NCOA is the national voice for every person’s right to age well. 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 econonomic well-being. 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 aging well matters now more than ever by reading the highlights below and downloading the fiscal year 2024 report.

Health

Chronic Disease

NCOA’s National Chronic Disease Self-Management Education (CDSME) Resource Center works to increase access to, and use of, CDSME and other evidence-based programs (EBPs) to help older adults and adults with disabilities live longer, healthier lives. In FY24: 

• The center supported 39 CDSME grantees to expand access to programs and integrate them into state and community health systems. These efforts were funded through the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL) Prevention and Public Health Fund. 
• Over 15,600 participants attended 1,397 CDSME workshops nationwide, making use of the nation’s largest database for these programs. 
• The center hosted roundtables and developed toolkits focused on advancing evidence-based programs among populations experiencing high rates of chronic disease. 
• The center promoted sustainability by engaging new grantees in strategic planning through the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool, resulting in individualized scorecards and next steps for action plans. 

Senior Centers

NCOA’s National Institute of Senior Centers (NISC) is an expanding network that strengthens senior centers’ impact by promoting best practices, peer networking, advocacy, research, training, and skills development. In FY24, NCOA: 

• Continued to develop the Modernizing Senior Centers Resource Center (MSCRC) through a cooperative agreement with ACL. The MSCRC provides leadership, training, technical assistance, peer networking, and a clearinghouse of best practices.
• Supported the widely recognized National Senior Center Month in September, providing an online toolkit for senior centers to hold local celebrations including a program and publicity guide. 
• Expanded NCOA’s senior center network to more than 2,700 organizations enrolled as NISC Affiliate Members. 
• Recognized 15 winners in the annual NISC Programs of Excellence with programs showcased in a webinar series and published in a searchable clearinghouse of best practices. 

Falls Prevention

NCOA’s National Falls Prevention Resource Center supports the implementation, dissemination, and sustainability of evidence-based falls prevention programs and strategies across the nation to reduce the incidence of falls among older adults and adults with disabilities. The center educates consumers and professionals about the risks of falls and how to prevent them and serves as a national clearinghouse of tools and best practices. NCOA also leads the Falls Free® Initiative, which includes national organizations and state coalitions on falls prevention charged with promoting effective strategies to prevent falls and fall-related injuries. In FY24: 

• The Falls Prevention Summit, held September 2023, brought together stakeholders to update the National Falls Prevention Action Plan. The event attracted 183 registrants, fostering collaboration across the field. 
• Falls Prevention Awareness Week 2023 engaged 40 states, reaching 3.2 million individuals nationally through educational campaigns and events. Grassroots activities reached 773,071 older adults and included workshops such as tai chi demonstrations. 
• The center partnered with 40 state grantees to implement and sustain evidence-based falls prevention workshops, resulting in 1,986 workshops with over 26,800 participants. 
• A Falls Prevention Fellowship Program was launched, with four fellows selected to develop innovative capstone projects aimed at reducing falls risks. 

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 FY24: 

• 180 grantees and 150 senior centers were selected to participate in the program across 48 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. 
• Grantees delivered 16,286 total first doses of COVID-19 vaccinations, 128,304 total second (or later) COVID-19 vaccinations, 197,579 total flu vaccinations, 

Economic Well-Being: Benefits Access, Direct Care Workforce, and Mature Workers

NCOA helps qualified older adults and individuals with disabilities enroll in programs that pay for health care, prescriptions, food, utilities, and other daily expenses. In FY24: 

• NCOA released a new Benefits Enrollment Center (BEC) grant opportunity and selected 90 community-based organizations for this round of funding. These organizations help low-income people with Medicare access all the benefits they may be missing. The BECs helped over 149,000 people submit over 216,000 applications for benefits estimated to be worth over $620 million. 
• NCOA’s Center for Economic Well-Being provided resources and technical support to states and territories that receive Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) funding to help low-income individuals apply for Medicare subsidies. MIPPA grantees assisted over 102,000 individuals with Extra Help/Low Income Subsidy (LIS) and Medicare Savings Programs (MSP) applications. 
• As part of the Senior SNAP Enrollment Initiative funded by the Walmart Foundation, 24 community organizations screened over 64,000 clients and completed over 10,000 applications for low-income older adults applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) with an estimated value of benefits of over $13 million. 

