Maryland · Nonprofit
EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA (Maryland) receives grants from 312 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,695,103 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($1,442,762). 155 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 312
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $18M
What Epilepsy Foundation of America does
Mission
To improve the lives of peoples affected by epilepsy through education, advocacy, research, and connection.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Advocacy and services for individuals, families, and communities - designed to ensure that all people living with epilepsy and seizure disorders, and thier families and communities, receive the best possible services and care. The foundation develops nationwide programs available through its network of nearly fifty local epilepsy foundations and can also be found on epilepsy.com. Programs and initiatives focus on engaging parents, children and adults on improving their quality of life. The foundation also has programs dedicated to ending early death from epilepsy and improving overall wellness. The programs are designed to be culturally and ethnically diverse. The foundation and its grassroots volunteers across the country advocate at the federal and state levels to secure funding for epilepsy programs.
$10,433,192 spent$338,780 earned by the program72% of program spendingPublic health, education, and awareness - provides educational and supporting services that create and promote public awareness surrounding epilepsy. The program utilizes traditional and digital media channels including social media and through the direct mail program which serve the dual purpose of raising funds for the foundation and increasing awareness of the foundation's cause. The foundation educates through engagement with media sources, and partnerships with other non-profits and professional and government organizations. In addition, the foundation established the epilepsy learning healthcare system (elhs) network, which is a public health initiative to drive quality health services research to improve medical outcomes for people with epilepsy.
$2,739,509 spent$100,000 earned by the program19% of program spendingResearch, innovation, and new therapies - accelerates the development of innovative therapies, prevention, and cures for all forms of epilepsies, and seeks to address the gap in the research and commercialization continuum. The main objective is to develop an epilepsy research ecosystem that covers all parts of therapy, from idea to market. The foundation's research initiatives include: innovation programs that test new ideas and follow new research leads and engagement programs that improve communication between people with epilepsy, their families, advocates, researchers, and investors. Digital tools that support research infrastructure. Funding that supports young researchers to bring their ideas to life. Practice solutions to eradicate sudden and unexpected death in epilepsy (sudep).
$1,248,841 spentof which $327,949 as grants9% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,421,542.
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 2017 to 2018, from $15M to $22M (+45%).
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 20% · 2018 14% · 2019 19% · 2020 14% · 2021 19% · 2022 28% · 2023 24% · 2024 22% · 2025 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
104% of EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (7% 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
Bernice Lee
Chief executive officer
Board chair
Courtney Caputo
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 49 funders to 112 funders, grant income rose $485k → $1.9M.
37 of 312 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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: $67k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles). These are real filings, and they are not money EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA raised.
From the IRS filings of EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 312 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
EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 10% of grant income, and it takes 11 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 11 funders to its left
69% 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 EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 17% · 2019 17% · 2020 20% · 2021 13% · 2022 19% · 2023 13% — diversifying over time.
“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
42% of EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
53% of EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $6.9M that is directly attributable, 95% of it comes from funders outside Maryland, across 41 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 19 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
EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA receives grants from 312 organizations whose IRS filings report $15M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,969 health nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $32.6M on record — $32.6M federal, $19 state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$32.6M
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $19
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 EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
84%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Epilepsy Ventures Fund LLC · disregarded
- Epilepsy Reasearch Foundation · exempt
- Epilepsy Services of West Central Florida · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA: 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 EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA?
- EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA (Maryland) receives grants from 312 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,695,103 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($1,442,762). 155 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA have?
- IRS filings report 312 organizations giving $14,695,103 in grants to EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA, 155 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,442,762 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EPILEPSY FOUNDATION OF AMERICA find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 312 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