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The American Association for Justice Robert L Habush Endowment at a glance

· Public charity

The American Association for Justice Robert L Habush Endowment

See schedule othe endowment serves as a grant-making mission to:1) provide consistent public education and research to promote informed public dialogue on, understanding of and appreciation for the civil justice system;2) sponsor prestigious education programs and well-received publications for judges and law professors; and 3) fund…

$868k
Granted FY2025still arriving
9
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$206k
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, FY2017 to 2025.

Crime & Legal$3.2MEnvironment$1.5MCivil Rights$292kEducation$287kPublic Benefit$284kHealth$55kScience & Tech$53kPublic Safety & Disaster$45kOther$0
02FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 9 grants below total $594,500, the rows itemized in this filing. The $868,058 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $273,558 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

  • $10k–50k6 grants · $158k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $437k
$33,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$26M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
NATIONAL CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE$206,000
CENTER FOR JUSTICE & DEMOCRACY$168,000
REBUTTALPR LLC$62,500
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CORPORATION$45,000
CIVIL JUSTICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE$33,000
ALLIANCE TO COUNTER CRIME ONLINE$30,000
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO LAW SCHOOL$25,000
CHILD USA$15,000
COUNCIL OF CHIEF JUDGES OF THE STATE COURT OF APPEAL$10,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 87% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CORPORATION: $45k → 16%STANFORD UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: $53k → 8%CHANGE RESEARCH: $53k → 10%CORNELL UNIVERSITY: $75k → 16%Sustainable Markets Foundation: $300k → 17%EARL CARL INSTITUTE FOR LEGAL & SOCIAL: $51k → 16%HART RESEARCH ASSOCIATES: $45k → 14%ADAMS AULD LLC: $53k → 9%RIGHT DIGITAL: $75k → 15%PANORAMA GLOBAL: $90k → 9%REBUTTALPR LLC: $111k → 16%INSTITUTE FOR LAW & ECONOMIC POLICY: $50k → 7%UC BERKELEY FOUNDATION-CIVIL JUSTICE MESSAGING RESEARCH INITIATIVE: $76k → 10%SUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION: $168k → 17%PUBLIC CITIZENS FOUNDATION: $35k → 14%RIGHT DIGITAL: $60k → 15%REBUTTALPR LLC: $100k → 16%CIVIL JUSTICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $45k → 10%SUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION: $162k → 17%CENTER FOR PROGRESSIVE REFORM: $50k → 14%RIGHT DIGITAL: $45k → 15%REBUTTALPR LLC: $100k → 16%CIVIL JUSTICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE: $35k → 10%SUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION: $162k → 17%RIGHT DIGITAL: $35k → 15%REBUTTALPR LLC: $88k → 16%CIVIL JUSTICE RESEARCH INITIATIVE: $35k → 10%SUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION: $162k → 17%REBUTTALPR LLC: $75k → 16%SUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION: $162k → 17%REBUTTALPR LLC: $63k → 16%SUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION: $162k → 17%BERLIN ROSEN: $207k → 17%Pound Civil Justice Institute: $225k → 14%BERLIN ROSEN: $146k → 17%NATIONAL CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $206k → 14%NATIONAL CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $200k → 14%CENTER FOR JUSTICE & DEMOCRACY: $168k → 17%POUND CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $200k → 14%POUND CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $200k → 14%POUND CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $200k → 14%POUND CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $101k → 14%POUND CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $75k → 14%POUND CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $68k → 14%POUND CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $39k → 14%CENTER FOR PROGRESSIVE REFORM: $75k → 14%CENTER FOR PROGRESSIVE REFORM: $59k → 14%CENTER FOR PROGRESSIVE REFORM: $50k → 14%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

WA
NY
MA
OR
NV
OH
PA
NJ
CA
VA
NM
DC
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.

86%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$4.9M · 15 repeat orgs$790k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +16% since the first grant, against +14% for those funded once.

15 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
14

Total granted

$4.9M
$522k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+16%
+14%

Still filing today

47%
64%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 55% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $268k 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
EducationPublic BenefitEnvironmentCrime & LegalPhilanthropyCivil RightsOther
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

  • NC
    NATIONAL CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE
    9× · 2017–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +11% · 49% of their budget
  • SM
    SUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION
    7× · 2017–2024 · $1.3M · revenue +270%
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATION
    5× · 2018–2025 · $251k · revenue +99%

Funded once

  • PG
    PANORAMA GLOBALgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $90k · revenue +50%
  • Cornell Universitygraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $75k · revenue +27%
  • CR
    CHANGE RESEARCH
    one grant, 2024 · $53k
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
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
2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
3
The Trustees of Princeton University

Research, education and general - princeton university is a private not-for-profit, non-sectarian institution of higher learning with approximately 5,700 undergraduate and 3,300 graduate students. 2,500 students graduated in the 2024-2025…

Education
4
National Association of College and University Attorneys

To advance the practice of higher education attorneys for the benefit of the institutions they serve.

—
5
The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel

Enhance the ability of actec members to provide the most efficient and highest quality services to their clients; develop qualified trust and estate counselors; improve and reform probate, trust and tax laws, procedures, and standards of…

Community Improvement
6
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

The american enterprise institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity, and strengthening free enterprise. aei pursues these ideals through independent thinking and the…

Social Science
7
California Western School of Law

California western school of law is an independent, aba/aals and wasc senior college and university commission (wscuc) accredited s.d. law school that prepares graduates for the practice of law through a carefully sequenced program of…

Education
8
Open Markets Institute

The open markets institute works to help people relearn how to use competition policy to build stronger democracies, more just and equitable societies, more innovative and sustainable economies, and a more secure and peaceful world.

Education
9
Competitive Enterprise Institute

Competitive enterprise institute (cei) is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. we believe that consumers are best helped not by government regulation but by being…

—
10
Pacific Coast University School of Law

With its long history of education, affordable tuition, flexible schedule, and small class sizes, pacific coast university school of law is the perfect law school choice for working professionals who seek a law degree program.

Education
11
American Civil Liberties Union Fund of the District of Columbia

Preservation of civil liberties through litigation and public education.

—
12
American Association for Justice Education Fund

The national college of advocacy (nca) is the major program of the aaj education fund. the nca shall be the educational arm of aaj; shall be responsible for all aaj educational programs; and shall establish the education policy of aaj. nca…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Center for Justice and Democracy; the most unlike its peers is Yeshiva University. 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

24 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. 24 of the 35 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.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
22/24
Grantees still filing
17/24
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

NATIONAL CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $1,572,481 · OtherNATIONAL CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTEREBUTTALPR LLC: $536,000 · OtherREBUTTALPR LLCBERLIN ROSEN: $352,800 · OtherBERLIN ROSENRIGHT DIGITAL: $215,000 · OtherRIGHT DIGITAL+14 more: $525,070 · Other+14 moreSUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION: $1,278,000 · EnvironmentSUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATIO…CENTER FOR PROGRESSIVE REFORM INC: $234,125 · EnvironmentCENTER FOR PROGRESSIVE REFORM…UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATION: $250,548 · EducationUNIVERSIT…Cornell University: $75,000 · EducationCornell U…THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $52,500 · EducationTHE BOARD…LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY: $40,000 · EducationLOYOLA MA…YESHIVA UNIVERSITY: $33,600 · EducationYESHIVA U…OREGON JURY PROJECT: $30,000 · EducationOREGON JU…AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $24,000 · EducationThe Rand Corporation: $96,950 · Public BenefitINSTITUTE FOR LAW AND ECONOMIC POLICY: $75,000 · Public BenefitPUBLIC CITIZEN FOUNDATION INC: $35,000 · Public BenefitCENTER FOR POPULAR DEMOCRACY INC: $10,825 · Public BenefitCOUNCIL OF CHIEF JUDGES OF THE STATE COURTS OF APPEAL: $10,000 · Public BenefitCENTER FOR JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY: $168,000 · Civil RightsPANORAMA GLOBAL: $90,390 · InternationalChildren's Hospital Corporation: $45,000 · Health
Other$3,201,351Environment$1,512,125Education$505,648Public Benefit$227,775Civil Rights$168,000International$90,390Health$45,000

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetNATIONAL CIVIL JUSTICE INSTITUTE: $1,572,481 over 9y, 49% of budgetSUSTAINABLE MARKETS FOUNDATION: $1,278,000 over 7y, 2.3% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY FOUNDATION: $250,548 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetCENTER FOR PROGRESSIVE REFORM INC: $234,125 over 4y, 8.5% of budgetThe Rand Corporation: $96,950 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPANORAMA GLOBAL: $90,390 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR LAW AND ECONOMIC POLICY: $75,000 over 2y, 31% of budgetCornell University: $75,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY: $52,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetEARL CARL INSTITUTE FOR LEGAL AND SOCIAL POLICY INC: $50,925 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetChildren's Hospital Corporation: $45,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNew Mexico Trial Lawyers Association Inc: $45,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetLOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetPUBLIC CITIZEN FOUNDATION INC: $35,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetYESHIVA UNIVERSITY: $33,600 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTEXAS WATCH FOUNDATION: $30,000 over 2y, 16% of budgetALLIANCE TO COUNTER CRIME ONLINE: $30,000 over 1y, 41% of budgetAMERICAN UNIVERSITY: $24,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCENTER FOR POPULAR DEMOCRACY INC: $10,825 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE NATIONAL JUDICIAL COLLEGE: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

Amazonsmile Foundation
Amazonsmile FoundationWA1.2× affinity6 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Amazonsmile 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 The American Association for Justice Robert L Habush Endowment funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The American Association for Justice Robert L Habush Endowment. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%13%28%50%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →median 10%
  • Children's Hospital Corporation: 10% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
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 The American Association for Justice Robert L Habush Endowment?

Find your warmest path to The American Association for Justice Robert L Habush Endowment 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 35 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

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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