How much does Public Interest Law Initiative give?

Public Interest Law Initiative reported 30 itemized grants totaling $422,500, out of $431,927 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 26 and 29 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Public Interest Law Initiative fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (95%), Housing & Shelter (3%), Environment (2%).

Who are Public Interest Law Initiative's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Legal Aid Chicago ($303k), Equip for Equality ($191k), Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc ($190k).

Does Public Interest Law Initiative fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 3% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Public Interest Law Initiative?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, The Sidley Austin Foundation.

Where is Public Interest Law Initiative based?

Public Interest Law Initiative is based in IL.

Foundation Dossiers Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

Illinois · Public charity

Public Interest Law Initiative

PILI engages, inspires and empowers those advancing equal access to justice.

$432k
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 30
Itemized grants FY2025: 29
Organizations funded FY2024: 3%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Itemized, FY2025: $423k; The rest is grants the schedule does not break out
Median grant, FY2025: $13,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $39,000
Organizations funded a year: 26 to 29; FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 1
Total assets, FY2025: $2.8M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 3% of the organizations Public Interest Law Initiative funded were first-time grantees, receiving 7% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $26k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Crime & LegalHealthOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	30	$423k	10%
FY2024	29	$387k	3%
FY2023	29	$346k	0%
FY2022	28	$320k	7%
FY2021	26	$294k	4%
FY2020	26	$311k	0%
FY2019	26	$311k	0%
FY2018	26	$311k	8%

100% 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$2.8MHousing & Shelter$80kEnvironment$55kCivil Rights$28k

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
Legal Aid Chicago	$303,000	9	0%
Equip for Equality	$191,200	9	0%
Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc	$190,300	9	0%
Greater Chicago Legal Clinic	$185,198	9	1%
Prairie State Legal Services Inc	$181,168	9	0%
Legal Council for Health Justice	$164,100	9	1%
Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation	$136,500	9	1%
The Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU Inc	$136,500	9	0%
Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc	$132,400	9	1%
Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services	$93,300	9	1%

Show all 33 grantees

All grantees of Public Interest Law Initiative by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Legal Aid Chicago	$303,000	9	0%
Equip for Equality	$191,200	9	0%
Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc	$190,300	9	0%
Greater Chicago Legal Clinic	$185,198	9	1%
Prairie State Legal Services Inc	$181,168	9	0%
Legal Council for Health Justice	$164,100	9	1%
Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation	$136,500	9	1%
The Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU Inc	$136,500	9	0%
Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc	$132,400	9	1%
Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services	$93,300	9	1%
Metropolitan Family Services	$92,300	9	0%
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Rights	$86,100	7	0%
Law Center for Better Housing	$81,800	9	1%
Maldef - Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund	$81,800	9	0%
Shriver Center on Poverty Law	$81,800	9	0%
Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness	$79,900	9	0%
Cabrini Green Legal Aid	$78,550	9	0%
Illinois Legal Aid Online	$61,200	9	0%
Ascend Justice	$56,200	7	0%
Citizen Advocacy Center	$54,700	9	5%
Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund Inc	$54,700	9	0%
Impact for Equity	$54,700	9	0%
Environmental Law and Policy Center of the Midwest	$54,700	9	0%
Fund for Justice	$49,200	8	1%
Center for Conflict Resolution	$48,700	8	1%
Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago	$48,200	8	0%
Center for Disability & Elder Law Inc	$46,800	5	1%
Immigration Project Inc	$38,200	4	0%
National Immigrant Justice Center	$26,000	1	n/a
National Immigrant Justice Center	$26,000	1	n/a
Chicago House & Social Service Agency	$25,200	4	0%
James B Moran Center for Youth Advocacy	$6,500	1	0%
North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic	$6,500	1	0%

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Public Interest Law Initiative supplied at peak.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 31.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Illinois Equal Justice FoundationIL45.4× affinity19 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Illinois Equal Justice Foundation · Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois · The Sidley Austin Foundation · The Chicago Bar Foundation · Polk Bros Foundation Inc · Illinois Bar Foundation · The Chicago Community Trust · Equal Justice Works · Circle of Service Foundation · Katten Muchin Rosenman Foundation Inc · United Way of Metropolitan Chicago Inc · AbbVie 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.

Compare Public Interest Law Initiative with peer funders

About Public Interest Law Initiative

How much does Public Interest Law Initiative give?: Public Interest Law Initiative reported 30 itemized grants totaling $422,500, out of $431,927 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 26 and 29 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does Public Interest Law Initiative fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (95%), Housing & Shelter (3%), Environment (2%).
Who are Public Interest Law Initiative's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Legal Aid Chicago ($303k), Equip for Equality ($191k), Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc ($190k).
Does Public Interest Law Initiative fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 3% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as Public Interest Law Initiative?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, The Sidley Austin Foundation.
Where is Public Interest Law Initiative based?: Public Interest Law Initiative is based in IL.