GiveBetter x USA

Help America Hear

Prescription hearing-aid access, professional fitting and student support

Research time: ~11 min on GPT-6 Astra Light + ~81 min on GPT-6 Astra Medium + ~6 min on GPT-6.1 Sol
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.
  • Modeling — estimated costs, QALYs and uncertainty.
  • Source audit — checked claims, assumptions and calculations.

Updated: 2026-10-02

Summary

What do they do? Help America Hear coordinates donated prescription hearing aids and professional fitting for financially constrained people nationwide. Its standard program offers two hearing aids, custom molds and one year of limited service, helping recipients communicate and participate in everyday life. It also supports students through scholarships and assistive devices; those additional benefits are not priced in this hearing-access estimate.

Why we’re interested in this organization:

  • A manufacturer-confirmed donation partnership offers a concrete route to prescription hearing aids for people who cannot otherwise afford them.

  • Randomized studies support meaningful hearing-related benefits, although broader generic health effects are less certain.

  • Published eligibility and follow-up terms help identify both the service provided and the patient costs that should enter the estimate.

Our main reservations:

  • Donated aids, annual service recipients and unique completed new fittings are different counts, and the linked delivery records remain unavailable.

  • The forecast of additional completed care and lasting benefit relies on explicit judgments rather than measured results for Help America Hear.

  • Patient costs, earnings effects, current donation capacity and legal-payee verification need further evidence before a donor-ready recommendation.

What do you get for your dollar? $307K per DALY in USA. DALY is our one-year comparison unit. QALY-based health gains and income-welfare equivalents retain their original assumptions; they are not measured clinical DALYs. Conditional hearing-access forecast including net household costs and earnings; complete portfolio and confirmed marginal funding capacity remain unidentified..

Manufacturer100–150 aids/year; paired midpoint62.5 is potential opportunity, not observed completed new recipients. Repeated annual service claims are not a linked fitting ledger.

1. What do they do?

Help America Hear Inc., EIN 20-0878279, coordinates nationwide prescription hearing-aid access and scholarships. Its current program provides two aids, molds and one year of limited service. A $250 deposit is applied to fitting or refundable when the provider donates services; patients pay for evaluation, clearance, batteries, accessories and extended warranties. The FAQ gives two-to-six-month provider matching and possible travel up to 50 miles. Current page and FAQ fee/eligibility language still conflict. No application or payment was submitted.

A June 2026 golf event and 2025–26 scholarship page support current activity, though the home page retains older copy and inconsistent scholarship numbers. Current activity does not establish legal payee verification or an additional funded tranche.

The modeled opportunity is coordination of existing donated-device allocations: application review, provider matching and follow-up that could turn an otherwise stalled opportunity into a completed fitting. It is not an assumption that a cash donation purchases more manufacturer devices. The manufacturer describes 100–150 aids annually, while the standard program supplies two aids per person. Our midpoint of 125 aids therefore represents 62.5 potential paired opportunities, not 125 patients or an observed annual completion count.

2. Monitoring and information sharing

All three original returns repeat an explicitly annual claim: over 120 individuals received hearing aids and services during the year. Repetition does not prove a cumulative count or inaccuracy. However, services may include adjustments, replacements or repeat recipients; there is no linked new-completed-fitting cohort. ReSound separately describes 100–150 hearing aids annually plus scholarship devices. These are aids, not people. Schedules M record hearing-aid contribution/item counts 178, 164 and 164, valued at $133,500, $124,500 and $123,000. The column permits contributions or items and supplemental unit clarification is blank. Neither count should be silently converted into completed bilateral patients. Inventory movement, dates and scholarship overlap remain unreconciled.

No HAH longitudinal use, hearing-function or utility cohort was located. FAQ support is three to five visits or up to one year according to provider policy. Five-year reapplication eligibility is not evidence of five-year adherence.

