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American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education

The Fund for Justice Education FJE was created to support the American Bar Associations ABA law-related and public services education programs.

$16M
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
11
States reached
$6.7M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Crime & Legal$26MInternational$4.4MArts & Culture$1.7MPublic Benefit$1.5MEducation$460kCommunity Improvement$123kHuman Services$99kHealth$89kOther$0
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 11 grants below total $7,557,864, the rows itemized in this filing. The $16,241,827 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $8,683,963 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $15k
  • $50k–250k8 grants · $856k
  • $250k+1 grant · $6.7M
$69,713
Median grant
11
States reached
$42M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
American Bar Association$6,686,722
Westat Inc$237,587
DNA-Peoples Legal Services Inc$154,150
Wayne State University$136,500
Lewis & Clark Law School$73,374
Sustainable Economies Law Center$69,713
Legal Aid of Arkansas Inc$68,219
Mid Minnesota Legal Aid$61,551
National Judical College$55,048
Legal Aid of Nebraska$7,500
New Mexico Legal Aid Inc$7,500
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY22–23, $49k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%La Posada Tax Clinic: $24k → 13%Board of Child Care: $25k → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

AK
WA
ID
MN
IL
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
IN
PA
CA
UT
CO
NE
VA
MD
AZ
NM
KS
AR
NC
DC
LA
AL
TX
FL

Grants abroad, by region: $3.6M on the FY2025 return

Schedule F, as filed: 8 regions. The IRS asks for region and purpose, not the recipient, so no country or grantee can be named here.

East Asia and the Pacific$918k · 26% · 26 grants

Stated purpose: Legal Aid

Russia and Neighboring States$691k · 19% · 11 grants

Stated purpose: Legal Aid

South Asia$660k · 18% · 11 grants

Stated purpose: Legal Aid

Europe (including Iceland and Greenland)$417k · 12% · 3 grants

Stated purpose: Legal Aid

Middle East and North Africa$367k · 10% · 4 grants

Stated purpose: Legal Aid

Sub-Saharan Africa$258k · 7% · 11 grants

Stated purpose: Legal Aid

South America$215k · 6% · 4 grants

Stated purpose: Legal Aid

Central America and the Caribbean$61k · 2% · 3 grants

Stated purpose: Legal Aid

How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving. Grants abroad on Schedule F are filed by region, purpose and amount with no recipient name, so they are shown by region and cannot be placed on the country map or matched to a grantee.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

97%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$33M · 34 repeat orgs$1.1M to everyone else

34 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 25 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

34
22

Total granted

$33M
$871k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+19%
+39%

Still filing today

68%
82%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 97% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $210k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Crime & LegalInternationalEducationCommunity ImprovementHuman ServicesPublic BenefitOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • AB
    American Bar Association
    4× · 2019–2025 · $19M · revenue +31%
  • GF
    GRAMEEN FOUNDATION USA
    4× · 2020–2023 · $2.0M · revenue +23%
  • SF
    SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND
    4× · 2020–2023 · $1.9M · revenue +44%

Funded once

  • IC
    INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR NOT-FOR-PROFIT LAW INC
    one grant, 2020 · $108k · revenue +24%
  • TI
    THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FOUNDATION LTD
    one grant, 2022 · $92k · revenue +2%
  • LC
    LOUISIANA CIVIL JUSTICE CENTER
    one grant, 2018 · $83k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Legal Aid Justice Center

The legal aid justice center partners with communities and clients to achieve justice by dismantling systems that create and perpetuate poverty.

Crime & Legal
2
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Inc

Serve as a leader, alongside diverse coalitions, in identifying and reforming flaws and inequities in the criminal legal system, and redressing systemic racism, and ensuring that its members and others in the criminal defense bar are fully…

—
3
American Law Institute

The institute's mission, as set out in its certificate of incorporation, is to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to…

Crime & Legal
4
American Immigration Lawyers Association

The american immigration lawyers association (aila) was established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the…

—
5
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area

As one of the most enduring civil rights institutions on the West Coast, we work to dismantle systems of oppression and racism, and build an equitable and just society.

—
6
Colorado Legal Services

To provide meaningful access to high quality, civil legal services in the pursuit of justice for as many low income persons and members of vulnerable populations throughout colorado as possible.

Crime & Legal
7
National Civil Justice Institute

The objectives and goals of the institute shall be to receive and administer funds for the purpose of providing and supporting educational programs for lawyers, legal academics, and members of the judiciary, conferences and publications…

—
8
Dc Bar Pro Bono Center

The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center provides free legal services through pro bono lawyers to low-income individuals, nonprofit organizations and small businesses primarily in the District of Columbia. The Pro Bono Center also recruits and trains…

—
9
National Center for Access to Justice Inc

The national center for access to justice is the academically affiliated national organization that relies on data to support policy reforms that help people obtain access to justice in the civil and criminal justice systems. the center…

—
10
Equal Justice Center

The Equal Justice Center is a non-profit law firm and employment justice organization which empowers low-income families, workers, and communities to achieve fair treatment in the workplace, in the justice system, and in our shared society…

Civil Rights
11
American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education

The Fund for Justice Education FJE was created to support the American Bar Associations ABA law-related and public services education programs.

Crime & Legal
12
Legal Accountability Project

The Legal Accountability Projects mission is to ensure that law clerks have positive clerkship experiences, while extending support and resources to those who do not.

