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Vermont Law School at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Vermont Law School

We are committed to developing a generation of leaders who use the power of the law to make a difference in our communities and the world.

$16M
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$745k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
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$3.7MEducation$887kFood & Nutrition$617kEnvironment$46kArts & Culture$9k
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 6 grants below total $1,592,454, the rows itemized in this filing. The $15,682,000 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $14,089,546 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–50k3 grants · $103k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $146k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.3M
$146,019
Median grant
5
States reached
$56M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
University of Vermont$744,676
Univeristy of San Diego$599,174
Center For Justice Innovation$146,019
President and Fellows of Harvard College$45,825
National Farm To School Network$43,480
Philadelphia Leadership Foundation$13,280
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 (FY20–25, $103k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 46% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

area typical 11%National Farm To School Network: $43k → 10%National Farm to SchoolTides Center: $17k → 14%National Farm To School Network: $12k → 10%National Farm to SchoolTides Center: $15k → 14%National Farm to SchoolTides Center: $15k → 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

VT
NH
MN
IL
NY
MA
PA
CT
CA
NC
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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$4.8M · 7 repeat orgs$267k to everyone else

7 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
2

Total granted

$4.8M
$108k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+27%
+64%

Still filing today

57%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $159k 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
EducationCommunity ImprovementArts & CultureCrime & LegalPublic BenefitFood & NutritionOther
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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO
    4× · 2022–2025 · $1.4M · revenue +27%
  • PH
    PUBLIC HEALTH LAW CENTER INC
    6× · 2017–2022 · $715k · revenue +26%
  • NO
    NORTHEAST ORGANIC FARMING ASSOCIATION OF VERMONT
    4× · 2017–2024 · $42k · revenue +115%

Funded once

  • AL
    AGRARIAN LAND TRUSTgraduated
    one grant, 2024 · $57k · revenue +64%
  • WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2024 · $50k · revenue +10%
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
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

We educate the next generation of leaders to improve the health of our society.

Education
2
The Brookings Institution

The brookings institution (brookings) is a nonprofit public policy organization that conducts in-depth, independent research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national, and global level.…

Social Science
3
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
4
Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy

Iatp works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.

Food & Nutrition
5
North Carolina Biotechnology Center

The north carolina biotechnology center aids the biotechnology-related efforts of researchers, businesses, state and federal governments, and other agencies primarily through awards of grants and loans related to specific programs and…

Science & Tech
6
Third Way

To research and develop centrist policy ideas.

Civil Rights
7
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
8
Trustees of Tufts College

Education and Research

Education
9
Albright College

As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.

Education
10
Lewis & Clark College

Lewis & clark is a premier private higher education institution offering an exceptional education in an inclusive environment. by fostering critical thinking, innovation, creativity, civic engagement, and leadership, both inside and…

Education
11
Fielding Graduate University

We provide exemplary interdisciplinary programs for a community of scholar-practitioners within a distributed learning model grounded in student-driven inquiry and leading to enhanced knowledge.

—
12
University of Miami

See Form 990, Part I, Line 1, Description of Organization Mission.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Tides Center; the most unlike its peers is Wake Forest 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

10 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. 10 of the 13 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
6/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

University of Vermont: $1,447,562 · OtherUniversity of VermontUNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO: $1,413,387 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGOUNIVERSITY OF VERMONT AND STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE: $845,183 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF VERMONT AND STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGEUNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT: $268,336 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUTPUBLIC HEALTH LAW CENTER INC: $715,360 · EducationPUBLIC HEALTH LAW …President and Fellows of Harvard College: $96,921 · EducationPresident and Fell…WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $50,076 · EducationWAKE FOREST UNIVER…JUSTICE INNOVATION INC: $146,019 · Crime & LegalTIDES CENTER: $102,826 · Human ServicesFARMERS MARKET COALITION: $87,693 · Community ImprovementAGRARIAN LAND TRUST: $57,482 · Food & NutritionNORTHEAST ORGANIC FARMING ASSOCIATION OF VERMONT: $42,162 · Arts & CulturePHILADELPHIALEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC: $13,280 · Public Benefit
Other$3,974,468Education$862,357Crime & Legal$146,019Human Services$102,826Community Improvement$87,693Food & Nutrition$57,482Arts & Culture$42,162Public Benefit$13,280

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO: $1,413,387 over 4y, 0.1% of budgetPUBLIC HEALTH LAW CENTER INC: $715,360 over 6y, 4.4% of budgetJUSTICE INNOVATION INC: $146,019 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTIDES CENTER: $102,826 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetPresident and Fellows of Harvard College: $96,921 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetFARMERS MARKET COALITION: $87,693 over 5y, 4.1% of budgetAGRARIAN LAND TRUST: $57,482 over 1y, 5.0% of budgetWAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: $50,076 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHEAST ORGANIC FARMING ASSOCIATION OF VERMONT: $42,162 over 4y, 0.5% of budgetPHILADELPHIALEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC: $13,280 over 1y, 33% 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.

  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO ↗
  • Who funds PUBLIC HEALTH LAW CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds JUSTICE INNOVATION INC ↗
  • Who funds TIDES CENTER ↗
  • Who funds President and Fellows of Harvard College ↗
  • Who funds FARMERS MARKET COALITION ↗
  • Who funds AGRARIAN LAND TRUST ↗
  • Who funds WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds NORTHEAST ORGANIC FARMING ASSOCIATION OF VERMONT ↗
  • Who funds PHILADELPHIALEADERSHIP FOUNDATION INC ↗

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.

Fidelity Investments …
Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift FundMA4.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: 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 Vermont Law School funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Vermont Law School. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →median 31%
  • Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont: 31% of income from government
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: 7% 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 · 0–40%
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.

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 13 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