Illinois · Nonprofit
American Bar Association
American Bar Association (Illinois) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $63,335,709 to it, the largest being FREEDOM HOUSE ($42,687,468). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $166M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $63M
- Net assets
- $148M
What American Bar Association does
Mission
To serve equally the members of the legal profession and the public by defending liberty and delivering justice as the national representative of the legal profession, to apply the knowledge and experience of the profession to promote the public good and to encourage cordial discourse among the members of the Bar.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The ABA provides lawyers unparalleled opportunities for professional growth and service through numerous groups dedicated to specific areas of law. The Association currently has 22 Sections, which range in size from about 1,000 members to more than 40,000 7 divisions and 6 forums. All of these groups draw their membership from lawyers, judges, academics, law students and associate members with common interests. Sections include the following legal areas Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Antitrust Law Business Law Criminal Justice Dispute Resolution Environment, Energy and Resources Family Law Health Law Civil Rights and Social Justice Intellectual Property Law International Law Labor and Employment Law Legal Education Litigation Public Contract Law Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Science and Technology Law State, Local, and Tribal Government Law Taxation Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice. Continued on Sch O
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $314M to $265M (−16%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Alpha M Brady
Executive Director
Board chair
Jonathan Cole
Chair, House of Delegates
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $3.3M → $13M.
2 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $19M from 5 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education). These are real filings, and they are not money American Bar Association raised.
From the IRS filings of American Bar Association’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
American Bar Association leans on a few funders — its largest provides 67% of grant income and the top three 92%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund American Bar Association.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 94% · 2018 98% · 2019 80% · 2020 71% · 2021 57% · 2022 54% · 2023 56% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
36% of American Bar Association's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 35% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
American Bar Association draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $94k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Government funding American Bar Association receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8.4M on record — $8.2M federal, $239k state.
- Agency for International Development$4.9M
- Department of Transportation$1.6M
- Department of Justice$948k
- Department of Homeland Security$571k
- Department of Defense$193k
- MA$99k
- NJ$64k
- FL$31k
- VT$20k
- OR$10k
- DE$10k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like American Bar Association
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 6 related entities
- ABA Fund for Justice & Education · exempt
- American Bar Endowment · exempt
- American Bar Foundation · exempt
- National Judicial College · exempt
- ABA Retirement Funds · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for American Bar Association: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds American Bar Association?
- American Bar Association (Illinois) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $63,335,709 to it, the largest being FREEDOM HOUSE ($42,687,468). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does American Bar Association have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $63,335,709 in grants to American Bar Association, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of American Bar Association?
- FREEDOM HOUSE is the largest funder on record, with $42,687,468 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like American Bar Association find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 34 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing