Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC
CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,726,055 to it, the largest being THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR FOUNDATION ($4,710,698). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $15M
- Funders on record
- 99
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $13M
What Children's Law Center Inc does
Mission
Children's law center believes every child should grow up with a strong foundation of family, health and education and live in a world free from poverty, trauma, racism, and other forms of oppression. Our more than 100 staff together with dc children and families, community partners and pro bono attorneys use the law to solve children's urgent problems today and improve the systems that will affect their lives tomorrow. Since our founding in 1996, we have reached more than 50,000 children and families directly and multiplied our impact by advocating for city-wide solutions that benefit hundreds of thousands more.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Guardian ad litem program - children's law center's attorneys are appointed by judges within the dc superior court to represent approximately half the children involved with the dc child and family services agency - several hundred children in foster care and protective supervision each year. We make sure their perspectives and wishes are heard and their best interests are prioritized. Our representation a multi-disciplinary team of attorneys, social workers, investigators and education attorneys who advocate for the support children need to heal from the traumas that brought them into the child welfare system and to leave the foster care system safe, healthy, and learning.
$5,093,713 spent$6,500,000 earned by the program50% of program spendingHealthy together - unsafe housing, inadequate education, exposure to violence, lack of good health care and other problems related to poverty, trauma and racism can harm children's physical and behavioral health. Through our healthy together program, children's law center partners with pediatricians throughout eight community health centers and clinics to find and fix the root causes of a child's health problem such as advocating for landlords to repair water damage that led to mold which exacerbates a child's asthma. And because health and education are inextricably linked, children's law center also ensures children can start school ready to learn by helping infants and toddlers with developmental delays get support early. When children reach school age, children's law center works with parents and schools to get a child's education back on track from ensuring testing for learning disabilities at an early age to making sure students with disabilities or behavioral health issues have an appropriate plan that meets their learning needs.
$3,108,225 spent$330,250 earned by the program31% of program spendingSystemic advocacy - our systemic advocacy is grounded in our experience working with more than 50,000 district children and families since our founding in 1996. We use this expertise to partner with the mayor, district agencies, the dc council, other advocates, parents, and youth to find and implement city-wide solutions that better serve children's needs. We work to change laws, policies and practice and appellate case law. We also secure media coverage to raise awareness about the district's successes and failures in meeting children's needs. Whether it is ensuring appellate caselaw provides concrete guidance on how to evaluate the harm of removal when determining whether to place a child in foster care, securing historic special education reforms, pressing agencies to better prepare older youth who age out of foster care or improving behavioral health services within dc schools our policy and appellate advocacy delivers real results that have improved hundreds of thousands of children's lives.
$1,140,937 spent11% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$841,211 spent8% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $10,184,086.
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 2021 to 2022, from $14M to $18M (+22%).
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 12% · 2021 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
50% of CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Judith Sandalow
Executive director
Board chair
Traevena Byrd
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 27 funders to 52 funders, grant income rose $932k → $2.8M.
19 of 99 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% 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 CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 99 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
CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 27% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
48% 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 CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 35% · 2019 29% · 2020 20% · 2021 19% · 2022 22% · 2023 39% — 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
57% of CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
55% of CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC's grant income comes from Washington, D.C. funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 254 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 254 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $19.0M on record.
- District of Columbia Courts$19.0M
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 CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER 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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
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 CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER 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 CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC?
- CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,726,055 to it, the largest being THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR FOUNDATION ($4,710,698). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC have?
- IRS filings report 99 organizations giving $17,726,055 in grants to CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC, 65 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC?
- THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BAR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,710,698 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 99 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing