New Jersey · Nonprofit
Kessler Foundation Inc
Kessler Foundation Inc (New Jersey) receives grants from 80 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,646,425 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($4,067,000). 58 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $35M
- Funders on record
- 80
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $299M
What Kessler Foundation Inc does
Mission
Kessler Foundation advances rehabilitation research that leads to real-world solutions for people with disabilities, creating new possibilities for restoring function, promoting independence, and improving quality of life. We envision a world where people with disabilities have access to state-of-the-art rehabilitative care and community support to maximize their independence and live the lives they choose.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2025 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
During 2025, the Board of Trustees approved a strategic decision to conclude the Foundation's disability employment grantmaking program and concentrate organizational resources on rehabilitation research. This decision reflects the Foundation's commitment to its core mission of advancing rehabilitation research that leads to real-world solutions for people with disabilities. By focusing resources on scientific discovery, innovation, participant engagement, and the translation of research into practice, the Foundation seeks to maximize its impact on restoring function, promoting independence, and improving quality of life. The Foundation remains committed to improving the lives of people with disabilities through research that advances evidence-based interventions, technologies, and treatment approaches.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
Kessler Foundation conducts interdisciplinary rehabilitation research to improve function, independence, and quality of life for people with disabilities. The Foundation designs and evaluates interventions, technologies, and evidence-based approaches that address challenges associated with neurological, physical, cognitive, and developmental disabilities. Research findings are translated into practical solutions and disseminated to clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and the public to improve outcomes and advance evidence-based practice. Through collaboration with healthcare organizations, academic institutions, industry partners, and community organizations, the Foundation advances innovative research that improves the lives of people with disabilities.
$27,703,019 spent$238,228 earned by the program99% of program spendingKessler Foundation conducts applied rehabilitation research focused on spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, autism, aging, and other neurological and developmental disabilities. Through clinical studies, technology development, and community-based research, the Foundation advances interventions and strategies that improve mobility, cognition, function, independence, and participation in daily life. Research findings are disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, scientific presentations, professional education, and public outreach to accelerate the adoption of evidence-based practices and improve outcomes for people with disabilities. The Foundation conducts research with participants from New Jersey and across the United States through both in-person and remote research opportunities, including telestudies. Its participant engagement program helps connect individuals with disabilities to studies that address real-world challenges and accelerate scientific discovery. By expanding access to research participation and incorporating the perspectives of people with lived experience, the Foundation advances the development of interventions and…
$204,000 spentof which $204,000 as grants1% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $27,907,019.
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 2021 to 2022, from $316M to $261M (−17%).
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 40% · 2018 38% · 2019 33% · 2020 56% · 2021 26% · 2022 51% · 2023 27% · 2024 33% · 2025 33%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
55% of Kessler Foundation Inc’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Rodger L Derose
President and CEO
Board chair
Michael A Saffer Esq
Chair - trustee
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $1.8M → $3.9M.
14 of 80 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of Kessler Foundation Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 80 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
Kessler Foundation Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
67% 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 Kessler Foundation Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 47% · 2019 47% · 2020 35% · 2021 29% · 2022 33% · 2023 52% — 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
40% of Kessler Foundation Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
Kessler Foundation Inc draws 87% of its grant income from funders outside New Jersey, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
Kessler Foundation Inc has grown faster than half of the 2,396 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,396 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Kessler Foundation Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $77.7M on record — $57.3M federal, $20.5M state.
- Department of Health and Human Services$41.5M
- Department of Defense$14.7M
- Department of Commerce$963k
- Department of Veterans Affairs$166k
- DEDICATED$16.8M
- TRUST FUND$3.1M
- FEDERAL$521k
- GRANT IN AID$2k
- DIRECT STATE SERVICES - NON-SALARY$726
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 Kessler Foundation 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 New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 7 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Kessler Foundation 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 Kessler Foundation Inc?
- Kessler Foundation Inc (New Jersey) receives grants from 80 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,646,425 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($4,067,000). 58 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Kessler Foundation Inc have?
- IRS filings report 80 organizations giving $17,646,425 in grants to Kessler Foundation Inc, 58 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Kessler Foundation Inc?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $4,067,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Kessler Foundation Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. 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 80 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