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Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit

NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM

NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,581,117 to it, the largest being GORDON E AND BETTY I MOORE FOUNDATION ($5,926,625). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$8.2M
Funders on record
16
Grants received
$6.6M
Net assets
$6.7M
8/16 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 20%
01What it does

What National Quality Forum does

Mission

The mission of National Quality Forum (nqf) is to be the trusted voice driving measurable health improvements. Nqf was founded in 1999 as a not-for-profit-membership-based organization in response to the president's advisory commission on consumer protection and quality in the healthcare industry, which called for an organization to lead quality measurement as a formal consensus-based entity (cbe). Nqf is a trusted convener that operates consistently as a cbe governed by a consumer-purchaser majority board. Nqf brings together diverse organizations and individuals from across all categories of stakeholders in the healthcare field including patients, caregivers, hospitals, healthcare systems, clinicians, payers, employers, and policy makers. With extensive experience identifying and developing consensus strategies to address barriers to measure development, use, and implementation, nqf forges novel partnerships to advance measures that lower measurement burden.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Quality programs innovation and measurement: nqf develops and advances quality innovation strategies through collaboration with its members and other stakeholders. Nqf aims to expand the organization's impact on health improvements through a variety of partnerships and projects. Nqf's programmatic work impacts participating organizations, proposed legislation, and the measurement science and application landscape. Participating organizations often learn about leading practices and apply the insights they gain to programs and processes at their organizations to drive improvement in the field. This work connects to quality measurement work to amplify nqf's impact in the healthcare ecosystem. Resources developed as part of past programmatic work including playbooks and implementation guides that highlight best practices and lessons learned on a variety of topics and are designed to help stakeholders, including consumers, front-line clinicians, and healthcare executives improve healthcare quality measurement and implementation. Nqf sets standards for healthcare quality measures based on evidence and innovation to make care better for all people. Healthcare quality measures establish…

    $5,109,140 spent$28,158 earned by the program
    66% of program spending
  2. Membership: the National Quality Forum is a organization that brings together diverse organizations and individuals from across the country dedicated to improving health and healthcare through quality measurement. Comprised of more than 3,000 individuals who are part of more than 150 member organizations, nqf members are an active community of patients, caregivers, hospitals, healthcare systems, clinicians, payers, and employers who come together to advance the next generation of measures, methods, and practices and scale their implementation to achieve better healthcare outcomes for all. Nqf is the leading source of learning and knowledge for the quality measurement community and provides resources, education, and ideas to advance the mission of driving measurable health improvement together. Nqf provides its members with the platform to share their time and expertise to provide input on issues of national importance and to learn from and collaborate with each other.

    $1,568,572 spent
    20% of program spending
  3. Shared services: National Quality Forum provides common management services, referred to as shared services fees, of the activities carried on for related organizations. See schedule r for list of related organizations.

    $1,044,026 spent$1,044,026 earned by the program
    14% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,721,738.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($23M) Expenses 100 ($21M) Net assets 100 ($14M)2019 Revenue 101 ($23M) Expenses 94 ($20M) Net assets 132 ($19M)2020 Revenue 95 ($22M) Expenses 93 ($20M) Net assets 151 ($22M)2021 Revenue 89 ($21M) Expenses 101 ($21M) Net assets 148 ($21M)2022 Revenue 78 ($18M) Expenses 98 ($21M) Net assets 125 ($18M)2023 Revenue 41 ($9.4M) Expenses 76 ($16M) Net assets 78 ($11M)2024 Revenue 36 ($8.2M) Expenses 58 ($12M) Net assets 47 ($6.7M)
2017201920202021202220232024
Revenue (36)Expenses (58)Net assets (47)Peer revenue range

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 $28M to $45M (+58%).

$22M
$28M
$30M
$28M
$45M
$34M
$25M
2017201920202021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 70% · 2019 67% · 2020 75% · 2021 76% · 2022 77% · 2023 51% · 2024 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

72% of NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (51% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 8,611 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$2.1M
’17
$3.4M
’19
$2.4M
’20
−$556k
’21
−$2.6M
’22
−$6.5M
’23
−$3.8M
’24
11
months of
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

Dana Gelb Safran ScD

President & CEO

Board chair

Susan B Frampton PhD FPCC

Chair

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.

2017201920202021202220232024
Listed38373431333525
Joined··+12+8+11+17+7
No longer listed··151191517
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 6 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $783k → $1.2M.

1 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM’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

NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 90% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

90%
largest funder
94%
top three
~1
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 91% · 2018 31% · 2019 76% · 2020 42% · 2021 53% · 2022 100% · 2023 91% — 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.

How long its funders stay

25% of NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 7 states in all.

IL
NY
CT
CA
MO
VA
DC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Washington, D.C. out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $55k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 8,121 health nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−47% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve10.5mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−14% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 8,121 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Government funding NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $82.0M on record — $81.9M federal, $38k state.

Federal$81.9M
grants $0contracts $81.9M
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Top agencies
  • Department of Health and Human Services$81.5M
  • Department of Veterans Affairs$315k
  • Department of Defense$95k
State$38k
06
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
By state
  • MA$38k
  • NJ$250

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 NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM

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 Washington, D.C.

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

64% of spending goes to programs.

Program 64%Management 36%Fundraising 0%

Governance

15
board members
87%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

98%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

DC

Part of a family of 2 related entities

  • Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hc · exempt
  • Joint Commission Resources Inc · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM?
NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,581,117 to it, the largest being GORDON E AND BETTY I MOORE FOUNDATION ($5,926,625). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM have?
IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $6,581,117 in grants to NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM?
GORDON E AND BETTY I MOORE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $5,926,625 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like NATIONAL QUALITY FORUM find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

Play a game about who funds National Quality Forum →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 16 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing