it, the largest being SKYLIGHT CHARITABLE TRUST ($3,709,523). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $7.8M
- Funders on record
- 111
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $18M
What American Brain Foundation does
Mission
The American Brain Foundation accelerates breakthrough research across brain diseases and disorders by investing in innovative science, early-career investigators, and cross-disease discoveries that advance treatments, cures, and brain health for all.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The foundation advanced public understanding of brain research and brain health through educational content, research updates, patient and caregiver stories, public events, and donor engagement. These efforts helped people see the connections among brain diseases, reduce stigma, and understand the urgency and promise of research. Through its cure one, cure many approach, the foundation showed how discoveries in one brain disease can accelerate progress across many, inspiring awareness, advocacy, and philanthropic support.
$889,892 spent10% of program spendingIn 2025, the foundation invested in research across multiple brain diseases through its next generation research grants and cure one, cure many initiatives. It funded early-career investigators and innovative projects in als, ald, alzheimer's and age-related cognitive decline, epilepsy, frontotemporal degeneration, lewy body diseases, multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular disease, neurological health disparities, parkinson's disease, peripheral neuropathy, and stroke. These grants help launch research careers; more than 95% of nearly 330 foundation-funded investigators have secured follow-on support from nih or other major funders. The foundation also advanced two cross-disease initiatives to target shared mechanisms and accelerate discoveries for patients.
$8,135,005 spentof which $8,135,005 as grants90% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $9,024,897.
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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
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 $17M to $22M (+30%).
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.
97% of AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (51% for the typical peer).
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
Michelle Heritage
Executive director
Board chair
Sean Sansiveri
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $370k → $2.9M.
24 of 111 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $6.7M from 2 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Academy of Neurology Institute). These are real filings, and they are not money AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 111 funders by total. 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 BRAIN FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
64% 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 BRAIN FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 17% · 2019 21% · 2020 26% · 2021 44% · 2022 39% · 2023 38% — growing more concentrated.
“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.
How long its funders stay
33% of AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 26 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. 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.
Against its field
AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION is better cushioned than half of the 5,002 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,002 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION
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 Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
70%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 39 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION: 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 BRAIN FOUNDATION?
- AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION (Minnesota) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $18,408,170 to it, the largest being SKYLIGHT CHARITABLE TRUST ($3,709,523). 47 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 111 organizations giving $18,408,170 in grants to AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION, 47 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION?
- SKYLIGHT CHARITABLE TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $3,709,523 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN BRAIN FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. 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 111 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