Crime & Legal
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is New Mexico Legal Aid Inc; the most unlike its peers is Conference of Western Attorneys General Ag Alliance. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

43 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 43 of the 59 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
43/43
Grantees still filing
35/43
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

American Bar Association: $19,331,483 · OtherAmerican Bar AssociationPublic Knowledge LLC: $1,967,557 · OtherPublic Knowledge LLCWESTAT CORP: $1,671,533 · OtherWESTAT CORP+30 more: $2,513,530 · Other+30 moreGRAMEEN FOUNDATION USA: $1,951,130 · InternationalGRAMEEN FOUNDA…SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND: $1,945,591 · InternationalSEARCH FOR COM…CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE ENTERPRISE INC: $389,910 · InternationalCENTER FOR INT…+2 more: $199,879 · InternationalNATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE & FAMILY COURT JUDGES: $1,243,860 · Crime & LegalNATIONAL …NATIONAL CENTER FOR STATE COURTS: $783,010 · Crime & LegalNATIONAL …LEGAL AID OF NEBRASKA: $161,746 · Crime & LegalLEGAL AID…COMMUNITY TAX LAW PROJECT: $159,572 · Crime & LegalCOMMUNITY…PHILADELPHIA LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER INC C/O THE ORGANIZATION: $147,121 · Crime & LegalCOMMUNITY LEGAL SERVICES INC: $119,329 · Crime & Legal+5 more: $204,895 · Crime & Legal+5 moreAPPELLATE JUDGES EDUCATION INSTITUTE: $390,598 · Community ImprovementAccounting Aid Society: $63,599 · Community ImprovementSTREET LAW INC: $59,185 · Community ImprovementSustainable Economies Law Center: $139,426 · EducationLEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE: $73,374 · EducationConference of Western Attorneys General AG Alliance: $65,137 · EducationVILLANOVA UNIVERSITY: $45,720 · Education+1 more: $10,000 · EducationCENTER FOR TAXPAYER RIGHTS: $147,726 · Civil RightsNEW VENTURE FUND: $120,000 · Environment
Other$25,484,103International$4,486,510Crime & Legal$2,819,533Community Improvement$513,382Education$333,657Civil Rights$147,726Environment$120,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetAmerican Bar Association: $19,331,483 over 4y, 9.8% of budgetGRAMEEN FOUNDATION USA: $1,951,130 over 4y, 7.8% of budgetSEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND: $1,945,591 over 4y, 2.8% of budgetNATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE & FAMILY COURT JUDGES: $1,243,860 over 7y, 3.0% of budgetNATIONAL CENTER FOR STATE COURTS: $783,010 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetTHE NATIONAL JUDICIAL COLLEGE: $683,762 over 6y, 4.4% of budgetAPPELLATE JUDGES EDUCATION INSTITUTE: $390,598 over 7y, 18% of budgetCENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE ENTERPRISE INC: $389,910 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetDNA PEOPLES LEGAL SERVICES INC: $251,762 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetLEGAL AID OF NEBRASKA: $161,746 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetCOMMUNITY TAX LAW PROJECT: $159,572 over 2y, 22% of budgetGREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC: $151,636 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetCENTER FOR TAXPAYER RIGHTS: $147,726 over 2y, 6.4% of budgetPHILADELPHIA LEGAL ASSISTANCE CENTER INC C/O THE ORGANIZATION: $147,121 over 3y, 1.2% of budgetSustainable Economies Law Center: $139,426 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetBET TZEDEK: $138,059 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetMID-MINNESOTA LEGAL ASSISTANCE: $135,412 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetNEW VENTURE FUND: $120,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY LEGAL SERVICES INC: $119,329 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetINTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR NOT-FOR-PROFIT LAW INC: $108,016 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetNational Association of Counsel for Children: $98,662 over 3y, 4.1% of budgetTHE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL FOUNDATION LTD: $91,863 over 1y, 3.3% of budgetLEGAL AID OF ARKANSAS: $90,959 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetCHILDREN'S LAW CENTER OF CALIFORNIA: $76,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetLEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE: $73,374 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetConference of Western Attorneys General AG Alliance: $65,137 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetAccounting Aid Society: $63,599 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetSTREET LAW INC: $59,185 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetArizona Capital Representation Project: $50,000 over 4y, 2.1% of budgetLUTHERAN IMMIGRATION & REFUGEE SERVICE INC DBA GLOBAL REFUGE: $50,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetVILLANOVA UNIVERSITY: $45,720 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNEW MEXICO LEGAL AID INC: $40,186 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetSOUTHEAST LOUISIANA LEGAL SERVICES CORP: $33,750 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetLEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO: $32,995 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetNational Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Research Instit: $30,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetBOARD OF CHILD CARE OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH INC: $25,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetLEGAL SERVICES OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS INC: $25,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetLa Posada Inc: $24,239 over 1y, 7.5% of budgetCENTER FOR FAMILY REPRESENTATION INC: $15,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetPRESIDENT-BOARD OF TRUSTEES SANTA CLARA COLLEGE: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetKANSAS BAR ASSOCIATION: $6,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetNEW ORLEANS BAR ASSOCIATION: $5,500 over 1y, 0.6% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Equal Justice WorksLegal Services Corpor…American College of B…The Pew Charitable Tr…New Venture FundAmerican Bar Associat…American Bar EndowmentNational Endowment fo…The Skadden FoundationGeorgetown UniversityThe Kresge FoundationTides Foundation
Equal Justice WorksDC27.5× affinity11 shared granteesties to 10 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Equal Justice Works · Legal Services Corporation · American College of Bankruptcy Foundation · The Pew Charitable Trusts · New Venture Fund · American Bar Association · American Bar Endowment · National Endowment for Democracy · The Skadden Foundation · Georgetown University · The Kresge Foundation · Tides Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 100%
  • Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service Inc Dba Global Refuge: 100% of income from government
  • Board of Child Care of the United Methodist Church Inc: 100% of income from government
  • Greater Boston Legal Services Inc: 3% of income from government
  • Lewis & Clark College: 2% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
2rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 59 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home