2025 Annual Impact Report Releases

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — November 2, 2026 — Since 1991, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) has led the way for children with brain tumors and the families who love them. Today, PBTF — the nation’s leading nonprofit funder of pediatric brain tumor research and family support — released its 2025 Annual Impact Report. The report documents a year in which PBTF fundamentally reimagined how it plans to move science forward, tripled its advocacy community, and expanded direct support to thousands of families.

FY2025 was a year of acceleration for the foundation with total revenue growing to approximately $7.0 million, up from approximately $5.0 million in the prior year. Also, Jeffrey A. Gelfand, PBTF’s Board Chair and the parent of a brain tumor survivor, became the organization’s Chief Executive Officer, bringing years of leadership within the foundation to the role.

Key achievements included:

• A new research strategy. PBTF shifted from traditional funder to strategic catalyst, introducing an approach that connects data, technology, and scientific collaboration so every discovery accelerates the next. Guided by Dr. Misha Mehta, the foundation strengthened its Research Advisory Network and launched a new Technology Advisory Network that brings together leaders in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. In its first-ever request for proposals, PBTF received more than 70 submissions from researchers around the world in under six weeks.
• Research investments with global reach.PBTF has directed more than $65 million to research since 1991, with approximately $10 million funded since 2020. FY2025 investments included infrastructure support for the Children’s Brain Tumor Network, which has enrolled more than 8,000 participants in one of the world’s largest open, AI-ready ecosystems of clinical, genomic, and imaging data; an Early Career Development Grant to Dr. Joelle Straehla to develop nanocarriers that bypass the blood-brain barrier; and at the University of Michigan, Drs. Maria G. Castro, Pedro R. Lowenstein, and Karin Muraszko are advancing a gene therapy for high-grade glioma, the most aggressive form of the disease, and uncovering why some tumors recur.
• Advocacy at record scale. PBTF’s advocacy community more than tripled over the past year to 2,300 advocates across 47 states and 305 congressional districts, sending thousands of messages and reaching 403 members of Congress. Advocates helped move the Give Kids a Chance Act and the Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act into law; helped establish the Georgia Childhood Cancer Task Force; and secured pediatric cancer representation in the New York and California state cancer plans.
• Expanded family support. PBTF served 3,700 families through its programs in FY2025 and distributed more than $650,000 in direct financial assistance, supporting 867 families through the Butterfly Fund, an Uber partnership, and donated gift cards. The foundation introduced a Family Health Resource Specialist, launched its C.A.R.E. Committee of parents and clinician experts, and brought families together through community events.

“What has carried this community forward for more than 35 years is a refusal — a refusal to believe good enough will ever be good enough for our children,” said Jeffrey A. Gelfand, Chief Executive Officer of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. “This year we did not simply fund different science. We funded science differently. What gives me the greatest hope isn’t what we accomplished this past year; it’s the foundation we’ve built for what comes next.”

“2025 showed the strength of our community and the power of advocacy to create meaningful change,” said Mike Henry, Director of Advocacy. “Our advocacy program is centered on one simple question: how can we improve the lives of our patient families, clinicians, and researchers? Our advocates were a driving force behind the passage of key childhood cancer legislation, and together we will continue to ensure that the pediatric brain tumor community has a seat at the table.”

The foundation also deepened long-standing partnerships in FY2025, including a relationship with Honda spanning more than three decades; a 21st consecutive year of support from Marsh McLennan Agency Southeast and FIRST Insurance Funding; and campaigns with Comoto, Great Clips, Charlotte Knights, and Janus Henderson, which selected PBTF as the first-place recipient of its global Charity Challenge.

View the 2025 Annual Impact Report

About the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation

Since 1991, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation’s research funding, advocacy efforts, and family support platform have led the way in addressing the childhood cancer community’s biggest crisis. Dedicated wholly to this rare and devastating disease and guided by the experiences of patients, survivors, their parents, and siblings, the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation is the only organization that meets families’ needs at every stage, from diagnosis through survivorship.

The largest patient advocacy funder of pediatric brain tumor research, the foundation funds and advocates for innovative projects that lead to vital discoveries, new clinical trials, and better treatments — all bringing us closer to a cure. We are able to do that because of people and partners committed to supporting families and changing what is possible for children with brain tumors. We live our promise to Care. Cure. Thrive.

For more information about the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, visit curethekids.org.

Media Contact:

Lesley Madsen

Senior Director of Marketing, Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation

[email protected]