Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Inc
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
The Physicians Committee promotes preventive medicine, particularly good nutrition, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.
- Income
- $21.4 million
- Spending
- $23.9 million
- Spent on programs
- 79%
- Reserves
- 5.1 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 96%
- Employees
- 110
- Volunteers
- 14
- Highest pay
- $220,592, dir clinical res.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending July 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Fair: 54 out of 100. Higher than 38% of charities in its peer group (health care, $10m to $100m).
Reserves
20 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 5.1 months of spending.
Debt
5 of 20It owes 58% of what it owns.
Living within its means
4 of 15Spending exceeded income by 12% of income.
Income trend
10 of 15Income fell 2% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1579% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 15 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending July 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 95 out of 100. Higher than 39% of charities in its peer group (health care, $10m to $100m).
Independent board
25 of 255 of 5 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
0 of 5Reports no independent review process for its chief executive's pay.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending July 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (6)
- $5.5 million spent. CommunicationsWorking with physicians, health experts, and celebrities who serve as spokespeople, we inform, persuade, and inspire readers through strategic media relations, social media, digital communications, print publications, and advertisements. Our work was featured in traditional news outlets including Washington Post, New York Times, Newsweek, Baltimore Sun, BBC, Detroit News, New York Post, Oregonian, Sun Sentinel, STAT, ABC News, NBC News, Fox News, Science, MedicalXpress, Everyday Health, Womans World, MedPage Today, Science Magazine, Economic Times, and many more. Our doctor-authored op-eds have been published in major newspapers including Colorado Newsline, Detroit News, Cal Matters, Med Central, Med Page Today, Oregonian, and Utah News Dispatch. Print and online news coverage generated 3,024 news articles and an average of 6.57 million unique visitors per month. Our social media content created conversations daily among more than 1.4 million followers on 21 social media accounts. In FY 2025, 20.7 million accounts were reached across Meta platforms and X. YouTube's following grew to 491.3K, up 22K subscribers from the previous year, and our videos were viewed 4.3 million times. The Exam Room Podcast was downloaded more than 4.1 million times on podcast platforms in FY 2025 and nearly 25 million from its launch in 2018. Our website received 3,990,751 total page views in FY 2025. We completed more than 800 separately tracked print and display materials, promotional merchandise, and electronic graphics and e-publications. Good Medicine, the Physicians Committees 24-page magazine, keeps members informed and involved. Four issues of Good Medicine were published in FY 2025. Total print distribution was 303,322.
- $5.0 million spent. Research and Regulatory Affairs The Physicians Committee advances human-specific, nonanimal approaches in research, testing, and education through scientific support, policy change, training, and outreach. In fiscal year 2025, our scientists worked to overcome barriers to adoption of nonanimal methods by providing input to federal agencies through responses to Federal Register requests and presentations at agency meetings. We continue to lead a multi-institutional collaboration to document and reduce bias favoring animal use and to promote human-relevant approaches. To expand training, we provided direct instruction to agency staff, continuing education courses, and a regulatory program on nonanimal methods. We also supported scientific society webinars, reaching more than 6,000 scientists live, with many more accessing recordings. Our biennial Summer Immersion training program received the inaugural NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences education and training prize. Recognizing the need for global access, we launched a toxicology training program conducted fully in Spanish and expanded access to recorded trainings with subtitles in multiple languages. Our team published 15 peer-reviewed articles addressing bias in animal research, the limitations of animal ethics committees, xenotransplantation, and advances in new approach methodologies. We also continued efforts to modernize physician training by replacing animal use in residency programs. Largely as a result of our work, 99% of surveyed advanced trauma life support programs in the U.S. and Canada use nonanimal, human-based training methods. In addition, 97% of emergency medicine programs in the U.S. and Canada no longer use animals, and nearly 80% of surgery programs have replaced animals.
- $4.8 million spent. Nutrition Education Nutrition experts grew a variety of educational programs to promote plant-based diets for health. To educate clinicians, the Nutrition Guide for Clinicians, a diagnostic and treatment mobile application, reached 6,165 new users, with nearly 80,000 users to date. NutritionCME.org reached 1,373 health care professionals through online courses, and we reached 706 medical students through our medical school lunch-and-learn program. The clinician referral network brought in 40 new providers, for a total of 590 worldwide, and we added 20 new dietitians for a total of 91 preferred dietitians in our network. The Lets Beat Breast Cancer campaign grew to 58 events earning coverage in 75 media outlets with a reach of 83.8 million. The bilingual 21-Day Vegan Kickstart mobile application reached 36,000 people with menus, recipes, education, and cooking videos to support individuals transitioning to a plant-based diet. Our trilingual One Healthy World program reached 398,041 people across the world in English, French, and Spanish languages. In India we reached 5,330 students through lectures at 26 medical, nursing, and culinary schools. In China, we reached more than 1.02 million viewers during our 6th annual virtual conference, 19,540 people through a total of 110 lectures across 35 cities, and 27,307 through our online 21-Day Healthy Challenge program. The Food for Life program grew our network to 450 instructors and institutions and reached more than 21,500 students. Our National Diabetes Program reached 4,370 participants. Our Building Healthy Communities program grew to 440 leaders reaching more than 135,000 members globally.
- $2.1 million spent. Clinical Research We design and conduct clinical health and nutrition research studies, with the goal of bringing more attention to nutrition and prevention among health care professionals, medical researchers, policymakers, and patients. Our team members published 12 papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented the research at the American Diabetes Associations Scientific Sessions and at the International Symposium on Diabetes and Nutrition of the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. In collaboration with Yale University, we are continuing a clinical trial that tests the effects of a vegan diet on liver and muscle fat in people with type 2 diabetes. We are also continuing a study in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield, tracking not only clinical outcomes, such as body weight and glycemic control, but also health care expenditures in people with type 2 diabetes. Our goal is to build upon the body of knowledge of the value of plant-based diets and generate wider acceptance, among the medical and scientific communities, policymakers, and the press, of the power of plant-based diets to prevent and treat disease.
- $842,746 spent. Education and Policy We lead advocacy efforts to expand the adoption and availability of plant-based diets. We advocate in Congress to end the inequitable statutory barriers that prevent students from accessing nondairy milks at schools, increase the availability of plant-based school meals, and push back against the dairy industrys efforts to force schools to serve dairy. We empower physicians, clinicians, and students to ensure their voices are heard on the need for better nutrition. We advocate to revise the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) to end its unnecessary promotion of meat and dairy and to instead promote healthy plant-based diets. We work alongside Native American tribal governments to ensure federal agencies consult with tribes regarding the DGA and that indigenous plant-based foods are incorporated. At the state level, we advocate for wider availability of plant-based foods in schools and other institutions. We also advocate at the federal and state level to encourage the funding, development, and implementation of human-relevant, nonanimal methods in medical research, education, and product testing. We consult federal agencies on their initiatives to reduce and end the use of animals in research, and we provide testimony and expertise to Congress on the same. We advocate for federal legislation that would ensure the National Institutes of Health is properly counting animals used in its funded laboratories, as well as legislation to remove requirements for animal testing and research. At the state level, we continue to work with legislators in Michigan to support legislation that would prohibit painful experiments on dogs and cats, and we seek an end to egregious and unproductive research on nonhuman primates in Oregon and nationwide. Physicians Committee President Neal Barnard, MD, FACC, oversaw clinical research studies and medical education programs, including the International Conference on Nutrition in Medicine. He presented at medical schools and hospitals and conducted interviews to educate listeners about healthful nutrition and modern ethical research methods. Our e-commerce and fulfillment operation provides educational literature and merchandise on nutrition and disease prevention to its members, the health care community, and the public. In fiscal year 2025, we fulfilled more than 900 physical orders, comprising 48,105 pieces of literature and merchandise (books, educational posters, etc.) shipped to locations worldwide. We welcomed 483 new customers. Additionally, the public downloaded 4,700 pieces of educational literature from our website.
- $725,176 spent. Legal Advocacy Through litigation and petitions, we promote better health and ethical research practices. In California, the District of Columbia, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Texas, we litigated on open government, First Amendment, and consumer protection grounds to raise public awareness about unethical experiments carried out on animals at large institutions. We submitted amicus briefs in nutrition cases and continued our litigation against the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment for violating state law by refusing to designate processed meat as a carcinogen, despite designation as such by the World Health Organization.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending July 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated November 6, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending July 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since March 1988.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated November 4, 2026.
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