In response to a growing shortage of skilled direct care workers, NCOA received ACL funding to establish the Direct Care Workforce Strategies Center. The center aims to build national capacity to support community living by providing resources, technical assistance, and training to state systems to improve recruitment, training, and retention of the nation’s direct care workforce. 

And NCOA is a national sponsor of the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), funded through the U.S. Department of Labor. In FY24: 

• SCSEP served 4,283 participants who provided 2.39 million hours of community service 
• The program placed 451 trained participants in jobs. 

Public Policy

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. In FY24, NCOA: 

• Led the advocacy efforts to continue support for low-income beneficiary outreach and enrollment efforts, which helps older adults afford their Medicare prescription drug coverage and other benefits. Mobilizing nearly 60 national organizations in outreach to Congress, the program was extended to March and then December 2024. 
• Preserved investments in aging services that support healthy aging and financial security, which maintained the prior year’s historic investment in falls prevention, an overdue increase for the Medicare State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), and protecting the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP). 
• Leveraged insights and expertise gained from years working with members of the national Aging Services Network in the first regulatory process for the Older Americans Act in three decades. NCOA shared a vision for continued work to target older adults with greatest economic need, support innovation in nutrition programs, strengthen community input, and enhance health promotion and disease prevention. 
• Released the second annual What Women Say™ survey, which showed that the most important federal policies among women surveyed were providing government assistance for low-income adults, improving Medicare and Medicaid to cover home care, and expanding Medicare to cover the full range of treatments for chronic diseases. 

Research

NCOA conducts research to help clarify the barriers to aging well and grow support for improved policies that help us all. In FY24: 

• Commissioned by ACL, NCOA conducted a four-wave series to understand the impacts of the unwinding of the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision on older adult beneficiaries and enrollment organizations that serve them. 
• NCOA published a report studying the feasibility of solutions aimed at streamlining the public benefits enrollment system by incorporating an automated rules engine into the digital application process. Four issue briefs were published summarizing the findings. 

Events and Education

NCOA hosts the annual Age+Action Conference to spark connections and energize aging services professionals to continue their work. In FY24, the conference: 

• Brought 998 professionals together for sessions on topics ranging from healthy aging to addressing ageism to creating innovation senior center programming and bolstering economic well-being.

In FY24, NCOA’s online learning platform NCOA Connect:

• Hosted 115 live webinars and 600 on-demand sessions on topics ranging from equity in aging to benefits access.
• Served 48,871 users who can use accessibility features to benefit from the learning management system.
• Provided resources, training tools, hosted calls, and provided event marketing templates for the AT&T Digital Literacy Initiative.&

Digital Engagement

NCOA’s digital properties are designed to reach the largest number of people possible to help them age well. In FY24:

• 8.9 million people visited NCOA’s website (ncoa.org) to learn about essential topics, including economic security and healthy aging. 
• NCOA’s BenefitsCheckUp® connected 1.3 million people with benefits assistance programs and resources. 
• 2,700 visitors used NCOA’s Job Skills CheckUp to learn how to improve their prospects for employment; 7,700 used Budget CheckUp to discover tips for managing their money; and 36,600 used Falls Free CheckUp® to understand their risk for falling and how to reduce that risk. 

Financial Highlights

The following charts present the highlights of the revenue and expenditure distributions by categories for FY24. Full Audited Financial Statements for FY24 and for prior years are available on NCOA’s website.

Download the annual and financial reports

Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Report

Fiscal Year 2024 Audited Financial Statement