California · Nonprofit
Bay Area Community Law Foundation
Bay Area Community Law Foundation (California) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $585,000 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($160,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $100k
- Funders on record
- 21
- Grants received
- $585k
- Net assets
- $322k
What Bay Area Community Law Foundation does
Mission
BACLF supports the educational and charitable missions of the National Lawyers Guild-San Francisco Bay Area and the San Francisco Tenants Union.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyers Guild provides:1) a free 24/7 confidential hot line for Santa Rita jail inmates2) Free know Your Rights training for unhoused people and their advocates3) Free training for Legal Observers at evictions and demonstrations4) Free training for Immigration Court observers5) Free hot line for people contacted by the FBI or other Federal agencies, subpoenaed by a Grand Jury, etc.6) Free training on digital security, surveillance and social media security7) Free Open Records Clinic at Hastings, now UCSF, Law School8) Free Pro Se clinic at Berkeley Law School
$79,805 spentof which $78,905 as grants$47,798 earned by the program61% of program spendingThe SF Tenants Union provides San Francisco tenants: 1) Free counseling on rent and tenancy related issues2) Free information regarding rent and tenancy-related issues on its website3) Updates and distributes a Tenants Handbook4) Sponsors tenant Anti-Displacement Coalition5) Pays the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project for data analysis and digital mapping of tenant displacement
$51,726 spentof which $51,726 as grants$42,295 earned by the program39% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $131,531.
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 2019 to 2020, from $149k to $275k (+84%).
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: 2019 16% · 2020 2% · 2021 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
56% of Bay Area Community Law Foundation’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (77% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 4 funders to 2 funders, grant income fell $200k → $59k.
5 of 21 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 Bay Area Community Law Foundation’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Bay Area Community Law Foundation has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% 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
62% 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 Bay Area Community Law Foundation.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 80% · 2018 100% · 2019 99% · 2020 44% · 2021 68% · 2022 70% · 2023 96% — 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
21% of Bay Area Community Law Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 19% 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
50% of Bay Area Community Law Foundation's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $290k that is directly attributable, 92% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $295k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
Bay Area Community Law Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 9,376 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,376 community improvement nonprofits under $100k, FY2024
Organizations like Bay Area Community Law 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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Bay Area Community Law 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 Bay Area Community Law Foundation?
- Bay Area Community Law Foundation (California) receives grants from 21 organizations whose IRS filings report $585,000 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($160,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Bay Area Community Law Foundation have?
- IRS filings report 21 organizations giving $585,000 in grants to Bay Area Community Law Foundation, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Bay Area Community Law Foundation?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $160,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Bay Area Community Law Foundation find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 21 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