Become a Member

HRA members are improving and saving lives by virtue of how they fund and find research programs. From voluntary health agencies to private foundations, and operating foundations, HRA members are at the helm of innovation in biomedical and health research.

HRA membership provides you with the opportunity to learn from over 100 leading nonprofit foundations on how to advance mission-critical programs, drive innovative approaches, and adopt and adapt best practices.

Five Benefits of HRA Membership

  • COMMUNITY. Biannual Members’ Meetings, educational webinars, and other events cover cutting-edge science topics and nuts & bolts advice, and more importantly, facilitate connections and collaborations.
  • ISSUES INSIGHTS. HRA Working Groups give voice to the nonprofit foundation’s points of view on issues critical to advancing biomedical science.
  • KNOWLEDGE SHARING. Real-time sharing of tangible and practical tools, key perspectives, and other resources brings to life the value of the HRA network. Whether its through our public access initiative helping member organizations implement procedures to make supported research freely accessible in PubMed Central, or through the active connections via our listservs, HRA provides a safe, trusted space for members to share and seek out information.
  • PARTNERSHIPS. Whether its facilitating partnerships among its members or seeking external partner organizations to advance our collective mission, HRA is constantly and consistently creating opportunities for collaboration to happen.
  • PERSPECTIVE. HRA represents the voice of nonprofit funders of research. Its HRA Analyzer database aggregates and analyzes philanthropic biomedical research funding, providing the collective perspective of this community when appropriate. Members use HRA Analyzer for analysis and evaluation; to benchmark and look at the landscape of HRA and NIH funding in specific research areas; to track specific awardees progress; and many other strategic uses.

To be eligible for membership, organizations must be:

  • Non-governmental
  • Not-for-profit
  • Fund biomedically relevant research and/or training
  • Select award recipients based on transparent, documented, objective scientific merit using a rigorous scientific review.*  Please refer to these merit review guidelines.
  • Make a list of awarded grants freely available to the public through publication of an annual report, publishing the list of grants on the organization’s website, or via the organization’s 990
  • Aligned with HRA’s mission

*HRA recognizes that organizations who could most benefit from our resources might not yet be implementing “best practices” with respect to scientific review, for instance.  We have created a two-year introductory membership for those organizations.  Please contact [email protected] to inquire about this possibility.

Click here to apply to become a member

HRA Annual Dues:

Dues are determined by the table below. New members are invoiced for dues prorated monthly at the time of joining the Alliance and then are invoiced annually in January, payable by March 1 of that year.

If the total of all health-related1 grants paid2 in the most recently-completed fiscal year is Annual Health Research Alliance dues are
Up to $ 1 M $ 1,250
$ 1 M – $ 2.4 M $ 1,875
$ 2.5 M – $ 4.9 M $ 2,500
$ 5 M – $ 9.9 M $ 3,125
$10 M – $19.9 M $ 6,250
$20 M – $39.9 M $10,000
$40 M – $59.9 M $12,500
$60 M – $79.9 M $18,750
$80 M or more $22,500

1The phrase “all health-related grants” includes all grants made for biomedically relevant research, education and training.

2The phrase “grants paid” means cash out the door in that fiscal year, regardless of when the grant was awarded.