Alabama · Nonprofit
BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC
BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC (Alabama) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,201,924 to it, the largest being ALABAMA LAW FOUNDATION INC ($934,927). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $474k
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $2.2M
- Net assets
- $263k
What Birmingham Volunteer Lawyers Program Inc does
Mission
To provide free legal services to low-income citizens of jefferson county
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Housing-vlb works to ensure that the largest amount of low-income birmingham citizens possible have safe housing by providing legal help for eviction defense, fighgting unsafe/unhealthy housing and fighting foreclosures and ejectments. Vlb also works to solve homeless residents' legal problems so they can obtain indentification which puts them on the path to securing housing.
$124,225 spent31% of program spendingConsumer protection-vlb encourages birmingham residents to be productive citizens by providing legal assistance to fight unscrupulous debt collectors, start fresh by filing bankruptcy stop or alleviate wage and bank account garnishments, and provide legal help for other civil legal issues.
$116,210 spent29% of program spendingDomestic violence and domestic relations - vlb assists in maintaining safe and secure families by providing legal assistance to every client who is a victim of domestic violence and by helping other low-income clients with other domestic relations issues.
$120,218 spent30% of program spendingPatent program-vlb provides legal assistance to low-income investors for filing and obtaining patents, the vlb organization serves as the regional hub for alabama and mississippi for pro bono patent help.
$40,072 spent10% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $400,725.
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 $625k to $249k (−60%).
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: 2020 10% · 2023 88% · 2024 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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 7 funders to 3 funders, grant income fell $299k → $19k.
4 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 20% 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: $6k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Birmingham Bar Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC raised.
From the IRS filings of BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC’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
BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
97% 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 BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 30% · 2019 41% · 2020 41% · 2021 63% · 2022 55% · 2023 68% — 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
31% of BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
95% of BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC's grant income comes from Alabama funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $431k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2.2M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,538 crime & legal nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC
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 Alabama
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC: 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 BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC?
- BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC (Alabama) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,201,924 to it, the largest being ALABAMA LAW FOUNDATION INC ($934,927). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $2,201,924 in grants to BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC?
- ALABAMA LAW FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $934,927 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BIRMINGHAM VOLUNTEER LAWYERS PROGRAM INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Alabama. 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 16 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