A useful delivery ledger would connect each allocated device pair to inventory, scholarship or standard-program designation, a unique applicant, provider appointment, completed fitting and follow-up. It would also identify which opportunities were unused without additional coordination. Until that exists, the 62.5-pair benchmark and completion probabilities in our forecast remain planning assumptions. A device count or active partnership alone cannot establish the output caused by another donation.

Our fresh October 2 check retrieved the program, FAQ, manufacturer partnership and clinical sources. Original annual returns could not be retrieved through either attempted access route; the prior original-return receipts remain the basis for the gross financial figures. The fresh IRS-derived index corroborates functional-expense fields, not all schedules or restored fundraising-event costs. This limitation is not evidence that filings do not exist.

3. Qualitative assessment

Prescription hearing access is a promising mechanism because hearing aids can improve communication, participation and hearing-specific quality of life. The Singapore delayed-start trial found an approximately 0.12 HUI-3 difference at three months, but used modified scoring for nonusers and studied volunteers willing to adopt aids. Its longer cost-utility horizon was extrapolated, not a controlled observation of five years of benefit.

The ACHIEVE generic-quality analysis found no statistically significant physical or mental composite advantage over three years. Its hearing-communication analysis supports a narrower benefit, but HHIE scores cannot simply be read as QALYs. These studies do not measure Help America Hear’s local effectiveness, adherence, earnings, dementia prevention or mortality. Generic-null and short-duration alternatives are therefore important parts of the forecast.

We use a judged annual hearing-utility profile of 0.06, 0.04 and 0.02 over three years following a four-month fitting delay. These are already adjusted cohort utility assumptions, not trial-measured annual values. No additional adherence multiplier is applied to health. Later decline represents benefit and use uncertainty within the newly accessed-care cohort; it does not repeat the separate subtraction for people who would obtain equivalent care elsewhere.

Program matching friction makes additional coordination plausible, but does not establish unused inventory or available clinician slots. A direct completion contrast of 80% with versus 60% without one additional annual work portfolio is an elicited planning judgment, not a source-calibrated effect. Replacement funding, reserves, provider capacity and manufacturer constraints belong inside that contrast, rather than being multiplied in again. A fixed, fully used allocation can produce no additional service.

We count ordinary fitting and acclimation burdens only for newly accessed care. People who would receive equivalent care elsewhere have no central health increment or duplicate generic fitting burden. A separate stress test considers additional HAH-specific burdens relative to that alternative. Independent donation-induced harms are tested even when service response is zero. These distinctions matter more than presenting a falsely precise headline.

4. What do you get for your dollar?

GiveBetter considers prescription hearing access a promising way to improve lives. Our conditional forecast for this program is approximately $307K per DALY, combining health with net household resources. It is less favorable than the historical $69K estimate mainly because we no longer treat an annual aid-and-service count as completed new patients or assume the same gift-induced fitting yield.

What a donation could provide. The forecast charges the full annual recipient accounting proxy of $303,522 against a partial hearing-access pathway. That is restored gross expense of $426,522 less $123,000 of donated-aid book expense, not verified cash flow or a marginal quote. An illustrative coordination workload of 62.5 opportunities times five hours at $80 fully loaded per hour is $25,000; these hours and rate are judgments, and the remaining annual cost still includes other programs, events, administration and fundraising. We do not discount those costs away to improve the estimate.

A $10,000 normalization supplies 0.03295 annual work-years, capped at one annual cohort. The 62.5 potential pairs and judged 20-percentage-point completion difference imply about 0.412 additional HAH fittings. Of these, an assumed 75%, or 0.309 people, would otherwise lack equivalent care for the modeled period; the remaining 25% receive no additional hearing benefit. These are modeled increments, not reported outputs or an offered donation package.

Health benefit. We apply the finite 0.06/0.04/0.02 annual cohort utility profile after the fitting delay, a judged 2% competing annual mortality risk and 3% discounting at year midpoints. Ordinary fitting harm is 0.00 health years per newly accessed recipient. No dementia-prevention, mortality benefit or lifetime wage gain is added. The resulting health benefit is approximately 0.03435 years per normalized $10,000.

Household resources. Newly accessed-care households face a judged net initial cost of $320: an expected $150 fitting charge, $50 evaluation expense after insurance, $80 travel and $40 unreplaced after-tax patient or caregiver pay. The $150 is a judgment about a $250 charge incurred by 60% of recipients, not a reported average. A refunded deposit is not a permanent cost, and no second application fee or optional donation is stacked on it. Costs can be higher or lower; fee and refund terms remain partly inconsistent.

We assume $50 annual maintenance while devices are used, with independent resource-use exposure of 70%, 60% and 50% over three years. A judged 25% working subgroup receives $120 net additional pay per year for two years, after taxes, benefit withdrawal and work costs. This modest positive prior is not inferred from shadow prices for unpaid time or from an employment association. Nonworking recipients receive no assumed wage gain. Otherwise-equivalent-care households receive a separate judged $250 net copay saving once; that is actual payer incidence, not the retail or book value of donated devices.

Net cash is combined within each household before applying Coefficient Giving’s income-equivalence comparison: 0.5 times the logarithm of the resource ratio, using a judged $25,000 annual resource baseline. Clinical utility and these income-equivalent welfare years are different quantities. The model does not count each family member as another identical income recipient, repeat an upfront payment as annual wages, or credit insurer spending as household cash. Cash pathways use their own dates and finite exposure.

Household resources contribute approximately −0.00175 equivalent years per $10,000: modeled patient costs outweigh the small earnings and copay benefits. Together with health, the forecast gives approximately 0.03260 combined equivalent years. Health-only cost is approximately $291K per DALY. The complete organization’s expected value and a verified next-gift return remain unidentified, not zero. Scholarships and other pathways may add benefits or costs not covered here.

Sensitivity and history. Test shorter or null clinical benefit, manufacturer allocations of 100 or 150 aids, nearly replaced or zero completion response, refunded or fully charged deposits, no earnings or negative earnings, maintenance costs, alternative care, household resource baselines and signed additional harms. These are unweighted judgment scenarios, not a confidence interval. The original $69K alpha and prior unknown beta center are retained separately. A forecast is useful for comparison but cannot establish that this recipient currently has additional funding room.

Model, assumptions and sensitivity

Full annual non-in-kind accounting proxy against a partial hearing-access pathway; donated-resource opportunity cost and actual marginal package unidentified.

Domestic resident benefits centrally1; .98 diagnostic. Geography applied once to health and household cohorts.

Incremental completions=min(G/annualCost,capacity) × aids/2 × (completionWith−completionWithout). Newly accessed fraction receives finite cohort utility; otherwise equivalent care receives no central incremental health. Independently timed signed household log resource differences are added once.

gift
10000 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
annualCash
303522 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). 303522 non-in-kind accounting proxy derived from prior original gross426522 less aid book123000; not verified cash flow or marginal quote. [hah-99025] [hah-noncash]
aids
125 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). 125 midpoint of manufacturer100–150 aids, not actual new fittings. [hah-resound]
aidsPerPerson
2 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
workCapacity
1 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
completionWith
0.8 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
completionWithout
0.6 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
addedCare
0.75 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
delay
0.3333333333333333 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
health1
0.06 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
health2
0.04 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
health3
0.02 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
healthYears
3 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
resourceYears
3 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
incomeYears
2 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
use1
0.7 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
use2
0.6 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
use3
0.5 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
mortality
0.02 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
discount
0.03 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
fittingHarm
0.001 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
equivalentFittingHarm
0 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
initialCash
-320 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
maintenance
50 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
working
0.25 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
workerGain
120 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
equivalentCareCash
250 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
baseline
25000 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
geography
1 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
overlap
0 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
independentHealthHarm
0 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
independentCashHarm
0 Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
healthKnown
true Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]
incomeKnown
true Defined in the signed finite calculator; USD, persons, years or dimensionless as appropriate (judgment). Explicit conditional planning assumption; source discussion does not establish the numeric parameter. [hah-program] [hah-faq] [income-method]

Conditional health and household-resource judgment: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

capacityZero: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"workCapacity":0}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

capacitySmall: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.01; all-population health QALYs: 0.01. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"workCapacity":0.01}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

fixedAllocationFullyUsed: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"completionWithout":0.8}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

replacement: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"completionWithout":0.78}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

completionNegative: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: -0.01; all-population health QALYs: -0.01. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"completionWith":0.55}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

manufacturer100: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"aids":100}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

manufacturer150: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.04; all-population health QALYs: 0.04. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"aids":150}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

monocularDevicesDiagnostic: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.07; all-population health QALYs: 0.07. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"aidsPerPerson":1}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

wholeResourceAccounting: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.02; all-population health QALYs: 0.02. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"annualCash":426522}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

threeYearGrossMean: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"annualCash":416544.3333333333}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

cashExcludedEventsDiagnostic: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.07; all-population health QALYs: 0.07. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"annualCash":155776}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

noAlternativeCare: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.05; all-population health QALYs: 0.05. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"addedCare":1}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

otherwiseSameCare: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"addedCare":0}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

clinicalZero: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"health1":0,"health2":0,"health3":0}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

clinicalHalf: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.02; all-population health QALYs: 0.02. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"health1":0.03,"health2":0.02,"health3":0.01}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

clinicalStrong: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.07; all-population health QALYs: 0.07. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"health1":0.12,"health2":0.08,"health3":0.04}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

healthOneYear: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.02; all-population health QALYs: 0.02. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"healthYears":1}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

resourceZero: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"initialCash":0,"maintenance":0,"workerGain":0,"equivalentCareCash":0}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

noWorkGain: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"workerGain":0}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

workGainAdverse: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"workerGain":-120}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

highPatientBurden: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"initialCash":-650,"maintenance":100}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

fullyRefundedDeposit: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"initialCash":-170}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

noPayerSaving: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"equivalentCareCash":0}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

lowResourceBaseline: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"baseline":15000}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

nonresident2percent: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"geography":0.98}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

sixMonthDelay: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"delay":0.5}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

overlapFull: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"overlap":1}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

healthUnknown: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: unknown; all-population health QALYs: unknown. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"healthKnown":false}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

incomeUnknown: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Default inputs above; overrides={"incomeKnown":false}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

allUnknown: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: unknown; all-population health QALYs: unknown. Default inputs above; overrides={"healthKnown":false,"incomeKnown":false}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

independentHarmsAtZero: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"workCapacity":0,"independentHealthHarm":0.001,"independentCashHarm":100}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

deposit250: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"initialCash":-420}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

noTravelCash: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"initialCash":-240}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

noMaintenance: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"maintenance":0}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

overlapNegativeWorkingCash: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.03; all-population health QALYs: 0.03. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"workerGain":10,"maintenance":50,"overlap":1}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

giantGiftCapped: Cost: $3.0M; USA health QALYs: 1.04; all-population health QALYs: 1.04. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.05. Default inputs above; overrides={"gift":3035220}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

equivalentCareExtraBurden: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Default inputs above; overrides={"addedCare":0,"equivalentFittingHarm":0.002}; finite paired-opportunity planning forecast, not identified donor response.

Historical: Whole-gift central not estimable: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: unknown; all-population health QALYs: unknown. Both annual completed-fitting cost anchor and cash-to-additional-device/provider capacity unresolved; unknown, not zero.

Historical: alpha retained diagnostic: Cost: $10K; USA health QALYs: 0.15; all-population health QALYs: 0.15. {"G":10000,"c":3000,"b":0.6,"s":0.7,"u":0.04,"p":0.75,"T":4,"m":0.02,"h":0.001,"g":0.99}; D=3.5375615940314136. Conditional diagnostic only. Device-derived people scenarios are hypothetical, not observed cohorts.

Counterfactual: Direct completion contrast includes donor replacement and provider/manufacturer capacity. Separate patient split distinguishes newly accessed from otherwise-equivalent care; generic fitting burdens cancel in the latter.

