National Industries for the Blind
Alexandria, VA · EIN 13-5596799. Reported 111 grants totalling $3,997,701 to 50 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
- How spread out its giving is. 50 distinct organizations, with 25% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 57% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $30,000. Half of what it reported fell between $11,209 and $40,000; the smallest was $5,137 and the largest $603,281. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Career | Alexandria, VA | $1,000,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Industries of the Blind Inc | Greensboro, NC | $211,600 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind Inc | Winston Salem, NC | $205,163 | 6 | 5 | 2024 |
| Beyond Vision Inc | West Allis, WI | $171,784 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Lighthouse for the Blind Inc | Seattle, WA | $160,320 | 5 | 4 | 2023 |
| Cincinnati Association for the Blind | Cincinnati, OH | $160,286 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Central Association for the Blind Inc | Utica, NY | $143,528 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind | San Antonio, TX | $142,839 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind Inc | Farmers Brnch, TX | $130,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Newview Oklahoma Inc | Oklahoma City, OK | $127,963 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Lions Volunteer Blind Industries Inc | Morristown, TN | $127,221 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Travis Association for the Blind | Austin, TX | $91,775 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Tarrant County Association for the Blind | Ft Worth, TX | $88,655 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Chicago Lighthouse Industries | Chicago, IL | $88,018 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Keystone Vocational Services Inc | Hermitage, PA | $78,363 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Lighthouse for the Blind in New Orleans | New Orleans, LA | $76,619 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired | San Francisco, CA | $70,548 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Alphapointe | Kansas City, MO | $66,071 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Northeastern Association of the Blind at Albany Inc | Albany, NY | $61,066 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Goodwill of the Finger Lakes Inc | Rochester, NY | $57,128 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Association for Vision Rehabilitation and Employment Inc | Binghamton, NY | $52,202 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Visionserve Alliance Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Lions Industries for the Blind Inc | Kinston, NC | $48,491 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| West Texas Lighthouse for the Blind | San Angelo, TX | $48,225 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Bestwork Industries for the Blind Inc | Cherry Hill, NJ | $47,737 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Mississippi Industries for the Blind Inc | Jackson, MS | $43,478 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind Foundation Inc | Talladega, AL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Envision Industries Inc | Wichita, KS | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Industries for the Blind and Visually Impaired Inc | West Allis, WI | $39,075 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| North Central Sight Services Inc | Williamsport, PA | $36,412 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Beyond Vision-Aib Inc | West Allis, WI | $30,214 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Bosma Industries for the Blind Inc | Indianapolis, IN | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Georgia Industries for the Blind | Bainbridge, GA | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Outlook-Nebraska Inc | Omaha, NE | $29,287 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Beacon Lighthouse Inc | Wichita Falls, TX | $19,125 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Visioncorps | Lancaster, PA | $16,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| L C Ind Inc | Durham, NC | $16,050 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Lions Services Inc | Charlotte, NC | $15,786 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| South Texas Lighthouse for the Blind | Corp Christi, TX | $15,375 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Valley Center for the Blind | Fresno, CA | $11,209 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| L C Industries Foundation | Durham, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Louisiana Assn for the Blind Inc | Shreveport, LA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Alexandria Chamber of Commerce | Alexandria, VA | $9,250 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Lighthouse Works Inc | Orlando, FL | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| East Texas Lighthouse for the Blind Inc | Tyler, TX | $8,100 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lighthouse for the Blind | Saint Louis, MO | $8,100 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lighthouse of Broward County Inc | Sunrise, FL | $7,200 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| American Council of the Blind Inc | Alexandria, VA | $6,460 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Lions Services Inc | Charlotte, NC | $5,978 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Blind Industries & Services of Maryland | Baltimore, MD | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
30 of 50 (60%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Core Career Dba Nsite
TRAINING PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT - Envision Dallas
PRODUCTIVITY, TRAINING AND COMPENSATION - San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind
PRODUCTIVITY, TRAINING, AND COMPLIANCE GRANT - Ifb Solutions
PRODUCTIVITY, TRAINING AND COMPLIANCE - Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired
PRODUCTIVITY, TRAINING, COMPLIANCE, AND MENTORING GRANT - Georgia Industries for the Blind
PRODUCTIVITY, TRAINING, AND COMPLIANCE
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 34 of 50 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 29 | $930,903 | $38,655 |
| 2021 | 16 | $1,141,769 | $41,906 |
| 2022 | 25 | $1,001,246 | $32,001 |
| 2023 | 17 | $417,893 | $30,000 |
| 2024 | 24 | $505,890 | $18,535 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
25% of its giving went to organizations in Virginia. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $30,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Virginia.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from National Industries for the Blind's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 26 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 3000 Potomac Avenue, Alexandria, VA, 22305.
EIN 13-5596799 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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