Illinois · Public charity
Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois
To provide grant funds to illinois not-for-profit organizations providing legal assistance to the poor throughout illinois and for such other programs for the benefit of the public as specifically approved from time to time by the supreme court of illinois exclusively for public purposes.
- $28M
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 55
- Grants FY2025
- 49
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 10%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $110,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $5,530,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 38 to 49
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 1
- Total assets, FY2025
- $83M
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 10% of the organizations Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois funded were first-time grantees, receiving 2% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $367k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 54 | $28M | 15% |
| FY2024 | 49 | $22M | 10% |
| FY2023 | 47 | $17M | 13% |
| FY2022 | 43 | $13M | 12% |
| FY2021 | 40 | $7.1M | 8% |
| FY2020 | 40 | $12M | 15% |
| FY2019 | 42 | $17M | 12% |
| FY2018 | 38 | $10M | 8% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie State Legal Services Inc | $28,023,407 | 9 | 33% |
| Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc | $26,743,297 | 9 | 40% |
| Legal Aid Chicago | $9,541,825 | 9 | 12% |
| Illinois Legal Aid Online | $9,063,634 | 9 | 57% |
| Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation | $8,350,000 | 9 | 52% |
| Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services | $8,240,125 | 9 | 33% |
| Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Rights | $7,322,600 | 9 | 8% |
| Cabrini Green Legal Aid | $5,095,200 | 9 | 21% |
| Law Center for Better Housing | $4,326,606 | 9 | 57% |
| Greater Chicago Legal Clinic | $3,757,140 | 9 | 33% |
Show all 76 grantees
Where it is load-bearing
Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 12 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 66 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: Illinois Equal Justice Foundation · Illinois Bar Foundation · The Chicago Bar Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · The Resurrection Project · The Chicago Community Trust · Chicago Foundation for Women · Public Interest Law Initiative · The Sidley Austin Foundation · Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights · Equal Justice Works
How this is measured
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How do I get to Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois?
Find your warmest path to Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois 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.
About Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois
- How much does Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois give?
- Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois reported 55 grants totaling $28,141,889 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 38 and 49 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (100%), International (0%), Education (0%).
- Who are Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Prairie State Legal Services Inc ($28M), Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc ($27M), Legal Aid Chicago ($9.5M).
- Does Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 10% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, Illinois Bar Foundation, The Chicago Bar Foundation.
- Where is Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois based?
- Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois is based in IL.
Play a game based on Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois’ filings →