Attribution: One household per recipient is a judgment. Clinical profile already incorporates use/transport; resource-use exposure is independent. No device book/retail value, mortality wages, dementia or unpaid shadow-time income.

Completion lift, potential pairs, duration and net household costs/pay are declared planning priors. Complete portfolio and verified next-gift price remain unknown; sensitivity is unweighted, not a confidence interval.

Sensitivity

  • Conditional center $307K; health-only $291K per DALY. Historical alpha $69K remains separate.
  • Generic clinical null retains new-care and independent burdens; zero capacity differs from unknown income or health.
  • One-year health, weak completion response, gross cost, no paid-work gain, higher patient costs and alternative care are explicit tests.
  • Direct completion probabilities stay convex and annual cohort capped; signed adverse contrasts and independent harms remain visible.

Unresolved inputs

  • Annual completed new-fitting cohort linked to devices, inventory and scholarships.
  • Costed unrestricted gift tranche with confirmed additional manufacturer allocations, provider appointments, patients ready to complete care and baseline funding.
  • Next-gift allocation across programs/fundraising/reserves and remaining grant/match restrictions.
  • HAH sustained use, age/severity, alternative care, unified fee terms and patient costs.
  • Current legal payee and relevant registry status, disinterested lease approval and conflict-policy enforcement.
  • Outcome-weighted USA resident allocation and complete donated-resource opportunity cost.

Health and income breakdown

For the modeled $10K: 0.03 health QALYs + 0.00 income-equivalent healthy years in USA: $307K per DALY. Income equivalents are welfare comparisons, not observed QALYs or DALYs.

Method and caveats.

5. Funding and previous grants

Original fiscal-year-ending-February returns show gross expenses $386,116 (2023), $436,995 (2024) and $426,522 (2025), mean $416,544.33. These restore Part VIII direct event costs to Part IX functional expenses. FY2025 buckets: $123,000 aids/miscellaneous (matching recorded donated-aid value), $74,027 other hearing/awareness program expense, $40,000 scholarships, $36,534 management/general, $5,215 functional fundraising, $147,746 direct events. They sum to $426,522. Removing aid fair value gives $303,522, an accounting proxy including depreciation, not cash flow or a marginal quote. Donated clinician labor and patient costs remain incomplete; aid fair value is not manufacturer opportunity cost.

FY2025 event receipts $239,440 include $194,060 contributions. Less $147,746 direct costs leaves $91,694 before other fundraising expense; the −$102,366 net-event line alone is not a loss. FY2024 gross receipts minus direct costs are −$2,018. FY2023 also has $73,572 special-event costs in Part IX in addition to $50,600 direct costs in Part VIII. Filed classifications are retained without inventing corrections or claiming a forensic accounting audit.

FY2025 net assets without restrictions are $71,754, versus $82,110 and $96,836 previously. Cash is $12,298 and other investments $57,713. Donor-restricted net assets are blank in all returns; year-end unrestricted balances do not mean all receipts were unrestricted. SNF's 2024 grant supports ten scholarships and hearing/assistive devices. Current remaining restrictions, matching balances and next-gift allocation are unknown.

Schedule L Part IV discloses Mitchell Shapiro: FY2023 $7,750 ($6,000 rent/$1,750 utilities), FY2024 $7,200 ($5,800/$1,400), FY2025 description rent $2,500 with amount column blank and former founder/chairman/CEO relationship. Each says no revenue sharing; Parts I–III disclose no excess-benefit transactions, loans or assistance. Related-party disclosure is not proof of wrongdoing. FY2025 Part VI reports a written conflict policy and annual disclosures but no regular monitoring/enforcement. Lease comparability, disinterested approval and implementation remain unknown. The earlier secondary California registration flag remains unresolved against an original registry; no national closure is inferred. Independently verified payee and additional capacity are required before recommending a donation.

