PLATINUM2023

Smile Train, Inc.

Changing the world one smile at a time

aka Smile Train   |   New York, NY   |  https://www.smiletrain.org

Mission

Smile Train is an international children’s charity with a sustainable approach to a single, solvable problem: cleft lip and palate. Smile Train empowers local medical professionals with training, funding, and resources to provide free cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care to children globally. We advance a sustainable solution and scalable global health model for cleft treatment, drastically improving children’s lives, including their ability to eat, breathe, speak, and ultimately thrive. Seeing the flaws in mission-trip-based models, we were the first cleft organization with a model of true sustainability. Since 1999, we have supported quality cleft care for 1.5+ million children and will continue to do so until every child in need with a cleft has access to the care they deserve.

Ruling year info

1993

Executive Vice Chair, President & Chief Executive Officer

Ms. Susannah Schaefer

Main address

633 Third Ave 9th Floor

New York, NY 10017 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

13-3661416

NTEE code info

Children's and Youth Services (P30)

Birth Defects (G20)

International Development, Relief Services (Q30)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2022, 2020 and 2019.
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Communication

Blog

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Many children around the world are living with untreated clefts. Most have difficulties eating, breathing, hearing, and speaking.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care

Clefts can involve the lip and/or palate and occur when certain body parts do not fuse during pregnancy. They are one of the most common birth differences, affecting about 1 in every 700 newborns globally.
Cleft lips can be seen on an ultrasound as early as the 13th week of pregnancy, but cleft palates are much harder to detect. Whether the cleft is found in utero or at birth, the family should immediately be referred to an experienced cleft team.

While clefts are often caused by a combination of environmental factors and genetics, the exact cause is not known in most cases. It is never one parent or the child’s fault.

Cleft surgery has greatly evolved over more than half a century. Most experts agree that cleft lips should be treated within a child’s first three to six months, while cleft palates should be operated on between eight and 12 months. Most cleft-affected children will undergo a series of surgeries and other essential treatments over their first 20 years.

Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Economically disadvantaged people

Where we work

Awards

Best Documentary Short - Smile Pinki 2009

Academy Award

Best Nonprofit Website 2012

Interactive Media Awards

Gold Panda Award - Dzachuka’s Smile 2013

Sichuan TV Festival

Outstanding Achievement in Modeling & Simulation - Smile Train Virtual Surgery Simulator 2013

National Training Simulation Association

Affiliations & memberships

Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance - Organization 2011

Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance - Organization 2014

Guidestar Platinum Seal of Transparency 2020

Great Nonprofits Top-Rated 2021

Charity Navigator 100 Rating 2021

Videos

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of Smile Train partner hospitals

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Infants and toddlers, Economically disadvantaged people, People with physical disabilities

Related Program

Cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

- Advocating for governments to take appropriate action to prioritize cleft care
- Expanding comprehensive cleft care and partner capacity while ensuring rigorous safety standards
- Using our data to innovate, build systems, and maximize impact

- Ensuring access to safe, high-quality comprehensive cleft care through our proven, sustainable partnership model
- Strengthening local health systems through investment, resources, and building the capacity of local medical professionals
- Driving innovation by leveraging technology and research to transform global cleft care
- Fostering a global cleft community through awareness and education to reduce stigma and ensure acceptance of people with clefts

Smile Train provides essential, free training and education to cleft surgeons and related medical professionals around the world. Since 1999, we have provided more than 66,000 free scholarships, surgical training resources, workshops, and symposia for doctors and medical professionals from 140+ countries.

Smile Train provides financial support that has been used for a wide range of applications, including new operating rooms, cleft surgical instruments and supplies like scalpels and sutures, crucial safety equipment like pulse oximeters, and much more. All of these investments not only make a significant number of incremental surgeries possible, but also make each one safer and of higher quality.

Smile Train has sponsored more than 1,500,000 free cleft surgeries for children in low- and middle-income countries since our founding in 1999. Our network of 1,100+ partner hospitals and 2,100+ partner surgeons has helped children in more than 90 countries.

When Smile Train was founded we were only able to offer the initial surgery, but as we have expanded and our resources have grown, we are now very happy to be able to enable not only free follow-up surgeries, but also lifesaving nutritional support, orthodontics, speech therapy, psychosocial counseling, and many other vital, comprehensive cleft care programs at an ever-increasing number of our partner hospitals.

The advantages of our model were made clear during the COVID-19 pandemic. While mission-trip-based INGOs had to cease operations in March 2020, between that month and June 2022, we sponsored more than 186,000 life-changing cleft surgeries in 75 countries (77% of our pre-pandemic capacity), donated more than $3M in PPE to our local medical partners, and reached 31,000+ healthcare professionals around the world with both in-person and virtual education and training programs, among many other accomplishments.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We demonstrated a willingness to learn more by reviewing resources about feedback practice.
done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome

Financials

Smile Train, Inc.
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Smile Train, Inc.

Board of directors
as of 09/22/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Mr. Roy Reichbach

Robert T. Bell

Finance Chair, Charles B. Wang Community Health Center, Inc.

Susannah Schaefer

Executive Vice Chair, President & Chief Executive Officer, Smile Train

Arthur J. McCarthy

Treasurer; Alternate Governor, New York Islanders

Ed Goren

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Goren Media Group

Richard A Ruderman

President & CEO, Krieger Ruderman & Co., LLC

Roy E Reichbach

Board Chair; CEO, Phenix Real-Time Solutions, Inc.

Mathias Kiwanuka

CEO, Wandering Wines

Crystle Stewart

President, Miss USA Organization

Paula M Shugart

President, Miss Universe Organization

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 9/21/2022
info Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options.

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender (cisgender)
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

No data

Gender identity

No data

 

No data

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data