Illinois · Nonprofit
CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION
CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,317,156 to it, the largest being LAWYERS TRUST FUND OF ILLINOIS ($8,350,000). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.2M
- Funders on record
- 39
- Grants received
- $17M
- Net assets
- $6.8M
What Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation does
Mission
To administer programs to assist in securing legal assistance and related services for persons of low-income in the chicagoland area.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Financial issues-the foundation provides pro bono legal services for individuals dealing with bankruptcy, landlord/tenant disputes, and mortgage foreclosure.
$883,112 spent29% of program spendingImmigration - the immigration program is staffed by a partial doj accredited immigration paralegal who screens clients, assists in asylum clinics, and represents clients in affirmative cases before united states citizenship and immigration services (uscis)
$455,896 spent15% of program spendingGuardian ad litem for minors: the foundation accepts appointments by probate judges to serve as pro bono guardians ad litem of children in contested, or problematic guardianship cases. Attorneys investigate the issues and parties and report to the court in the child's best interest and represent the child throughout the case, and serves as child's independent pro bono legal counsel.
$386,647 spent13% of program spendingVarious legal and training programs.
$1,323,245 spent43% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,048,900.
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 2022 to 2023, from $3.4M to $6.1M (+78%).
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 13% · 2021 24% · 2022 26% · 2023 37% · 2024 34% · 2025 39%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Margaret C Benson
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $1.6M → $3.1M.
6 of 39 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 39 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
CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
94% 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 CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 60% · 2019 71% · 2020 66% · 2021 36% · 2022 40% · 2023 37% — 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.
How long its funders stay
60% of CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION'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
98% of CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $906k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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.
Organizations like CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES 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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
93%
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 CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES 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 CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION?
- CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION (Illinois) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,317,156 to it, the largest being LAWYERS TRUST FUND OF ILLINOIS ($8,350,000). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 39 organizations giving $17,317,156 in grants to CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION?
- LAWYERS TRUST FUND OF ILLINOIS is the largest funder on record, with $8,350,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHICAGO VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 Chicago Volunteer 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 39 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