National Kidney Foundation
non-profit organization in the USA
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is a United States–based nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention, early detection, and treatment of kidney disease. Founded in 1950, NKF is a long-standing kidney health organization in the United States. The Foundation supports research, patient education, clinical practice guidelines, and public policy initiatives related to kidney health, dialysis, and transplantation. NKF works with patients, healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers to improve kidney care and address disparities in access to diagnosis, treatment, and transplantation.
NKF has local offices and affiliates across the United States.
History
Early years (1950s–1960s)
The organization was founded in 1950 by Ada and Harry DeBold in Westchester, New York. The DeBolds’ son had kidney disease (nephrotic syndrome) and died from the illness. They founded the Committee for Nephrosis Research, initially focused on kidney disease research.
In 1964, the organization was renamed the National Kidney Foundation to reflect an expanded mission that included public education, advocacy, and awareness.
NKF contributed to the passage of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act in 1968 and distributed kidney donor cards to promote organ donation awareness.
The public source identifies “National Kidney Foundation” as non-profit organization in the USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around National, Kidney and Foundation.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6973913. VIAF identifies the subject as 157737133. The Library of Congress control number is n81118488. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 1964 and 1968.
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This entry incorporates text from “National Kidney Foundation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.