Lavalle Fund For The Blind

About the Lavelle Fund for the Blind

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The Lavelle Fund for the Blind is a charitable grant-making foundation dedicated to improving the lives of individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Our mission is to support programs that enable blind and visually impaired people to live independent and productive lives. While we prioritize programs in the greater New York metropolitan area, we also consider grant requests with national and international impact.

Our Work

Since our inception, we have awarded over $99.6 million in total grants (as of December 31, 2022, excluding Scholarships). Of this grant total, $53.5 million has gone to organizations serving our home, Tri-State New York region. We have supported 421 grants (as of December 31, 2022; excluding Scholarships) in various funding areas, including medical eye care, vision rehabilitation, and resources for the blind and visually impaired.

Our international grantmaking focuses predominantly on medical eye care training and delivery, and education for children with visual impairment and multiple disabilities. We have given $4.3M to Brother Kearney Scholarship Recipients (as of December 31, 2022). Latin America has been selected as our region of focus internationally, with an emphasis on building the foundation for sustainable eye care and quality education for blind and multiply disabled children.

Medical Eye Care

We are committed to increasing the volume, efficiency, accessibility, and sustainability of eye care in high-need areas. We have provided grants to support scalable and replicable training models for Allied Ophthalmic Professionals (AOPs) and IT-enabled ophthalmic equipment to connect vision centers to tertiary care centers. We have also supported the provision of free or subsidized, high-quality cataract surgeries for patients in Vietnam.

Vision Rehabilitation & Resources

We believe in empowering blind and visually impaired people of all ages through comprehensive vision rehabilitation and low vision services. We have supported the expansion of mentor eye clinics in Latin America to train Allied Ophthalmic Personnel (AOPs) and have built, delivered, and sustained vision rehabilitation and low vision services for people of all ages who are blind or visually impaired in Westchester County.