New York · Nonprofit
PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC
PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC (New York) receives grants from 155 organizations whose IRS filings report $53,789,705 to it, the largest being FILKINS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($22,870,998). 91 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $323M
- Funders on record
- 155
- Grants received
- $54M
- Net assets
- $70M
What Project Orbis International Inc does
Mission
Orbis works around the world to prevent blindness and restore sight for people in places where eye care is out of reach, ensuring vision impairment does not adversely affect whether people can learn, work, or thrive overall. With the right care, 90% of vision loss is avoidable, so we train eye care professionals to provide quality care in their communities and help people of all ages access the exams, glasses, medicine, and surgeries they need. Through our flying eye hospital, partnerships with hospitals and clinics worldwide, and innovative technologies to improve patient care, we are making eye care available where it's needed most.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Orbis international is a global nonprofit organization working to ensure that everyone everywhere has access to quality eye care. More than 1.1 billion people worldwide live with vision loss, and approximately 90 percent of vision impairment is preventable or treatable. Yet millions of people continue to face barriers to care due to poverty, geography, shortages of trained health workers, limited access to technology, and weak health systems. Orbis works alongside governments, hospitals, universities, professional associations, community organizations, and private-sector partners to strengthen eye care systems and build sustainable solutions that improve health, educational opportunity, economic productivity, and quality of life. In 2025, orbis implemented 82 projects with 385 partners across 10 countries in africa, asia, and latin america. Thirty-nine projects were newly launched, representing the highest level of program growth in the organization's portfolio over the past five years. More importantly, 2025 marked a significant evolution in how orbis designs, delivers, and scales its work. The organization continued its shift from individual projects toward integrated, scalable…
$296,568,243 spentof which $8,872,143 as grants$290,034 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $296,568,243.
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 $70M to $78M (+11%).
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 77% · 2018 79% · 2019 87% · 2020 80% · 2021 87% · 2022 64% · 2023 82% · 2024 79% · 2025 79%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
John P Howitt
Chairman, director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 30 funders to 57 funders, grant income rose $224k → $5.9M.
25 of 155 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 155 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
PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
41% 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 PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 31% · 2019 31% · 2020 42% · 2021 42% · 2022 79% · 2023 56% — 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
31% of PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC draws 70% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 30 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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
PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC has grown faster than half of the 59 international nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 59 international nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Organizations like PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL 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 York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL 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 PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC?
- PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC (New York) receives grants from 155 organizations whose IRS filings report $53,789,705 to it, the largest being FILKINS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($22,870,998). 91 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 155 organizations giving $53,789,705 in grants to PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC, 91 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC?
- FILKINS FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $22,870,998 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PROJECT ORBIS INTERNATIONAL INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Project Orbis International →
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 155 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