National Fibromyalgia Association

What National Fibromyalgia Association does

The National Fibromyalgia Association (NFA) is a U.S.-based nonprofit patient advocacy organization founded in 1997 by Lynne Matallana, headquartered at 3857 Birch St, Suite 312, Newport Beach, California. It serves people diagnosed with fibromyalgia, their caregivers and families, and the healthcare providers who treat them, with a stated community of over 250,000 members. The organization's functional mandate is to facilitate research, provide patient education, raise disease awareness, and reduce the isolation experienced by people living with fibromyalgia and overlapping chronic pain conditions. It explicitly does not develop commercial technology products; its core platform is the website fmaware.org, which aggregates educational content, member stories, expert commentary, and resource directories.

The NFA's product surface is content-centric. Core assets include the NFA Website Portal, free NFA Membership, the Chronic Pain Reset Podcast hosted by Afton Hassett, the NFA Shop for merchandise and educational brochures, and a curated Vetted Products resource page. Supporting content includes blog articles covering fibromyalgia news, science, treatment, and overlapping conditions; member-submitted personal stories; and video content produced with clinical partners. The organization publishes no app, exposes no API or SDK, and lists no proprietary technology features. Distribution is exclusively organic, via the website, email newsletter, Facebook, YouTube, and the podcast directory, with no paid acquisition infrastructure disclosed.

The NFA's business model is donations-led, supplemented by e-commerce and a freemium membership layer. Membership is free, generating no direct recurring revenue, but functions as a community-scale and engagement mechanism supporting donations. Revenue streams identified in the input are charitable donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations; e-commerce sales of merchandise, vetted products, and educational materials; and a free membership that drives newsletter sign-ups and community participation. The organization is privately held and tax-exempt, with no disclosed revenue, no funding rounds, no parent company, and no M&A activity on record.

Name

National Fibromyalgia Association

Legal name

National Fibromyalgia Association

Website

https://fmaware.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The National Fibromyalgia Association is a U.S. nonprofit founded in 1997 that supports people with fibromyalgia and chronic pain through education, research facilitation, and community building, serving over 250,000 members via its website, podcast, and free membership program.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Patient Advocacy Nonprofit

NAICS

Individual and Family Services (6241), Social Assistance (624), Civic and Social Organizations (813410)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYMPACAJAL

Health, Wellness & Patient Communities

Media, Entertainment & Sports/Digital Media & Content Platforms (Online Video, Podcasts, Creators)/Social Networking & Community Platforms

Keywords

• Patient advocacy services
• Chronic pain education
• Fibromyalgia awareness
• Health community support
• Nonprofit health organization

Headquarters

HQ city

Newport Beach

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations: Charitable donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations supporting fibromyalgia research and awareness. The organization operates as a nonprofit with tax-exempt status.
2. E-commerce Shop: Sale of vetted products, educational materials, and branded merchandise through the organization's online store.
3. Membership Dues: Free membership model that builds community scale while providing newsletter and content access to members. No membership fee charged.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The National Fibromyalgia Association is a nonprofit patient advocacy organization that delivers fibromyalgia awareness, education, research facilitation, and community support to people living with fibromyalgia and overlapping chronic pain conditions. Its core offering is a free membership program tied to an information portal (fmaware.org) that bundles educational content, the Chronic Pain Reset Podcast, vetted product recommendations, member stories, and a downloadable official brochure, supported by donations and a small e-commerce shop selling branded merchandise and educational materials.

Product overview

The National Fibromyalgia Association operates primarily as a nonprofit information and advocacy organization rather than a technology product company. Their core offering is the NFA Website Portal, which serves as a central hub for fibromyalgia education, community connection, and resource dissemination. Supporting offerings include a free membership program (NFA Membership) connecting over 250,000 members, the Chronic Pain Reset Podcast featuring expert discussions on chronic pain management, an NFA Shop for merchandise, downloadable educational materials (Official NFA Brochure), and a Vetted Products resource. The organization focuses on facilitating research, providing assistance and education to people with fibromyalgia and overlapping conditions, rather than developing commercial software products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• University of Michigan Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with Dr. Dan Clauw's research center at University of Michigan. Dr. Clauw discusses fibromyalgia science and research on NFA podcast, contributing to patient education and research awareness.
• Swing CareminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDr. Andrea Chadwick from Swing Care appears on NFA content discussing fibromyalgia treatment approaches, representing a holistic healthcare provider partnership.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• National Pain Report: Direct peer: digital news and community site focused on chronic pain, including patient stories, treatment updates, and advocacy—closely aligned with NFA's content-and-community mission.
• CreakyJoints (Global Healthy Living Foundation): Direct peer: digital patient community and advocacy organization for people with arthritis and overlapping chronic conditions, operating a similar content-plus-community model for chronic pain sufferers.
• Pain Connection (support groups): Direct peer: nonprofit offering chronic pain support groups, education, and advocacy—closely overlapping NFA's peer-support and patient-education offerings for chronic pain populations.
• American Chronic Pain Association: Direct peer: nonprofit patient advocacy organization providing education, resources, and peer support for individuals living with chronic pain, mirroring NFA's mission across a broader chronic pain umbrella.
• Fibromyalgia Care Society of America: Direct peer: nonprofit focused specifically on fibromyalgia awareness, education, and patient support, directly competing with NFA for the same fibromyalgia community and donor base.
• Chronic Pain Research Alliance: Direct peer: alliance dedicated to advancing research and awareness for chronic overlapping pain conditions including fibromyalgia, overlapping NFA's research-facilitation and patient-education remit.

Broad incumbents

• Healthline Media: Broad incumbent: large-scale digital health content publisher that covers fibromyalgia and chronic pain topics and competes for the same patient-information audience with much greater production resources and SEO reach.
• Arthritis Foundation: Broad incumbent: large established nonprofit covering arthritis and related chronic pain conditions (including fibromyalgia as an overlapping condition), with substantially larger resources, research funding, and member base.

Emerging players

• Daily Strength: Emerging player: online peer-support community covering chronic pain, fibromyalgia, and related conditions; comparable in its free-membership patient-community model, though broader in condition coverage.
• Practical Pain Management (Vertically Integrated Media Solutions): Emerging player: clinician- and patient-targeted publication covering chronic pain conditions including fibromyalgia, serving a similar audience with educational content and treatment resources.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/fmaware
• Xx.com/fibrochampions
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/national-fibromyalgia-association

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about National Fibromyalgia Association