Illinois · Nonprofit
Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation
Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (Illinois) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,521,344 to it, the largest being MUSCULOSKELETAL TRANSPLANT FOUNDATION INC ($1,014,370). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.7M
- Funders on record
- 58
- Grants received
- $7.5M
- Net assets
- $17M
What Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation does
Mission
The Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF) mission is improving lives by supporting excellence in orthopaedic research. OREF's vision is that it will be the leader in supporting orthopaedic research to improve function, eliminate pain and restore mobility.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Grant program: The purpose of OREF is to support research into the causes and treatment of musculoskeletal diseases and injuries. OREF's niche is supporting surgeon-researchers and PHD-researchers in basic science/translation, clinical, and health services research.
$4,941,000 spentof which $3,092,451 as grants100% of program spendingOREF's education program offers new orthopaedic medical researchers the opportunity to develop their research interests and skills. Through educational programming, OREF supports emerging talent to help them successfully pursue research careers.
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,941,000.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $26M to $22M (−14%).
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 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (51% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 28 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $795k → $1.5M.
14 of 58 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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: $250k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons); $20k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation raised.
From the IRS filings of Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 58 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
Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% 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
85% 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 Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 22% · 2019 32% · 2020 19% · 2021 36% · 2022 21% · 2023 30% — 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
45% of Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation draws 85% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 21 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
Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation's funding has concentrated — grant income rose while the number of funders held roughly flat.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,002 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
77%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 43 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Charitable Remainder Trusts · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation: 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 Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation?
- Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (Illinois) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,521,344 to it, the largest being MUSCULOSKELETAL TRANSPLANT FOUNDATION INC ($1,014,370). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 58 organizations giving $7,521,344 in grants to Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation?
- MUSCULOSKELETAL TRANSPLANT FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,014,370 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 2018–2025), and the filings of 58 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