Massachusetts · Nonprofit
THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC
THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $423,306 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($133,700). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.3M
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $423k
- Net assets
- $5.5M
What The Boston Foundation for Sight Inc does
Mission
Our mission is to improve quality of life by transforming the understanding, treatment, and care of the ocular surface.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Boston foundation for sight, d/b/a bostonsight, is a world renowned nonprofit eye health care organization. Our mission is to improve quality of life by transforming the understanding, treatment, and care of the ocular surface. Since 1992 we have restored sight to thousands of patients from around the world. Prosthetic replacement of the ocular surface ecosystem (prose) is an integrated and iterative treatment pioneered by bostonsight that restores visual function, supports healing, reduces symptoms and improves quality of life for patients suffering with ocular surface disease. Bostonsight prose uses fda cleared custom designed and fabricated prosthetic devices to replace or support impaired ocular surface system functions.
$4,215,975 spent$4,712,264 earned by the program88% of program spendingBostonsight's clinical experience in ocular surface disease creates the necessary foundation for driving research and ultimately innovation in the design and application of scleral lenses for improving quality of life for patients around the world. The organization's prospective clinical research program is unique as we draw from our history of direct patient care, aiming to solve new clinical challenges with direct in-house access to engineering, software design and our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. In 2018, bostonsight was named the number one contributor to scleral lens peer-reviewed publications; and in 2021, an analysis in contact lens and anterior eye listed bostonsight as the most impactful institution in scleral lens publications.
$367,046 spent8% of program spendingOne of bostonsight's core values is to expand knowledge and education to empower practitioners to elevate the standard of care for patients. We believe by sharing knowledge, we will move the industry forward. Optometrists and ophthalmologists worldwide have come to bostonsight for in-person education at our clinic. This has ranged from clinical rotations to research opportunities to completing our intensive prose clinical training program, which addresses the most advanced cases of ocular surface diseases. Fitacademy events are some of bostonsight's most recognized educational programs. Fitacademy offers optometrists expert training in fitting and handling scleral lenses in both a didactic and experiential setting. The training combines bostonsight's 30 years of clinical experience with the expertise of the industry's top professionals. Beginning in 2024, we collaborated with our partners in latin america and held our first global education program.
$207,923 spent$77,464 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,790,944.
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 $7.5M to $10M (+39%).
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: 2020 15% · 2021 11% · 2023 2% · 2024 2% · 2025 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
5% of THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (81% 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
Sara Yost
President & CEO
Board chair
Pamela J Anderson Esq
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $37k → $68k.
5 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 58% 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 THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 12 of 13 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
THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
58% 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 THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 36% · 2019 32% · 2020 46% · 2021 47% · 2022 47% · 2023 37% — 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
63% of THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
58% of THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $180k that is directly attributable, 62% of it comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $244k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC is better cushioned than half of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $60k on record — $60k federal, $406 state.
- Department of Defense$49k
- Department of Veterans Affairs$11k
- DEDICATED$406
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 THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT 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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
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 1 related entity
- Bostonsight Specialty Lenses Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT 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 THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC?
- THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $423,306 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($133,700). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 58% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $423,306 in grants to THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT INC?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $133,700 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE BOSTON FOUNDATION FOR SIGHT 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.
Play a game about who funds Boston Foundation for Sight →
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 13 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing