How much does Virginia Law Foundation give?

Virginia Law Foundation reported 37 itemized grants totaling $694,200, out of $714,200 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 15 and 37 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does Virginia Law Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Crime & Legal (73%), Arts & Culture (9%), Public Benefit (7%).

Who are Virginia Law Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: The John Marshall Foundation ($315k), Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition ($250k), Virginia Poverty Law Center Inc ($239k).

Does Virginia Law Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 14% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Virginia Law Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Community Foundation Inc, Equal Justice Works, Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation.

Where is Virginia Law Foundation based?

Virginia Law Foundation is based in VA.

Virginia Law Foundation

Virginia Law Foundation at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Virginia Law Foundation

Virginia Law Foundation's mission is to promote through philanthropy the rule of law, access to justice and law related education.

$714k

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

—

States reached

$60k

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$3.2MArts & Culture$400kPublic Benefit$309kEducation$183kHuman Services$145kHealth$104kSocial Science$35kCivil Rights$30kOther$0

02FY2024 · 37 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured

The 37 grants below total $694,200, the rows itemized in this filing. The $714,200 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $20,000 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 · FY2024

Under $10k7 grants · $60k
$10k–50k29 grants · $575k
$50k–250k1 grant · $60k

$15,000

Median grant

—

States reached

$25M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
John Marshall Center for Constitutional History & Civics	$60,000
The Library of Virginia Foundation	$40,000
Virginia Poverty Law Center Inc	$40,000
Virginia Holocaust Museum	$30,000
Virginia Legal Aid Society Inc	$30,000
Legal Aid Society of Roanoke Valley Inc	$27,700
Appalachian School of Law	$25,000
Blue Ridge Legal Services Inc	$25,000
Legal Services of Northern Virginia Inc	$25,000
Legal Aid Society of Eastern Virginia Inc	$25,000
FairFax Law Foundation	$25,000
Central Virginia Legal Aid Society Inc	$25,000
Southwest Virginia Legal Aid Society Inc	$25,000
Virginia Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program (VJLAP)	$20,000
FreeKind	$20,000

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 (FY17–23, $297k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 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.

92%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$4.1M · 43 repeat orgs$373k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +52% since the first grant, against +40% for those funded once.

43 repeat relationships: 28 still active in FY2024, 15 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$4.1M

$283k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+52%

+40%

Still filing today

86%

64%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 87% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $90k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Crime & LegalEducationHuman ServicesArts & CultureHealthCivil 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

CA
CAPITAL AREA IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS COALITION
8× · 2017–2024 · $250k · revenue +431%
VP
VIRGINIA POVERTY LAW CENTER INC
8× · 2017–2024 · $239k · revenue +83%
F
FREEKIND
8× · 2017–2024 · $237k · revenue +175%

Funded once

TO
TREASURER OF VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT OF VIRGINIA
one grant, 2018 · $75k
TO
THE OLIVER WHITE HILL FOUNDATION
one grant, 2019 · $46k
LA
LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF ROANOKE
one grant, 2019 · $30k

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.

The Virginia Bar Association

To cultivate & advance the science of jurisprudence, promote reform in the law & in judicial procedure, facilitate the administration of justice in virginia, and to uphold & elevate the standard of honor, integrity, and courtesy in the…

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Virginia Law Foundation

Virginia law foundation's mission is to promote through philanthropy the rule of law, access to justice and law related education.

Crime & Legal

Legal Aid of West Virginia Inc

To advocate for low-income, vulnerable west virginians seeking equal access to justice and create system change in order to improve client safety, health, housing, income, and access to resources.

Crime & Legal

Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

Virginia trial lawyers association's primary purposes are to foster continuing legal education and to promote and increase the trial and appellate skills and knowledge of the members of the bar of the commonwealth of virginia through the…

—

West Virginia Bar Foundation Inc

Improve the administration of justice and the provision of legal services for west virginia's citizens.

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

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Virginia

Promote civil liberties and civil rights for everyone in the commonweath of Virginia thru public education, litigation and advocacy with the goal of securing freedom and equality for all.

Civil Rights

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

Virginia Commonwealth University Intellectual Property Foundation

The foundation determines the patentability and obtains patents on virginia commonwealth university (vcu) inventions and markets and licenses such inventions to commerical entities. the foundation's activities promote research efforts at…

Health

Vcu Investment Management Company

To provide investment and investment management and related services to the rector and the board of visitors of virginia commonwealth university (vcu), and/or to the private and independent foundations and other entities affiliated with…

Education

West Virginia Senior Legal Aidinc

To provide legal services free of charge to individuals over age 60 who are unable to pay for those services.

Philanthropy

Legal Services Corp of Virginia

To support the provision of civil legal assistance to indigent individuals throughout virginia.

Crime & Legal

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Southwest Va Legal Aid Society Inc; the most unlike its peers is Jazz4Justice Inc. 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

52 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 52 of the 63 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)

51/52

Grantees still filing

41/52

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Crime & Legal$1,435,175Other$1,422,079Education$778,319Human Services$327,000Arts & Culture$218,590Health$209,000Social Science$55,300

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.

The Community Foundation IncVA32.4× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Community Foundation Inc · Equal Justice Works · Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation · Hampton Roads Community Foundation · Herndon Foundation · Sentara Health · Williams Mullen Foundation · Legal Services Corporation · Richmond Memorial Health Foundation · Charlottesville Area Community Foundation · Carmax Foundation · Richard S Reynolds 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 Virginia Law Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Virginia Law Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

15report 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.

Play a game based on Virginia Law’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