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Home School Legal Defense Association at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Home School Legal Defense Association

HSLDA defends and advances the constitutional rights of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms.

$1.1M
Granted FY2024still arriving
3
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$15k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2024.

Education$780kYouth Development$62kReligion$58k
02FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 3 grants below total $34,016, the rows itemized in this filing. The $1,067,204 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $1,033,188 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 · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $7k
  • $10k–50k2 grants · $28k
$12,500
Median grant
3
States reached
$6.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Black Homeschoolers of Birmingham$15,000
Bridges to Science$12,500
Maryland Association of Christian Home Educators$6,516
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 (FY23–23, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, 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%SHABACK MINISTRIES INC: $10k → 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
NY
SD
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CA
CO
NE
MO
VA
MD
AZ
KS
AR
TN
NC
LA
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL
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.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

15%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$135k · 5 repeat orgs$764k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +9% since the first grant, against +5% for those funded once.

5 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
67

Total granted

$135k
$743k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+9%
+5%

Still filing today

80%
40%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 37% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $22k went to new ones.

50%100%’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’21’22’23’24
EducationReligionYouth DevelopmentHuman ServicesOther
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

  • LE
    Loving Education at Home Inc
    2× · 2022–2023 · $32k · revenue +9%
  • IA
    Indiana Association of Home Educators Inc
    2× · 2022–2023 · $24k · revenue +127%
  • HE
    HOME EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION OF VIRGINIA
    2× · 2022–2023 · $23k · revenue +30%

Funded once

  • PH
    PATRICK HENRY COLLEGE
    one grant, 2021 · $150k · revenue +18%
  • DC
    DeKalb Christian Home Educators Inc
    one grant, 2023 · $31k · revenue -30% · 67% of their budget
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2023 · $15k
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
Dallas Christian Home Educators

Support for Homeschool Educators

Education
2
Classical Community of Franklin

The organization's mission is to provide opportunities for home schooling families to interact with each other through mentoring and social activities and field trips. We meet weekly during the school year (August-April).

Religion
3
Christian Heritage Home Educators of Washington

To provide support to families interested in Home Schooling by providing seminars and a platform for the exchange of Educational

Education
4
Lansing Area Homeschool Association Inc

Lansing Area Homeschool Academy is a Michigan-based Christian organization designed to provide assistance with teaching and training to Christian homeschooling families. We are not a school or an umbrella organization for homeschoolers,…

Education
5
Michigan Christian Homeschool Network

To Provide information, instruction and inspiration for Michigans home educators

Education
6
Ellis County Christian Homeschool Organization

Christian Based Educational Organization

Religion
7
Home Based Educators Accrediting Association

The Home-Based Educators' Accrediting Association accredits homeschools.

—
8
Valleydale Christian Church and Academy

We are a church homeschool cover for people that wish to homeschool their children at home completely for grades K-12. We are also an in-person private church school meeting 4 days per week for grades K-12 for people that wish to send…

Religion
9
Christian Home Educators Support System

Support, encourage and equip mid-Michigan home educators by offering information, opportunities, activities, resources and relationships with other Christian home educating families.

Education
10
Dominion Equippers Inc

Dominion Equippers Provides a Christian based home school educational program for K-12 students using a university model

Education
11
Oregon Christian Home Education

OCEANetwork exists to serve the Lord Jesus Christ through supporting and encouraging Christian home education, and protecting and advancing private home education freedoms in Oregon for all. We are home educating families who volunteer our…

Education
12
Heart to Home Learning

Thrive Academy is the fully accredited, private Christian school of Heart to Home Learning, Inc. Our school offers a comprehensive educational program that includes classes, tutoring, individualized lessons, online learning facilitation,…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Midwest Parent Educators Inc; the most unlike its peers is One Way Ministries. 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

36 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. 36 of the 74 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
32/36
Grantees still filing
20/36
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Indiana Association of Home Educators Inc: $23,500 · OtherIndiana Association of Home Educators IncHOME EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION OF VIRGINIA: $23,000 · OtherHOME EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION OF VIRGINIAIndividual grant recipient: $15,000 · Other+42 more: $343,166 · Other+42 morePATRICK HENRY COLLEGE: $150,000 · EducationPATRICK HENRY COLLEGELoving Education at Home Inc: $32,000 · EducationLoving Education at Home IncTRANSITIONED CORP: $31,000 · EducationTRANSITIONED CORPBLACK HOMESCHOOLERS OF BIRMINGHAM: $15,000 · EducationSOUTH BAY FAITH ACADEMY INC: $12,500 · Education+14 more: $128,000 · Education+14 moreDeKalb Christian Home Educators Inc: $30,620 · Youth DevelopmentBridges to Science: $25,000 · Youth DevelopmentLUBBOCK HOMESCHOOL CHRISTIAN ATHLETICS ASSOCIATION: $6,000 · Youth DevelopmentNETWORK OF IOWA CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATORS: $13,500 · ReligionAMERICA'S KESWICK: $10,000 · ReligionONE WAY MINISTRIES: $10,000 · ReligionKingdom Education for Young Scholars: $9,000 · ReligionVirtus Classical Education Foundation: $6,000 · ReligionChristian Home Educators of Ohio In: $5,500 · ReligionShabach Ministries Inc: $10,000 · Human Services
Other$404,666Education$368,500Youth Development$61,620Religion$54,000Human Services$10,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetPATRICK HENRY COLLEGE: $150,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetLoving Education at Home Inc: $32,000 over 2y, 19% of budgetTRANSITIONED CORP: $31,000 over 2y, 5.9% of budgetDeKalb Christian Home Educators Inc: $30,620 over 1y, 67% of budgetIndiana Association of Home Educators Inc: $23,500 over 2y, 23% of budgetHOME EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION OF VIRGINIA: $23,000 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetBLACK HOMESCHOOLERS OF BIRMINGHAM: $15,000 over 1y, 19% of budgetNETWORK OF IOWA CHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATORS: $13,500 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetSOUTH BAY FAITH ACADEMY INC: $12,500 over 1y, 10% of budgetSOUTH JERSEY HOMESCHOOLING ASSOCIATION: $12,000 over 1y, 17% of budgetFIRMLY PLANTED FAMILY: $12,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetNEW CENTURY EDUCATORS INC: $12,000 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetQuest Science Club Inc: $12,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetMIDWEST PARENT EDUCATORS INC: $11,500 over 1y, 7.7% of budgetPasture Raised Kids Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 7.1% of budgetAMERICA'S KESWICK: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetONE WAY MINISTRIES: $10,000 over 1y, 8.7% of budgetHOPE & FREEDOM FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 16% of budgetShabach Ministries Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetGranite Classical Tutorials Inc: $10,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetFAMILY EDUCATORS ALLIANCE OF SOUTH TEXAS: $9,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetKingdom Education for Young Scholars: $9,000 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetBLUEBONNET HOME SCHOLARS COLLABORATIVE: $8,000 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetNORTH CAROLINIANS FOR HOME EDUCATION: $7,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetBAREFOOT UNIVERSITY: $7,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetWATERMARK HOMESCHOOL ENRICHMENT INC: $7,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetCHRISTIAN HOME EDUCATORS OF COLORADO: $6,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCUMBERLAND CLASSICAL HOME CENTERED EDUCATORS: $6,000 over 1y, 8.9% of budgetARIZONA FAMILIES FOR HOME EDUCATION: $6,000 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetPILGRIM INSTITUTE: $6,000 over 1y, 9.1% of budgetEducational Resources of Monterey County Hidden Hills Ranch: $5,500 over 1y, 1.1% 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.

Natl Christian Charit…Amazonsmile FoundationDonor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …
Natl Christian Charitable Fdn IncGA3.3× affinity8 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Home School Legal Defense Association funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Home School Legal Defense Association. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 40%5%19%42%75%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    4get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Home School Legal Defense Association?

    Find your warmest path to Home School Legal Defense Association through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    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 74 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports $1.1M of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2024, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Home School Legal Defense Association’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