Massachusetts · Nonprofit
Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc
Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,266,393 to it, the largest being THE GILBERT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($3,013,751). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2018
- $29M
- Funders on record
- 49
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $17M
What Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc does
Mission
Description of organization mission the schepens eye research institute ("schepens") fights blindness by developing new technologies, therapies and knowledge to retain and restore vision. Through a continuum of discovery, the institute works toward a future in which blindness is prevented, alleviated and ultimately cured.
As stated on its FY2018 Form 990.
Program
The Institute has research at every stage of development from the critical new ideas that are changing the way researchers around the world look at the future of treatment, to products in late-stage clinical trials, set to make an immediate impact on the lives of people struggling with vision-robbing diseases and injuries. The Institute has made tremendous progress in developing new cures for macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, other types of retinal and optic nerve degenerations and damage, dry eye and eye tissue transplants. There have also been great strides made in the development of new technologies - new lenses and devices - to help those with low vision make the absolute most out of the vision they have until we can reverse vision loss.
The first program described on its most recent Form 990, which lists programs largest first by expense.
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 2017 to 2018, from $61M to $82M (+34%).
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 73% · 2018 63%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
74% of Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (7% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 2 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 broadened from 13 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $882k → $1.9M.
4 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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: $3.3M from 9 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Foundation of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc raised.
From the IRS filings of Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 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
Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% 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
49% 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 Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 33% · 2019 48% · 2020 18% · 2021 20% · 2022 44% · 2023 58% — 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
26% of Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc draws 78% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $502k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc has grown faster than three-quarters of the 3,815 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,815 health nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2018
Government funding Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $151.9M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$128.3M
- Department of Defense$23.6M
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 Schepens Eye Research Institute 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
92%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 17 related entities
- Fnd of the Mass Eye & Ear Infirmary Inc · exempt
- Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary · exempt
- Massachusetts Eye and Ear AssociatesInC · exempt
- Embankment Services Inc · exempt
- Circle Company Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Schepens Eye Research Institute 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 Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc?
- Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc (Massachusetts) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,266,393 to it, the largest being THE GILBERT FAMILY FOUNDATION ($3,013,751). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $14,266,393 in grants to Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc?
- THE GILBERT FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,013,751 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Schepens Eye Research Institute Inc find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 FY2018 (financials across 2017–2018), and the filings of 49 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