California · Nonprofit
BAY AREA LEGAL AID
BAY AREA LEGAL AID (California) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $48,182,988 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($34,121,499). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $31M
- Funders on record
- 65
- Grants received
- $48M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Bay Area Legal Aid does
Mission
Baylegal provides free civil legal services to low-income residents of san francisco bay area to address legal barriers to housing, healthcare, personal safety, financial independence and stability so to escape poverty.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Health care access, economic security, and consumer rights: in 2024, baylegal provided services to 7,828 low-income san francisco bay area individuals, including seniors, families with children, and people with disabilities in need of legal assistance to access essential health care and public safety net programs such as medicare, medi-cal, supplemental security income (ssi), calworks (federally known as tanf) and calfresh (federally known as snap). Baylegal also helped to remove financial impediments to housing, income, healthcare, and economic self-sufficiency for low-income consumers. Through this work, baylegal secured over $23.5 million in quantifiable benefits to help low-income bay area residents meet their basic needs and improve their self-sufficiency.
$11,660,776 spent$433,550 earned by the program46% of program spendingHousing and homelessness prevention: in 2024, Bay Area Legal Aid (baylegal) helped 9,719 low-income san francisco bay area individuals, including seniors, families with children, and people with disabilities, avoid homelessness and preserve housing. Baylegal's advocacy to enforce housing laws and regulations also helped preserve and expand affordable housing for low-income individuals throughout the bay area. Baylegal counseled and represented clients who faced illegal evictions, including eviction after foreclosure, discrimination, substandard housing, and other housing rights violations. Through this work, baylegal secured over $15.4 million in quantifiable benefits to help low-income bay area residents secure their basic need for safe, affordable, and habitable housing.
$7,888,871 spentof which $3,896,303 as grants$168,819 earned by the program31% of program spendingDomestic violence prevention: in 2024, baylegal provided integrated and holistic legal services to help 4,637 low-income san francisco bay area survivors of inter-personal violence and their children escape abuse and build new independent and safe futures. Baylegal provided legal assistance with restraining orders, child custody and visitation orders, divorces, child and spousal support, and other family law protections and supports. Baylegal also assisted immigrant survivors of physical and mental abuse, as well their children, in filing for immigration relief under the violence against women act (vawa) and the victims of trafficking and violence protection act.through this work, baylegal secured over $11.1 million in quantifiable benefits in domestic violence, family law, and immigration matters, to help inter-personal violence survivors achieve lasting safety and improve their self-sufficiency.
$3,740,661 spent$3,500 earned by the program15% of program spendingBaylegal also provides targeted services for vulnerable populations including foster and transition age youth, commercially sexually exploited children, youth with disabilities, mental health issues, and/or involvement in the dependency or delinquency systems, as well as veterans and people who were formerly incarcerated.
$2,091,672 spentof which $3,124 as grants8% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $25,381,980.
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 2019 to 2020, from $14M to $19M (+30%).
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 88% · 2018 90% · 2019 91% · 2020 91% · 2021 86% · 2022 83% · 2023 93% · 2024 91%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Genevieve Richardson
Executive director
Board chair
Robert A Goodin
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 24 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $7.5M.
17 of 65 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 10% 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 LEGAL AID’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 65 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
BAY AREA LEGAL AID leans on a few funders — its largest provides 71% of grant income and the top three 78%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
92% 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 LEGAL AID.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 14% · 2018 85% · 2019 65% · 2020 75% · 2021 69% · 2022 80% · 2023 73% — 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
52% of BAY AREA LEGAL AID's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
BAY AREA LEGAL AID draws 82% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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 BAY AREA LEGAL AID receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.8M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$2.9M
- Department of Justice$900k
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 BAY AREA LEGAL AID
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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 BAY AREA LEGAL AID: 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 LEGAL AID?
- BAY AREA LEGAL AID (California) receives grants from 65 organizations whose IRS filings report $48,182,988 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($34,121,499). 45 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BAY AREA LEGAL AID have?
- IRS filings report 65 organizations giving $48,182,988 in grants to BAY AREA LEGAL AID, 45 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BAY AREA LEGAL AID?
- LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $34,121,499 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BAY AREA LEGAL AID 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 65 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