· Public charity
Boston Bar Foundation
The mission of the BOSTON BAR FOUNDATION (bbf) is to promote justice by funding and promoting innovation in legal services, enhancing access to justice for the underserved, and supporting the public interest activities of the bar.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 56 grants below total $2,439,084 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $2,640,081 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $200,997 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k5 grants · $31k
- $10k–50k41 grants · $818k
- $50k–250k8 grants · $790k
- $250k+2 grants · $800k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES | $500,000 |
| BOSTON BAR ASSOCIATION | $300,000 |
| VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT OF THE BOSTON BAR ASSOCIATION | $210,000 |
| POLITICAL ASYLUMIMMIGRATION REPRESENTATION PROJECT | $125,000 |
| METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES | $100,000 |
| DE NOVO CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND HEALING | $90,000 |
| PRISONERS LEGAL SERVICES | $85,000 |
| VETERAN'S LEGAL SERVICES | $65,000 |
| RIAN IMMIGRATION CENTER | $60,000 |
| MASSACHUSETTS LAW REFORM INSTITUTE | $55,000 |
| LAWYERS CLEARINGHOUSE ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS INC | $44,000 |
| NORTHEAST LEGAL AID INC | $40,000 |
| WOMEN'S BAR FOUNDATION | $40,000 |
| LAWYERS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS | $35,000 |
| MASSACHUSETTS ADVOCATES FOR CHILDREN | $33,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–25, $642k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 93% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +84% since the first grant, against +67% for the ones you funded once.
38 repeat relationships — 33 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 13 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $210k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- GBGREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC9× · 2017–2025 · $4.0M · revenue +120%
- BBBOSTON BAR ASSOCIATION9× · 2017–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +27%
- VLVOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT OF THE BOSTON BAR ASSOCIATION INC9× · 2017–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +36%
Funded once
- JIJUDGE IRELAND CHILDRENS FUND INCone grant, 2017 · $14k
MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORPgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $12k · revenue +49%- CCCAPE COD COMMUNITY COLLEGEone grant, 2017 · $10k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The legal aid justice center partners with communities and clients to achieve justice by dismantling systems that create and perpetuate poverty.
Mfhc is committed to ending systemic housing discrimination and creating inclusive communities through education, outreach, advocacy, housing counseling and enforcement.
Championing the rights of noncitizens.
Maha breaks down barriers facing first-time and first-generation home buyers and owners through education, counseling, advocacy, and grassroots organizing.
To achieve equal justice for the poor and disadvantaged through community based legal advocacy.
New england legal foundation (nelf) is the leading non-profit public interest law firm in the region addressing policy and constitutional concerns related to free enterprise. its mission is promoting public discourse on the proper role of…
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.
To serve the legal profession and the public by promoting the administration of justice, legal education, professional excellence, diversity and unity in the legal profession and respect for the law.
The mission of the boston bar foundation (bbf) is to promote justice by funding and promoting innovation in legal services, enhancing access to justice for the underserved, and supporting the public interest activities of the bar. as the…
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…
The national immigration project is a membership organization of attorneys, advocates, and community members driven by the belief that all people should be treated with dignity, live freely, and flourish. the organization litigates,…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Veterans Legal Services Inc and the most unlike its peers is Baystate Reentry Network Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 35 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 18% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
54 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 54 of the 57 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds BOSTON BAR ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT OF THE BOSTON BAR ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds POLITICAL ASYLUMIMMIGRATION REPRESENTATION PROJECT INC ↗
- Who funds METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds DE NOVO CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND HEALING ↗
- Who funds MASSACHUSETTS CORRECTIONAL LEGAL SERVICES INC DBA PRISONERS' LEGAL SVCS ↗
- Who funds MASSACHUSETTS LAW REFORM INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds RIAN IMMIGRANT CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds VETERANS LEGAL SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds WOMEN'S BAR FOUNDATION OF MASSACHUSETTS ↗
- Who funds URBAN REVIVAL INC ↗
- Who funds LAWYERS CLEARINGHOUSE ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS INC ↗
- Who funds LAWYERS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS INC ↗
- Who funds MASSACHUSETTS ADVOCATES FOR CHILDREN INC ↗
- Who funds YOUTH ADVOCACY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds NORTHEAST LEGAL AID INC ↗
- Who funds Children Law Center of Massachusetts Inc ↗
- Who funds CASA MYRNA VAZQUEZ INC ↗
- Who funds PROJECT CITIZENSHIP INC ↗
- Who funds PINE STREET INN INC ↗
- Who funds WOMEN'S LUNCH PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds LA COLABORATIVA INC ↗
- Who funds THIRD SECTOR NEW ENGLAND INC ↗
- Who funds Boston Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR LAW AND EDUCATION INC ↗
- Who funds MASSACHUSETTS COALITION FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH INC ↗
- Who funds ASIAN TASK FORCE AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INC ↗
- Who funds THE SECOND STEP INC ↗
- Who funds SAHELI INC ↗
- Who funds MABEL CENTER FOR IMMIGRANT JUSTICE ↗
- Who funds SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds MASSACHUSETTS IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE ADVOCACY COALITION INC ↗
- Who funds HEALTH LAW ADVOCATES INC ↗
- Who funds ALTERNATIVES FOR COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENT INC ↗
- Who funds VICTIM RIGHTS LAW CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEW ENGLAND INC ↗
- Who funds REACH BEYOND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE INC ↗
- Who funds DOVE INC ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Massachusetts Bar Foundation Inc · Eastern Bank Foundation · Boston Foundation Inc · Cummings Foundation Grants Inc (Fka Oneworld Boston Inc) · Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corp · United Way Of Massachusetts Bay Inc · Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston Inc · The Fish Family Foundation · Barr Foundation · The Clowes Fund Incorporated · The Hyams Foundation Inc · The Cabot Family Charitable Trust
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization Boston Bar Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Victim Rights Law Center Inc — 89% of income from government
- Harborcov Inc — 76% of income from government
- Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corp — 68% of income from government
- Saheli Inc — 61% of income from government
- Dove Inc — 60% of income from government
- Disability Law Center Inc — 57% of income from government
- Reach Beyond Domestic Violence Inc — 53% of income from government
- Health Law Advocates Inc — 52% of income from government
- La Colaborativa Inc — 34% of income from government
- Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence Inc — 32% of income from government
- The Second Step Inc — 26% of income from government
- International Institute of New England Inc — 24% of income from government
- Justice for Housing Inc — 22% of income from government
- Veterans Legal Services Inc — 16% of income from government
- Housing Families Inc — 12% of income from government
- Pine Street Inn Inc — 11% of income from government
- Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health Inc — 11% of income from government
- Project Citizenship Inc — 10% of income from government
- Metrowest Legal Services Inc — 10% of income from government
- De Novo Center for Justice and Healing — 9% of income from government
- Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition Inc — 8% of income from government
- Women's Lunch Place Inc — 8% of income from government
- Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston Inc — 8% of income from government
- Northeast Legal Aid Inc — 7% of income from government
- Brazilian Worker Center Inc — 6% of income from government
- Casa Myrna Vazquez Inc — 5% of income from government
- The Welcome Project Inc — 4% of income from government
- Familyaid Boston Inc — 4% of income from government
- Third Sector New England Inc — 3% of income from government
- Greater Boston Legal Services Inc — 3% of income from government
- Youth Advocacy Foundation Inc — 1% of income from government
- Boston Bar Association — 1% of income from government
- Suffolk University — 1% of income from government
- Lawyers for Civil Rights Inc — 1% of income from government
- Boston Foundation Inc — 0% of income from government
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.