The Boston Foundation for Sight Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
043150037
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2024
Location
Needham, MA, USA
Phone
7817267337
Rating
79
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Centers to Support the Independence of Specific Populations

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$5,309,331
Expenses
$6,000,387
Assets
$9,338,163
Liabilities
$3,795,700

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

18 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • SARA YOST (PRESIDENT & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • SARA YOST (PRESIDENT & CEO): $391,567 total reported compensation
  • DANIEL BROCKS MD (MD, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER): $378,991 total reported compensation
  • KAREN CARRASQUILLO OD PHD (CHIEF INNOVATION & EDUCATION OFFICER): $279,412 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our mission is to improve quality of life by transforming the understanding, treatment, and care of the ocular surface.

What it reported doing in 2025

One 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.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 90% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 80
  • Accountability: 89
  • Sustainability: 21
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 89%; rating input score 89
  • Program expense ratio: 79.8%; rating input score 80
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.49 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 21st percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -13%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.56; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.41; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 38.9%; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 0.8% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 0.2% per year; rating input score 100; 9th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 7.7% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 89% of revenue deployed · 79.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 8 of 9 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $4.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $392K · 18 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $341K reported
  • Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 16 filing years from 2010 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 10 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 21/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 8/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 49/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 3/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 20/100.