National Council On Severe Autism

What it reported doing in 2025

Policy & Advocacy: In 2025, NCSA strengthened its policy infrastructure and expanded its National Grassroots Network (NGN), nearing 2,000 members nationwide. NCSA hired its first Legal and Policy Fellow for the 202526 academic year. The NGN held monthly meetings for state chairs to address national issues, while state chapters convened virtually to discuss state-specific priorities. NCSA held its first D.C. fly-in event, with 131 advocates representing 30 states holding more than 150 meetings with congressional offices. NCSA conducted a national survey of family caregivers of individuals with severe autism and published the results via webinar and also PDF on our website. In September, NCSA held its first Voices for the Voiceless Advocacy Week, which included 4.5 hours of online pre-training. 162 participants took part, meeting with legislators in an accessible format. The organization is continuing plans for the 2026 in-person fly-in in July and two virtual fly-ins in the spring and fall. NCSA launched its book club for social engagement and civics/advocacy training in 2025 with 30 registrants in the spring and 42 registrants in the fall. Multiple chapters participated in advanced advocacy at the state level, including testifying at legislative hearings, drafting and promoting specific legislation, and participating in multi-group disability conferences. State chapters have made significant progress on caregiver support, group home safety, and health care access. NCSA onboarded new national leadership volunteers as coordinators in Community Engagement, Government Affairs, Public Relations, Development and Digital Content. NCSA leadership continues to engage in targeted meetings with ACL, HHS, NIH, and CMS on matters most important to our community such as housing, equitable representation, research priorities, and funding allocations. Members attended INSAR and other relevant conferences, and the organization continues to collaborate with other nonprofit advocacy groups to find areas of common ground with an attitude of including diverse views to eliminate the long-standing discrimination and exclusion of severe autism in mainstream discourse.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 97.1%; rating input score 97

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -19%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.15; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 47% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 14.9% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 14.9% per year; rating input score 100; 70th percentile among comparable filings