Virginia · Nonprofit
AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC
AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC (Virginia) receives grants from 159 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,184,542 to it, the largest being GORDON AND LLURA GUND FOUNDATION ($1,773,500). 100 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.8M
- Funders on record
- 159
- Grants received
- $10M
- Net assets
- $40M
What American Foundation for the Blind Inc does
Mission
The mission of the american foundation for the blind afb is to create equal opportunities and expand possibilities through advocacy thought leadership and strategic partnerships.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education and training - for 25 years accessworld has served as a vital source for consumers and developers on valuable insight and information encompassing accessible technology for people who are blind or have low vision. The free quarterly online magazine and monthly podcast publishes relevant content at the intersection of disability and technology with the aim to make the world more accessible for all. The afb talent lab continued to provide accessibility consulting services to entities ranging from nonprofit organizations to fortune 500 companies with services ranging from web and mobile accessibility audits remediation advisory best practices and training in disability inclusion. The afb talent lab also continued to close the industrywide accessibility skills gap by training people with disabilities through a registered apprenticeship in project management with an accessibility and digital inclusion specialty. Additionally the afb talent lab worked with comdputer science students across the country through a multi-phased student internship program in digital inclusion.
$1,430,245 spentof which $29,500 as grants$137,149 earned by the program35% of program spendingKnowledge building & information dissemination - through research and data we understand complex problems and identify appropriate solutions. Prioritizing a consumer-centered approach with scalable impact afb is pursuing and catalyzing forward-looking knowledge generation on key issues facing people who are blind or have low vision by fostering collaborations with institutions of higher education and other research organizations and by conducting independent research. Priority issue areas may include but are not limited to policy research and applied research in education; meaningful employment and social and economic mobility; rehabilitation services; aging and vision loss; demographic trends; and technology. In fy2025 afb published a white paper highlighting findings from an expert consensus study on how ai is likely to impact the lives of people with disabilities. The white paper included a set of guiding principles for more disability-inclusive ai. We began designing a survey assessing how americans with and without disabilities are using ai and how ai is impacting their lives. Finally we hosted three research webinars to educate people about our research and how they can…
$1,457,195 spentof which $40,000 as grants$82,020 earned by the program36% of program spendingResearch advocacy and public support - afb is working to ensure that policymakers business leaders professional communities and public interest advocates understand the key trends challenges and opportunities facing people who are blind or have low vision for the purposes of changing attitudes and transforming institutional practice. The afb public policy and research institute ppri collaborates with policymakers in congress and the executive branch as well as corporate partners to ensure americans who are blind or have low vision have equal rights and opportunities to fully participate in society. Afbs advocacy strategy is backed by researchers and experts with professional and personal lived experience with blindness. In fy 2025 afb focused on advocacy to make technology and transportation more accessible and usable. Working closely with coalition partners in the transportation space ppri raised concerns about autonomous vehicle accessibility and pedestrian access and participated in efforts to produce accessible guidelines and data collection. Ppri continued to advocate for technology and digital communications accessibility through legislation and responding to federal…
$1,199,929 spent$70,418 earned by the program29% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,087,369.
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 2023 to 2024, from $29M to $35M (+22%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 4% · 2018 3% · 2019 2% · 2020 10% · 2021 7% · 2022 0% · 2023 3% · 2025 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
82% of AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Eric Bridges
President and chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 35 funders to 68 funders, grant income rose $249k → $1.0M.
16 of 159 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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: $2.1M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Afb Special Fund Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC raised.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 159 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 FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 20% · 2019 20% · 2020 18% · 2021 53% · 2022 45% · 2023 25% — 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
43% of AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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 FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 31 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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 FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $815 on record.
- Subscriptions$815
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC
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 Virginia
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
63%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 49 states
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Helen Keller S Daring Adventure LLC · disregarded
- Afb Special Fund Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC: 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 FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC?
- AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC (Virginia) receives grants from 159 organizations whose IRS filings report $10,184,542 to it, the largest being GORDON AND LLURA GUND FOUNDATION ($1,773,500). 100 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC have?
- IRS filings report 159 organizations giving $10,184,542 in grants to AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC, 100 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC?
- GORDON AND LLURA GUND FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,773,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Virginia. 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 159 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