How much does The District of Columbia Bar Foundation give?

The District of Columbia Bar Foundation reported 69 grants totaling $26,605,035 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 19 and 35 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does The District of Columbia Bar Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (84%), Food & Nutrition (7%), Human Services (2%).

Who are The District of Columbia Bar Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia ($27M), Neighborhood Legal Services Program of DC ($14M), Rising for Justice Inc ($14M).

Does The District of Columbia Bar Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 0% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as The District of Columbia Bar Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Greater Washington Community Foundation, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The Sidley Austin Foundation.

Where is The District of Columbia Bar Foundation based?

The District of Columbia Bar Foundation is based in DC.

The District of Columbia Bar Foundation

The District of Columbia Bar Foundation at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

The District of Columbia Bar Foundation

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR FOUNDATION was established to raise funds for organizations in the district that provide hands-on legal services to residents who are unable to afford legal assistance.

$27M

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$2.7M

Largest

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 2024.

Crime & Legal$99MFood & Nutrition$8.7MHuman Services$2.8MHealth$2.7MHousing & Shelter$2.2MCivil Rights$1.2MPhilanthropy$520kEducation$491kOther$0

02FY2024 · 69 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

$10k–50k16 grants · $439k
$50k–250k31 grants · $3.4M
$250k+22 grants · $22M

$99,000

Median grant

States reached

$30M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF DC	$2,693,764
LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF DC	$2,647,564
NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES PROGRAM	$2,200,028
BREAD FOR THE CITY	$1,267,508
NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES PROGRAM	$1,140,478
RISING FOR JUSTICE INC	$1,063,145
BREAD FOR THE CITY	$1,022,310
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR PRO BONO CENTER	$937,923
AYUDA	$937,045
LEGAL COUNSEL FOR THE ELDERLY	$911,327
WASHINGTON LAWYERS' COMMITTEE	$859,627
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR PRO BONO CENTER	$802,864
DC VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROJECT	$801,790
RISING FOR JUSTICE INC	$800,000
CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER THE	$775,307

02The need

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 (FY17–24, $11.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$118M · 37 repeat orgs$387k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +80% since the first grant, against +38% for those funded once.

37 repeat relationships: 32 still active in FY2024, 5 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$118M

$67k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+80%

+38%

Still filing today

95%

50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $320k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesCrime & LegalCivil RightsFood & NutritionPhilanthropyHealthOther

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

LA
LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
8× · 2017–2024 · $27M · revenue +69% · 44% of their budget
NL
NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES PROGRAM OF DC
8× · 2017–2024 · $14M · revenue +143% · 59% of their budget
RF
RISING FOR JUSTICE INC
8× · 2017–2024 · $14M · revenue +183% · 93% of their budget

Funded once

BT
BREAK THE CYCLE
one grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue -54%
LH
Lydia's House Incgraduated
one grant, 2021 · $17k · revenue +38%

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.

District of Columbia Access to Justice

Work with DC courts, private bar & legal services providers to increase legal representations for low & moderate income DC residents, enhance efficiency of legal services, and reduce barriers to the judicial system.

Crime & Legal

Legal Aid Justice Center

The legal aid justice center partners with communities and clients to achieve justice by dismantling systems that create and perpetuate poverty.

Crime & Legal

Volunteer Legal Advocates

To advocate for domestic violence victims, at-risk children, and other vulnerable individuals by providing over $22.8m in pro bono legal services, social service referrals, and on-going support; to train and support a strong network of…

Housing & Shelter

Disability Law Center of Virginia

Dlcv's mission is to advance independence, choice and self-determination; protect legal, human, and civil rights; and eliminate abuse, neglect and discrimination of people with disabilities through zealous and uncompromising legal advocacy…

Human Services

Sexual Violence Law Center

Sexual Violence Law Center (SVLC) is a nonprofit law firm that protects the safety, privacy, and civil rights of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Washington through holistic and trauma-informed practices rooted in race and…

Human Services

Inner City Law Center

In 2024, Inner City Law Center, ICLC, served over 3,400 people, helping vulnerable Angelenos to remain in their homes and recover nearly $20.5 million in financial benefits.

Crime & Legal

Council for Court Excellence

Council for court excellence's (cce's) mission is to bring people together to conduct research, educate, and advocate to make d.c.'s unique legal systems more just, equitable, and accountable to the community.

—

The Public Interest Law Center

The Public Interest Law Center uses high-impact legal strategies to advance the civil, social, and economic rights of communities in the Philadelphia region facing discrimination, inequality, and poverty. We use litigation, community…

Crime & Legal

The District of Columbia Bar Foundation

The district of columbia bar foundation was established to raise funds for organizations in the district that provide hands-on legal services to residents who are unable to afford legal assistance.

Crime & Legal

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area

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.

—

The Women's Law Center of Md Inc

Our mission is to ensure the physical safety, economic security, and autonomy of women throughout the state. the women's law center of md works towards this goal by providing direct legal representation, information and referral services,…

—

Philadelphia Legal Assistance Center Inc C/O the Organization

Enforcing and protecting the rights of individuals and families by providing accessible, creative, and high quality legal assistance and working collaboratively for systemic change.

Crime & Legal

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Inc; the most unlike its peers is Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International. 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

39 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. 39 of the 41 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

37/39

Grantees still filing

32/39

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$72,550,527Crime & Legal$12,825,011Food & Nutrition$11,895,304Human Services$11,526,451Philanthropy$5,072,594Health$2,621,200Civil Rights$1,413,878

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

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.

Greater Washington Community FoundationDC54.2× affinity28 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Greater Washington Community Foundation · The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation · The Sidley Austin Foundation · Eugene & Agnes E Meyer Foundation · Venable Foundation Inc · Equal Justice Works · Philip L Graham Fund co Graham Holdings Company · The Morrison & Foerster Foundation · United Way of the National Capital Area · Women's Bar Association Foundation · Miller & Chevalier Charitable Foundation · Georgetown University

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 District of Columbia Bar Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The District of Columbia Bar Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

19report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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 District of Columbia Bar Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The District of Columbia Bar Foundation 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.

Play a game based on District of Columbia Bar’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