Where Does $100 to the Alzheimer’s Association Go (2024)?

The Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association is commonly referred to as the Alzheimer’s Association. A tax-exempt, non-profit 501 (c) 3 whose goal is to eliminate Alzheimers Disease through research but also offer support, information/public awareness, and education on the disease, the Alzheimer’s Association raised $444 million in 2024 (compared to $412 million in 2023, $502 million in 2022, $405 million in 2021, $403 million in 2020 and $390 million in 2019), primarily from contributions, gifts, and grants ($435 million including $31 million from the government).  

Expenses totaled $457 million – 103% of revenue  (including $5 million in depreciation)  and can be categorized as follows:

• $206 million (46% of revenue):  Compensation
• $ 89 million (20% of revenue):  Grants
• $ 65 million (15% of revenue):  Office-related Expenses
• $ 39 million (9% of revenue):  Fees for Services (primarily other with no detail provided)
• $ 29 million (7% of revenue):  Travel and Conferences
• $ 23 million (5% of revenue):  Advertising and Promotion
• $  6 million (1% of revenue):  Other Expenses

The largest expense for the Alzheimer’s Association is compensation for the 2,261 employees (100 less than in 2023) who received $206 million, which equates to an average compensation of $91,000.  432 employees received more than $100,000 in compensation with the most highly compensated employee reported to be Katherine “Joanne’ Pike the President and CEO who received $1,033,602 in compensation.

Grants totaled $89 million (compared to $86 million in 2023, $85 million in 2022, $66 million in 2021, $52 million in 2020 and $53 million in 2019) and were primarily made to domestic medical schools, foundations, research institutes, and medical centers for program support. The 10 largest domestic grants (all for program support) were awarded to:

• $10.1 million:  Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, of Chicago, IL
• $10.1 million:  Wake Forest University Health Services, of Winston-Salem, NC
• $ 3.6  million:  American College of Radiology, of Reston, VA
• $ 3.4 million:  Washington University, of St Louis, MO
• $ 2.5 million:  University of Southern California, of LA, CA
• $ 2.5 million:  The Regents at the University of California, of San Francisco, CA
• $ 2.0 million:  Indiana University, of Indianapolis, IN
• $ 1.6 million:  Massachusetts General Hospital, of Boston, MA
• $ 1.3 million:  Broad Institute, of Cambridge, MA
• $ 1.3 million:  Regents of the university of California, of Irvine, CA

It is important to note is that only 20% of revenue was awarded in grants (compared to 21% in 2023 and 17% in 2022) and every grant was for “program support” which is not defined (as opposed to research study, etc). Given that research holds the answer to eliminating or treating Alzheimers Disease, it is surprising that more revenue is not allocated to research.

Office-related expenses is the third largest expense ($65 million or 15% of revenue) for the organization with general office expenses and occupancy the primary office expenses.  And, finally, $39 million was spent on fees for outside vendors (primarily “other” with no detail provided), $29 million on travel and conferences and $23 million (or 5% of revenue) was spent on advertising and promotion.

Using the above information, every $100 in revenue received by the Alzheimer’s Association was spent as follows:

$100:  Revenue

-$ 46:  Compensation

-$ 15:  Office-related Expenses

-$  5:  Advertising and Promotion

-$  9:  Fees for Services

-$  7:  Travel and Conferences

-$  1:  Other Expenses

-$ 83: Subtotal Expenses (Comp, Office, Travel, Conferences, Advertising, Fees, and Other)

  $ 17:  Revenue Remaining

-$ 20: Grants

-$  3:  Excess Expenses over Revenue

As illustrated above, most revenue goes towards compensation, office-related expenses, travel and conferences, advertising and promotion, and fees for services. $20 out of every $100 was spent on grants.

At year-end, the Alzheimer’s Association had $306 million in net assets (compared to $292 million at the beginning of the year) even though they spent more than they collected because the organization reported nearly $24 million in unrealized gains on investments,

To read the IRS Form 990 (2023 for the year ending June 30, 2024), click here.