The role of organized philanthropy in mental health in the United States can be traced to the early 1900s when the Rockefeller Foundation and the Milbank Memorial Fund helped establish the National Committee for Mental Hygiene in 1909. Several decades later in 1942, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation used extensive connections in Congress to inspire the legislation that authorized establishment of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The NIMH is one of 27 research institutes which comprise the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the primary scientific research-funding agency in the United States. Since 1997, NIH funding for the 11 institutes that focus on neuroscience has increased from around $1 billion to over $5 billion in 2005. Over the same period, the NIMH saw its budget for basic brain research increase over 125%, from $661 million to over $1.4 billion. Complementing public funding of basic brain research and public education private foundations and individual philanthropists has contributed in excess of $5 billion toward brain research over the past decade.
