New Jersey · Nonprofit
CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC
CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC (New Jersey) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $61,783,782 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES OF NEW JERSEY INC ($50,379,294). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $15M
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $62M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Central Jersey Legal Services Inc does
Mission
Provides free legal assistance in non-criminal proceedings or matters to persons financially unable to afford legal assistance in mercer county, middlesex county, and union county, new jersey
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Central jersey legal services (cjls) is a nonprofit law firm that serves low-income residents of middlesex, mercer, and union counties. Cjls has attorneys and paralegals as well as other support staff in five locations across the regions. Offices are open monday-friday, 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. There are private attorneys who have volunteered their time and expertise to provide legal services to eligible clients free of charge. The program provides free civil legal services to individuals and families with income less than 250% of the federal poverty level. Cjls attorneys and paralegals provide clients with advice and representation to protect their housing and income, improve family stability, remove barriers to productive employment, widen access to health care and cjls assists survivors of domestic violence obtain restraining orders, support and custody. Cjls assists others with family issues providing advice, assistance and representation. Cjls services offers three levels of services to support the client community and resolve individual client problems. First, case handlers provide legal assessment, advice and referral in cases where the client is able to resolve their legal problem…
$13,024,682 spent$716,083 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $13,024,682.
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 $2.6M to $7.3M (+181%).
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 96% · 2018 95% · 2019 96% · 2020 94% · 2021 99% · 2022 92% · 2023 74% · 2024 94% · 2025 94%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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
Janice Chapin
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $4.0M → $11M.
1 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES 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
CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 82% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 98% · 2018 76% · 2019 80% · 2020 76% · 2021 80% · 2022 81% · 2023 82% — 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.
Where its funders are
82% of CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC's grant income comes from New Jersey funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $544 arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC is better cushioned than half of the 152 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 152 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $14.4M on record.
- GRANT IN AID$7.2M
- FEDERAL$6.5M
- STATE AID$501k
- DIRECT STATE SERVICES - NON-SALARY$225k
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 CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES 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 New Jersey
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
87% 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 CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES 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 CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC?
- CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC (New Jersey) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $61,783,782 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES OF NEW JERSEY INC ($50,379,294). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $61,783,782 in grants to CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC?
- LEGAL SERVICES OF NEW JERSEY INC is the largest funder on record, with $50,379,294 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CENTRAL JERSEY LEGAL SERVICES INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New Jersey. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Central Jersey Legal Services →
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 6 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