Helen Keller Intl
Legal name: Helen Keller International
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 135562162
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 2125320544
- Rating
- 82
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- International Development
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $120,225,051
- Expenses
- $115,343,527
- Assets
- $166,255,533
- Liabilities
- $42,496,521
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
49 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SARAH BOUCHIE (PRESIDENT & CEO - CURRENT)
- ROLF KLEMM (VICE PRESIDENT - NUTRITION)
- NICHOLAS KOURGIALIS (VICE PRESIDENT - EYEHEALTH FORMER)
Highest reported compensation
- SARAH BOUCHIE (PRESIDENT & CEO - CURRENT): $450,270 total reported compensation
- JAMES D COX (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER - UNTIL SEP 2024): $306,651 total reported compensation
- SUSAN KOTCHER (VP, EXTERNAL RELATIONS): $301,932 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Mission, Vision and Values Our Mission Guided by our founder’s remarkable legacy, Helen Keller Intl works to improve the lives of people around the world by protecting vision, enhancing nutrition, and fighting disease. Guided by our founder’s remarkable legacy, Helen Keller Intl works to improve the lives of people around the world by protecting vision, enhancing nutrition, and fighting disease. Our Vision. Demonstrated empathy for the people we serve – clients, partners, donors, and colleagues. We build on mutual respect and a deliberate focus on inclusiveness, responsiveness, and collaboration. Who We Are What We Do.
What it reported doing in 2024
Neglected tropical diseases: neglected tropical diseases including blinding trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, river blindness, schistosomiasis, and intestinal worms impact more than 1 billion people globally. These mainly parasitic, viral, or bacterial diseases that can cause a host of painful physical disabilities, lost economic opportunities, and social stigma are most prevalent in lower income countries that lack adequate healthcare. Helen keller intl partners with ministries of health, local leaders, and communities to prevent, treat, and eliminate these neglected diseases. A cornerstone of the work involves mass drug administration events where community health workers distribute critical medications to both treat and curb the spread of these diseases. During 2025 alone, we worked with ministries of health to treat more than 32.3 million individuals for at least one of these five diseases in seven african countries (burkina faso, cameroon, guinea, mali, niger, nigeria and sierra leone), contributing greatly to national efforts towards their control and elimination. Helen keller is also involved in morbidity management and disability prevention related specifically to trachoma and lymphatic filariasis and is working to build the capacity of national government and partner organizations in this area in five african countries (mali, niger, nigeria, sierra leone and tanzania). In 2025, we screened more than 1.6 million individuals for trachoma and supported surgery for over 2,400 people affected by a blinding condition resulting from trachoma (trichiasis). The combination of these helen keller-supported efforts has led to the great success of mali eliminating trachoma as a public health problem in 2023 and niger eliminating onchocerciasis in 2025; other countries continue to make progress in this direction with trachoma, lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 79% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 78% for direct work, and 22% for grants.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 79
- Transparency & Controls: 76
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 50
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 79.6%; rating input score 80
- Program expense ratio: 81.8%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $24.73 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 62; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 1 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 12
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Fail
- Conducts field audits: Fail
- May suspend future funding: Fail
- Requires financial reports: Fail
- Conducts site visits: Fail
- Requires grant agreements: Fail
- May require repayment: Fail
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 4.1%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.44; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.26; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 3.9%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.9% per year; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 12.8% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 5 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 79.6% of revenue deployed · 81.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 30 of 30 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $94.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $450K · 49 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $830K reported
- Consistency: 40 of 41 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 11 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 22 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 6 filed related-organization links
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 7 of 8 not reported.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 52/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.