The October 2 index check lists functional expenses of $335,516, $298,757 and $278,776 for the same three fiscal years. These differ from the restored gross figures above because direct event costs are separately reported. Prior original receipts, not this fresh index, support those restorations and the schedule details. Fresh original retrieval failed, so this is not a new audit.

Before moving from a research estimate to a source-vetted giving choice, verify the legal payee, current registry status, unused device allocations, provider slots, matched funding and restrictions, and an uncovered coordination plan. Related-party disclosures warrant verification rather than allegations. Existing balances, an active event or a donation partnership do not themselves establish a donor-sensitive work tranche.

Annual expenses

Organization-level spending, including programs, administration and fundraising. The research list averages three comparable, consecutive full fiscal years when available.

  • FY 2023: $386K; Help America Hear Inc., EIN20-0878279, 12-month period, Fiscal year ending February; Form990 PartIX functional expense plus PartVIII direct fundraising-event costs, consistently restored gross accounting expense including donated aids.. Source
  • FY 2024: $437K; Help America Hear Inc., EIN20-0878279, 12-month period, Fiscal year ending February; Form990 PartIX functional expense plus PartVIII direct fundraising-event costs, consistently restored gross accounting expense including donated aids.. Source
  • FY 2025: $427K; Help America Hear Inc., EIN20-0878279, 12-month period, Fiscal year ending February; Form990 PartIX functional expense plus PartVIII direct fundraising-event costs, consistently restored gross accounting expense including donated aids.. Source

6. Sources

  1. Original return for fiscal year ended February28,2025. Help America Hear / IRS via ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  2. Original return for fiscal year ended February29,2024. Help America Hear / IRS via ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  3. Original return for fiscal year ended February28,2023. Help America Hear / IRS via ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  4. FY2025 Schedule M: donated hearing aids. Help America Hear / IRS via ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  5. Current prescription hearing-aid eligibility, deposit and exclusions. Help America Hear. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-02.
  6. FAQ and follow-up service terms. Help America Hear. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-02.
  7. Current national programs, scholarship and events. Help America Hear. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  8. Cost-utility analysis of hearing aids: randomized delayed-start study. Kaur et al., BMC Health Services Research. Published: 2020-12-01; retrieved: 2026-09-13.
  9. ACHIEVE randomized trial: communicative function. Sanchez et al., Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-13.
  10. ACHIEVE randomized trial: generic health-related quality of life. Huang et al., JAMA Network Open. Published: 2024-11-21; retrieved: 2026-10-02.
  11. ACHIEVE randomized trial: primary cognition outcome. Lin et al., Lancet. Published: 2023-07-18; retrieved: 2026-09-13.
  12. Hearing-aid service delivery placebo-controlled trial. Humes et al., American Journal of Audiology. Published: 2017-03-01; retrieved: 2026-09-13.
  13. Hearing aid coverage. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-13.
  14. OTC hearing aids: intended population and limitations. US Food and Drug Administration. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-02.
  15. Third-party California registration field requiring original-registry verification. Cause IQ. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-13.
  16. FY2023 Schedule L. Help America Hear / IRS via ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  17. FY2024 Schedule L. Help America Hear / IRS via ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  18. FY2025 Schedule L. Help America Hear / IRS via ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  19. FY2023 Schedule M. Help America Hear / IRS via ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  20. FY2024 Schedule M. Help America Hear / IRS via ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  21. Manufacturer partnership and annual aid count. GN ReSound. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-02.
  22. 2025–26 campaign match. GN ReSound. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  23. 2024 scholarship grant. Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  24. June 2026 golf event. Help America Hear. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  25. 2025–26 scholarships. Help America Hear. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  26. Delayed-start utility trial. Kaur et al., BMC Health Services Research. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-02.
  27. ACHIEVE communication trial analysis. Sanchez et al., Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-29.
  28. Health and income welfare-equivalence reference. Coefficient Giving. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-30.
  29. IRS-derived index: functional expenses, not restored gross expense. ProPublica / IRS-derived data. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-02.