North Carolina · Nonprofit
Center for Responsible Lending
Center for Responsible Lending (North Carolina) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,131,532 to it, the largest being SANDLER FOUNDATION ($24,250,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $9.7M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $45M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Center for Responsible Lending does
Mission
Promoting financial fairness and economic opportunity for all, ending abusive lending practices.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Technical Assistance: Provided legal analysis and market insights on the impact of student loan policies and participated in rulemakings on these and other financial issues. Worked with industry and regulators to develop policies and definitions to support the Community Reinvestment Act, fair lending laws and other regulations. Provided technical assistance to state-based community groups and others regarding consumer financial products.
$2,865,613 spentof which $158,166 as grants59% of program spendingResearch Services: CRL provided expert analysis for reports, public comments and testimonies on the need for strong consumer protections. This included research on the risk and harms of payday loans and other lending. It surveyed consumers on financial products and their regulation.
$1,071,699 spent22% of program spendingOutreach/Communications: Provided policy analysis and outreach materials to inform the public and regulators on products and policies that prevent all Americans from establishing and sustaining economic stability and security. CRL worked to make homeownership more accessible and sustainable for borrowers, save veterans from foreclosure, and enhance fair lending laws.
$938,592 spent19% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,875,904.
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 2017 to 2018, from $6.6M to $11M (+64%).
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: 2024 54%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
54% of Center for Responsible Lending’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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 broadened from 5 funders to 10 funders, grant income fell $5.0M → $4.2M.
8 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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: $660k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Center for Community Self-Help). These are real filings, and they are not money Center for Responsible Lending raised.
From the IRS filings of Center for Responsible Lending’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
Center for Responsible Lending leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
72% 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 Center for Responsible Lending.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 45% · 2019 61% · 2020 52% · 2021 38% · 2022 54% · 2023 59% — broadly stable.
“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
53% of Center for Responsible Lending's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
Center for Responsible Lending draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside North Carolina, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.2M 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.
Against its field
Center for Responsible Lending runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Center for Responsible Lending
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 North Carolina
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 38 states
Part of a family of 8 related entities
- Center for Community Self-Help · exempt
- Self-Help Community Development Cor · exempt
- Self-Help Credit Union · exempt
- Self-Help Services Corporation · exempt
- Self-Help Ventures Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Center for Responsible Lending: 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 Center for Responsible Lending?
- Center for Responsible Lending (North Carolina) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $45,131,532 to it, the largest being SANDLER FOUNDATION ($24,250,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Center for Responsible Lending have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $45,131,532 in grants to Center for Responsible Lending, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Center for Responsible Lending?
- SANDLER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $24,250,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Center for Responsible Lending find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 26 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