California · Nonprofit
SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC
SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC (California) receives grants from 87 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,483,780 to it, the largest being ALCON CARES INC ($1,810,174). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $15M
- Funders on record
- 87
- Grants received
- $7.5M
- Net assets
- $12M
What Surgical Eye Expeditions International Inc does
Mission
Surgical Eye Expeditions INTERNATIONAL, INC. is a nonprofit, humanitarian organization that provides medical, surgical, and educational services by volunteer ophthalmic surgeons with the primary goal of restoring sight to blind individuals worldwide.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
INTERNATIONAL VISION PROGRAMSEE International transforms lives by restoring sight to those in need. SEE envisions a world where everyone has access to vision care, regardless of who they are, where they live, or their ability to pay.Over the past 50 years, SEE has restored sight to more than half a million people around the world. In 2024, we normalized back from the COVID barriers of International travels by supporting 127 short term international programs (STIP), led by our volunteer network of doctors continuing in the mission of restoring sight. Our SEE volunteer teams, and international provider partners, performed more than 59,000 major eye surgeries and over 78,000 eye exams, in 34 countries.Care is provided at no cost to the patient. With immense gratitude for our valued donors, crucial volunteer medical teams, and global partners, SEE can continue to be an active organization in restoring sight globally and transforming lives, one surgery at a time. When preventable blindness is left untreated, independence is lost not only by the afflicted individual, but also by his or her family and caretakers. A 10 15-minute surgery can change many lives, and SEE is committed to…
$13,080,963 spent94% of program spendingSANTA BARBARA VISION CARE PROGRAMSEE serves its local community through its SEE Vision Care Program (SVC). In 2024, following a rebrand and a move to a new site location in Goleta, California over 7,000 residents of the central coast received free eye care from the program. Since the inception of the program, we have served more than 90,000 low-income, uninsured, or underinsured Santa Barbara County and Ventura County residents.In 2024, the SVC program reinforced the newly reinstated partnership with largest school district, to serve the state mandated grades with eye screenings. This partnership continued to prove the great need of the students in our service area. Our efforts to grow the local program continued with the addition of a Mobile Unit, bringing care to patients in need in Ventura County while moving our Goleta clinic to a space that allows for growth.The SVC program offers safety-net vision care services throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. In addition to providing eye exams, no-cost glasses, and eye drops, we offer specialty care services, that can include surgery through a network of local volunteer eye surgeons, for residents that have no other means of…
$528,640 spent$40,519 earned by the program4% of program spendingEDUCATION DIVISIONSEE offers hands on training on Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS); a low-cost, low tech form of cataract extraction that saves time, money, and energy, most commonly used in third world and remote areas, globally. Additionally, due to the nature of cataracts in areas where we work (hard, dense, and mature), surgeons are unable to use the same measures to remove the cataract that they would in the US. In 2006, we offered educational opportunities to ophthalmologists and residents in their final years of school through our training and in 2024, wecontinued focused efforts of supporting the training of international residents and community health care workers. We primarly focus training of the following, yet have expanded our training reach to support non-surgeons with a whole person mindset in eye care:- Level 1 MSICS courses: lecture and wet lab for those new to the technique. - Level 2 MSICS courses: supervised hands-on surgery in the field.We supported the training of 240 board-certified and resident trainees in 2024, and trained an additional 283 technicians, nurses and assistants. Throughout 2024, SEE continued to support the Vision 2020 LINKS-USA…
$308,728 spent2% of program spendingUnited States Domestic ProgramSEE's Domestic Programs provide essential and transformative eye care to low-income, uninsured patients right here in the United States. The program offers safety-net vision care services throughout the country for individuals who would not otherwise be able to receive the care they need. SEE has been able to assist thousands of patients of all ages to receive free comprehensive eye exams, glasses, medications, and eye surgeries since launching support of domestic programs. In2024, SEE supported over 500 people through our partnership with Federally Qualified Health Centers, with eye care supplies. SEE also continues to support eyecare needs, like our local program through our partnership in Brownville, Texas with Federally Qualified Health Center, Brownsville Health Center where 12 surgeries to non-insured or under-insured residents was performed.
$2,068 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $13,920,399.
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 $20M to $16M (−18%).
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 4% · 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (96% 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.
Chief executive
Donald W Bell
CEO
Board chair
Scott W Groff
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $96k → $1.9M.
15 of 87 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 87 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
SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
37% 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 SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 31% · 2019 18% · 2020 25% · 2021 15% · 2022 24% · 2023 47% — 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
63% of SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC draws 76% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 25 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC's funding base is broadening — from 11 funders to 40 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 363 international nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
35%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS 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 SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC?
- SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC (California) receives grants from 87 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,483,780 to it, the largest being ALCON CARES INC ($1,810,174). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC have?
- IRS filings report 87 organizations giving $7,483,780 in grants to SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC, 52 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC?
- ALCON CARES INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,810,174 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SURGICAL EYE EXPEDITIONS INTERNATIONAL INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Surgical Eye Expeditions International →
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 87 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