American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
Professional societyA U.S. pediatric professional membership organization. · United States
Visit the source site · Audited 2026-10-14
Who pays for it
AAP's tax return for the year ending June 2025 reports $138,498,070 in revenue; AAP told Undark corporate support was about 4% of revenue for July 2024 through June 2025, and its October 2025 page listed named supporters in giving bands.
Status: Labeled
AAP lists corporate supporters, including companies in medicine and infant nutrition, and recent reporting raised questions about the visibility of some guideline-author disclosures. The audit found no evidence that sponsors dictated recommendations, but SafeMomma uses AAP only with a visible label.
How SafeMomma uses it
SafeMomma cites AAP with a visible professional-society label, checks the specific policy's date and method, and seeks corroboration from a source with different owners and funding.
The audit
- Who controls it
- AAP policies use expert authors and peer reviewers, followed by staff and executive review and Board approval. The described process includes three executive-review rounds and a final Board vote; the reviewed approval chain did not include a political appointee or corporate sponsor.
- Money
- AAP's return for the year ending June 2025 reports $138,498,070 in revenue and $48,375,155 in contributions, or 34.9%; that contribution category does not identify donor sectors. AAP told Undark corporate support was about 4% of revenue for July 2024 through June 2025, and the October 2025 supporter page listed named companies in giving bands.
- Conflict rules
- AAP says guideline authors submit annual and new conflict disclosures, and relevant financial relationships may prevent lead authorship in most cases. Its published financial-conflict policy applies to research under AAP rules, not every clinical guideline; reporting found some author relationships and the association's relevance decisions were not fully transparent.
- Method
- AAP policy statements and reports use expert drafting, peer review, and Board review, and the process can take up to two years. Since 2025, GRADE, a system for rating evidence and recommendations, applies to new Clinical Practice Guidelines and their systematic reviews, not to all AAP guidance.
- Dates on its pages
- AAP says policy statements and clinical reports follow a five-year review cycle, so an item can lag new evidence; the specific document date and whether a newer guideline replaces it matter.
- Political exposure
- After federal immunization changes in 2025, AAP released its own childhood vaccine schedule in August 2025 and publicly disagreed with federal officials, with another response on January 5, 2026. The reviewed record showed no officials ordering AAP to rewrite its guidance.
- Money exposure
- AAP's October 2025 page named corporate supporters in giving bands, and AAP reported corporate support of about 4% of revenue for July 2024 through June 2025. A 2021 historical review estimated about $3.3 million per year from four infant-formula companies in 2017, around 3% of AAP's budget; that arrangement later ended, and the audit found no proof that those payments caused a specific recommendation.
- Track record
- AAP was not a source assessed in the five b1-b5 track-record tests.
Where this comes from
Incentive exposure describes pressure from money or politics, not whether the source is right. Funding alone does not show influence.