Illinois · Nonprofit
AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION
AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,730,830 to it, the largest being FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION ($4,000,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.0M
- Funders on record
- 45
- Grants received
- $5.7M
- Net assets
- $40M
What American Bar Foundation does
Mission
The American Bar Foundation (abf) seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions. To further this mission the abf produces timely, cutting-edge research of the highest quality to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the united states and internationally.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The research program research work in progress is currently comprised of 33 projects in three broad categories of inquiry: I) learning and practicing law, ii) protecting rights, accessing justice, and iii) making and implementing law. A number of foundation research faculty are recipients of national and international awards for their professional contributions. The foundation's research and its dissemination is designed to further the foundation's overall objective of scholarly preeminence in the study of law, legal institutions, and the legal profession. To this end, research projects are subject to review by an internal research committee, an external group of distinguished and independent scholars, and a research committee of the board of directors. The research projects are then voted on by the full board of directors. Standards for review include the significance of the study and the comportment of its design with the standards of integrity and scholarship.
$4,208,960 spentof which $437,741 as grants$82,000 earned by the program75% of program spendingAcademic affairs and fellowships the foundation offers a series of annual fellowships-in-residence to students of high scholarly achievement and potential. These fellowships are awarded to postdoctoral scholars, doctoral candidates and undergraduate students on a merit basis. Selection is made by research and professional foundation staff under the supervision of the executive director.
$759,686 spentof which $222,000 as grants14% of program spendingFellows of the American Bar Foundation members of the practicing bench, bar, and legal academy are invited to participate in the affairs of the organization through nomination as fellows of the foundation.
$530,158 spent9% of program spendingLaw & social inquiry and liaison
$124,933 spent$46,782 earned by the program2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,623,737.
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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $35M to $40M (+14%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 2% · 2018 3% · 2019 2% · 2020 0% · 2021 9% · 2022 3% · 2023 7% · 2024 4% · 2025 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $110k → $981k.
6 of 45 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 7% 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: $32M from 5 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Bar Endowment). These are real filings, and they are not money AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 45 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 FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 70% 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
27% 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 FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 66% · 2019 93% · 2020 76% · 2021 63% · 2022 74% · 2023 82% — growing more concentrated.
“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 FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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 FOUNDATION draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 19 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $381k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.
Against its field
AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION's funding base is broadening — from 11 funders to 14 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.8M on record — $1.8M federal, $3k state.
- National Science Foundation$1.8M
- TRUST FUND$3k
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 FOUNDATION
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.
Where the money goes
65% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 27 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- American Bar Association · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION: 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 FOUNDATION?
- AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,730,830 to it, the largest being FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION ($4,000,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 45 organizations giving $5,730,830 in grants to AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION?
- FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION 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 45 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