NCOA is the national voice for every person’s right to age well. We believe that how we age should not be determined by gender, color, sexuality, income, or ZIP code. Working with thousands of national and local partners, we provide resources, tools, best practices, and advocacy to ensure every person can age with health and financial security. Founded in 1950, we are the oldest national organization focused on older adults.
Every year, NCOA releases an Annual Report that describes the programs, accomplishments, societal impact, and progress toward its goal of improving the lives of 40 million older adults by 2030. Learn about the work we do, the people we serve, and why equitable aging matters now more than ever by reading the highlights below and downloading the fiscal year 2023 report below.
Health: Chronic Disease and Falls Prevention
Through a national network of community partners and online tools, NCOA delivers comprehensive, integrated services that improve the health of millions of older adults. A few FY23 higlights:
- NCOA's National Chronic Disease Self-Management EdcuationCenter continued to provide leadership, guidance, and technical assistance to support state and community-based organizations across the U.S. in expanding CDSME programs and embedding them in the nation’s health and long-term services and supports systems. This included support of 35 CDSME grantees funded by the U.S. Administration for Community Living/Administration on Aging (ACL/AoA) through the Prevention and Public Health Fund, part of the Affordable Care Act.
- NCOA's National falls Prevention Resource Center provided leadership, expert guidance, and resources to support 34 state grantees with implementing, scaling, and sustaining evidence-based falls prevention programs. The Center managed the largest falls prevention program database in the U.S. The grantees enrolled 8,337 participants in 589 evidence-based falls prevention workshops.
- NCOA and the Falls Free Initiative led the 15th annual Falls Prevention Awareness Week (FPAW), empowering older adults with the confidence to protect themselves from fall- related injuries across 48 states. National FPAW awareness and media efforts reached an estimated 513 million individuals. At the state and community level, the State Falls Prevention Coalitions members reached 2 million individuals through education, awareness, and advocacy efforts, as well as falls risk screenings and falls prevention programs NCOA surveyed state FPAW participation and published the results.
Vaccines
In December 2022, NCOA was awarded a $50 million grant from ACL to lead a nationwide campaign to ensure older adults and people with disabilities get the latest COVID and flu vaccines. The grant was the largest in NCOA history and came at a time when the majority of seasonal flu and COVID deaths were among older adults, and COVID vaccine rates were low. In FY23:
- NCOA selected 180 grantees in 38 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico through a three-phased review panel process.
- Staff supported grantees via onboarding sessions, data collection trainings, regional office hours, and one-on-one technical assistance sessions.
- NCOA developed and released a Take Action Toolkit for grantees that included messaging and creative marketing materials that had been tested with the target audience.
- The initiative resulted in:
- 1,318 first doses and 5,223 second (or later) doses of the COVID vaccine
- 1,223 flu vaccines
- 4,765 supportive services such as transportation and scheduling
Aging Mastery®
NCOA created Aging Mastery to help older adults build their own playbook for aging well. Aging Mastery comes in two formats: Aging Mastery Program® (AMP) classes and a self-directed Aging Mastery® Starter Kit. Both versions provide a comprehensive and fun approach to positive aging by focusing on key aspects of health, finances, relationships, personal growth, and community involvement. A few FY23 highglights:
- Expanded Aging Mastery to 819 sites in 39 states, serving over 1,262 older adults.
- As of June 2023, a total of over 32,725 people had participated in AMP classes, and more than 14,234 had received Aging Mastery Starter Kits.
Public Policy and Advocacy
NCOA is a national voice for older adults and the organizations that serve them. Our goal is to protect and strengthen major public programs, particularly for disadvantaged and vulnerable older adults. A few FY23 higlights:
- Led the advocacy efforts to include improvements in low-income assistance for Medicare beneficiaries. Starting in 2024, the Part D Low-Income Subsidy (LIS, or Extra Help) further reduces out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries with incomes between 135-150% of the federal poverty level by eliminating “partial” subsidies and replacing them with much more generous “full” subsidies. This provision will particularly help low-income Black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries, who are more likely than white beneficiaries to have incomes in this range.
- Secured historic investments in final FY23 appropriations legislation thanks to a new Congressional champion of falls prevention. These included doubling existing programs at ACL and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); providing first-time funding for the ACL Interagency Coordinating Committee on Healthy Aging and Age-Friendly Communities and the new Research, Demonstration and Evaluation Center; and a $1.5 million increase for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Other proposed investments in NCOA priorities included a $2 million increase for the Medicare State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP).
- Released the results of NCOA’s first annual What Women Say™ survey, which showed that half of U.S. women ages 25+ are struggling financially today, and 90% or more support bipartisan policy solutions to help.
Financial Security: Benefits Access, Direct Care Workforce, and Mature Workers
NCOA boosts the economic security of millions of vulnerable, low-income older adults through our online tools and a national network of community partners. A few FY23 highlights:
- NCOA supported 85 Benefits Enrollment Centers (BECs) that help low-income people with Medicare access all the benefits they may be missing. The BECs helped over 174,000 people submit over 268,000 applications for benefits estimated to be worth over $588 million.
- NCOA led a consortium of nine partner organizations to conduct an environmental scan of the direct care workforce crisis.
- BenefitsCheckUp® (BenefitsCheckUp.org), NCOA’s free online tool, connected 4 million people with benefits assistance programs and resources.
- The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) served 4,537 participants who provided over 2.4 million hours of community service, and the program placed 429 trained participants in jobs.
- NCOA’s Center for Benefits Access provided resources and technical support to states that receive Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) funding to help low-income individuals apply for Medicare subsidies. MIPPA grantees assisted 71,000 individuals with Extra Help/Low Income Subsidy (LIS) and Medicare Savings Programs (MSP) applications.
National Institute of Senior Centers
NCOA’s National Institute of Senior Centers (NISC) strengthens senior centers by promoting best practices, advocacy, research, and the nation’s only national standards and accreditation program. A few FY23 highlights:
- NCOA continued to develop the Modernizing Senior Centers Resource Center (MSCRC) through a cooperative agreement with ACL. The MSCRC provides leadership, training, technical assistance, and peer networking, and a clearinghouse of best practices.
- As part of a broad engagement strategy to expand the senior center network, NCOA moved to a free Affiliate Membership model with NISC with 65% growth.
Digital Engagement
Public Policy and Research
NCOA’s digital properties are designed to reach the largest number of people possible to help them age well. In FY23:
- NCOA’s flagship website (ncoa.org) educated 4.3 million people on essential topics including economic security and healthy aging.
- NCOA launched two new tools—the Job Skills CheckUp and Budget CheckUp—which together had 8,000 completions.
- More than 36,000 individuals completed the Falls Free CheckUp™ to understand their risk of falling and steps to reduce that risk.
- NCOA Adviser brought informational content to 3.7 million people, and 63,800 people saved $22.8 million on products and services to help them age well.
Financial Highlights and Consolidated Statement of Changes in Unrestricted Net Assets
Fiscal year 2023 was a good year financially for NCOA. The net operating change in Unrestricted Net Assets (before Pension Plan related adjustments) was a loss of $557,629, which reflected an intention to invest in key operational areas to build capacity for future performance.
NCOA was able to capitalize on additional funding opportunities for COVID vaccine promotion work that brought in additional revenues above expectations. As in previous years, NCOA continued to maximize resources used to support the organization’s core mission, expending 94% of its operating resources on direct programs.
Download the annual and financial reports below.
