Illinois · Nonprofit
ASCEND JUSTICE
ASCEND JUSTICE (Illinois) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,340,790 to it, the largest being LAWYERS TRUST FUND OF ILLINOIS ($2,292,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.1M
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $6.3M
- Net assets
- $1.5M
What Ascend Justice does
Mission
Our mission is to empower individuals and families impacted by gender-based violence or the child welfare system to achieve safety and stability through holistic legal advocacy and systemic reform. We are working toward strong communities where people have the power to navigate fair systems and overcome violence.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
In our most recently completed fiscal year, Ascend Justice provided legal representation or advice to approximately 1,000 victims of gender based violence seeking orders of protection, domestic relations cases in which they seek divorce, support or custody of their children, immigration proceedings involving u-visa or vawa relief, family defense & economic justice cases, and civil legal services for incarcerated survivors. Almost all of our clients are living in poverty, and our free, high quality legal services are a crucial tool for breaking the cycle of violence and keeping their families safe.
$3,686,987 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,686,987.
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 2023 to 2024, from $1.5M to $3.0M (+95%).
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 40% · 2018 61% · 2020 58% · 2021 61% · 2022 52% · 2023 60% · 2024 70% · 2025 66%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
Margaret Duval
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $142k → $1.0M.
8 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ASCEND JUSTICE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 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
ASCEND JUSTICE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 36% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
78% 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 ASCEND JUSTICE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 81% · 2018 54% · 2019 46% · 2020 39% · 2021 18% · 2022 31% · 2023 33% — 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
71% of ASCEND JUSTICE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
97% of ASCEND JUSTICE's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $884k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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 ASCEND JUSTICE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.3M on record.
- Department of Justice$1.3M
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 ASCEND JUSTICE
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
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
90%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ASCEND JUSTICE: 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 ASCEND JUSTICE?
- ASCEND JUSTICE (Illinois) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,340,790 to it, the largest being LAWYERS TRUST FUND OF ILLINOIS ($2,292,000). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ASCEND JUSTICE have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $6,340,790 in grants to ASCEND JUSTICE, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ASCEND JUSTICE?
- LAWYERS TRUST FUND OF ILLINOIS is the largest funder on record, with $2,292,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ASCEND JUSTICE 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 42 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