Virginia · Nonprofit
ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH
ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH (Virginia) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,624,508 to it, the largest being JEWELERS FOR CHILDREN ($595,000). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 113
- Grants received
- $3.6M
- Net assets
- $3.0M
What Organization for Autism Research does
Mission
To fund research and educate individuals and the general public about autism by providing evidence-based information drawn from research in various forms and forums: webinars, outreach, printed materials, website, electronic forums, social media, and a monthly e-newsletter.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Information: informed and provided evidence-based resources for parents, families, educators, and other consumers in the autism community. The major components are: oar's web site, www.researchautism.org; the oaracle, oar's monthly e-newsletter; the "life journey through autism" series, consisting of nine community-friendly autism resource guides; the military families initiative, operation autism, www.operationautism.org; the "autism in the school house; and hire autism adult employment initiatives.
$1,021,787 spentof which $51,103 as grants$7,943 earned by the program53% of program spendingResearch: research encompassed the work of oar's scientific council as it pertains to the direction and selection of oar-funded research studies, funding research and general oversight of the research program.
$527,646 spentof which $226,719 as grants27% of program spendingEducation: formal structured educational forums and formats, such as conferences, seminars, and workshops on a specific topic or theme and web-based or printed materials designed along the same lines, and college/vocational scholarships for autistic individuals. During this fiscal year, oar continued its webinar program to provide autism research and subject matter experts presenting on topics of high interest to the autism community.
$392,534 spentof which $252,532 as grants20% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,941,967.
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 2019 to 2020, from $2.1M to $3.0M (+44%).
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: 2021 8% · 2022 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
105% of ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH’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
Kristen Essex
Executive director, secretary
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 45 funders, grant income rose $143k → $560k.
18 of 113 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 41% 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 ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 113 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
ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
60% 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 ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 70% · 2018 43% · 2019 28% · 2020 28% · 2021 21% · 2022 24% · 2023 19% — 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
36% of ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% 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
ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH draws 97% of its grant income from funders outside Virginia, across 26 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters 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 ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH
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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH: 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 ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH?
- ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH (Virginia) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,624,508 to it, the largest being JEWELERS FOR CHILDREN ($595,000). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH have?
- IRS filings report 113 organizations giving $3,624,508 in grants to ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH, 50 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH?
- JEWELERS FOR CHILDREN is the largest funder on record, with $595,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ORGANIZATION FOR AUTISM RESEARCH 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 113 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