Ohio · Nonprofit
THE CURE STARTS NOW INC
THE CURE STARTS NOW INC (Ohio) receives grants from 118 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,319,147 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($1,366,834). 57 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.4M
- Funders on record
- 118
- Grants received
- $7.3M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What The Cure Starts Now Inc does
Mission
To educate, aid, and fund cures for cancer, starting first with pediatric brain cancer
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
In its efforts to focus on those cancers that present the greatest opportunities for an encompassing cancer cure, the foundation annually awards research grants to institutions and medical professionals. Typically, grants awarded have a focus on pediatric brain cancers, as this was the origin of the foundation's philosophy. Grant applications will be judged on a peer-reviewed basis with the foundation's medical advisory council, which is comprised of top oncologists and researchers from around the world, as well as parent advocates. Grants are judged based on multiple criteria including scientific merit, disease impact, innovation, feasibility, and expertise of the investigator.
$5,076,088 spentof which $5,036,883 as grants68% of program spendingFamily support and awareness funds provide emotional support, mechanisms to honor their child's legacy and other assistance for families battling pediatric cancer. This includes information websites, trial discovery tools, patient assistance and programs to feature patients with the intention of builing local support and awareness.
$1,551,816 spent21% of program spendingThe brain cancer symposium (formerly dipg/dmg/medulloblastoma symposium) is the world's foremost and largest international medical research conference focusing on diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (dipg), diffuse midline glioma (dmg) and medulloblastoma. Researchers, doctors, families and foundations come from across the globe to participate in this innovative event. The biennial symposium originated in 2011 and has continued to grow over the years. In 2025 in banff british columbia, canada, more than 200 of the leading experts, researchers and doctors in dipg, dmg, and medulloblastoma attended. The brain cancer symposium brings the researchers, doctors, foundations and families together in this collaborative event is a unique approach to creating and funding new and innovative research.
$878,880 spent12% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,506,784.
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 2022 to 2023, from $2.6M to $4.1M (+57%).
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 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
79% of THE CURE STARTS NOW INC’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. 3 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
Brooke Desserich
CEO & treasurer
Board chair
Keith Desserich
Chairman of the board
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 25 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $361k → $1.3M.
22 of 118 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 CURE STARTS NOW INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 118 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 CURE STARTS NOW INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% 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
86% 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 CURE STARTS NOW INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 52% · 2019 15% · 2020 57% · 2021 27% · 2022 18% · 2023 31% — 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 THE CURE STARTS NOW INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 48% 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
53% of THE CURE STARTS NOW 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 $3.4M that is directly attributable, 83% of it comes from funders outside Ohio, across 31 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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 CURE STARTS NOW INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 8,126 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 8,126 health nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding THE CURE STARTS NOW INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $375 on record.
- REFUNDS - GENERAL $375
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 CURE STARTS NOW 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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 37 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE CURE STARTS NOW 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 CURE STARTS NOW INC?
- THE CURE STARTS NOW INC (Ohio) receives grants from 118 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,319,147 to it, the largest being MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC ($1,366,834). 57 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE CURE STARTS NOW INC have?
- IRS filings report 118 organizations giving $7,319,147 in grants to THE CURE STARTS NOW INC, 57 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CURE STARTS NOW INC?
- MORGAN STANLEY GLOBAL IMPACT FUNDING TRUST INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,366,834 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CURE STARTS NOW INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 118 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