Ohio · Nonprofit
Cincinnati Bar Association
Cincinnati Bar Association (Ohio) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $3,500 to it, the largest being THE BAHL & GAYNOR FOUNDATION ($3,500). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.3M
- Funders on record
- 1
- Grants received
- $4k
- Net assets
- $4.8M
What Cincinnati Bar Association does
Mission
To promote professional excellence, foster justice, serve our members and educate the public.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs, meetings and committees - Rule X of the Supreme Court of Ohio mandates that attorneys admitted in Ohio attend 24 hours of approved CLE courses on a biennial basis. To enable attorneys to meet this requirement the Cincinnati Bar Association offers seminars throughout the year on substantive law as well as on other aspects of legal practice. 79 live CLE Seminars were presented, with 2448 registrants. 21 of these seminars were offered in partnership with the Ohio Metropolitan Bar Association Consortium. 617 on-demand CLEs were also completed during the fiscal year. In addition, the CBA hosts over 100 Committee meetings annually, including virtual meetings. These meetings enable members to further their professional development, connect within specialization groups and advise the CBA on needs of the profession. There are more than 3,000 participants in the committees (many members participate in more than one committee).
Membership - The CBA offers Greater Cincinnati attorneys many opportunities to network with their colleagues including 45 practice area or professional committees, leadership and community service programs and special events. The CBA offers a host of legal resources and membership includes two publications, the Legal Directory and CBA Report. Providing essential tools in facilitating communications among CBA members, users rely heavily on the Annual Legal Directory as a central source of contact information for local CBA members and non-member attorneys. The directory also provides comprehensive listings of law-related organizations, courts and governments, corporate legal departments, local real estate and financial institutions. The CBA Report, published six times a year, keeps the CBA members appraised of both key legal issues affecting the Greater Cincinnati area and areas of national interest that affect Cincinnati lawyers' professionalism. The magazine also provides a synopsis of the CBA's many activities including seminars as well as those statewide and national activities relevant to members' professional interests.
Lawyers Referral Service LRS - The LRS provides the public with referrals to lawyers based upon their legal need and geographic location. The LRS provides education to the public by providing programs with community partners. The LRS handles about 12,000 referrals on an annual basis.
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense.
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 2020 to 2021, from $4.5M to $5.5M (+23%).
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: 2022 13% · 2024 9%. 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
Lisa McPherson
Executive Director
Board chair
Chelsea J Chalk
YLS Chair-Trustee
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
Left out of every figure on this page: $191k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Cincinnati Bar Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money Cincinnati Bar Association raised.
From the IRS filings of Cincinnati Bar Association’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.
Where its funders are
100% of Cincinnati Bar Association's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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 Cincinnati Bar Association
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 Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Cincinnati Bar Foundation · exempt
- Ohio Notary Services Inc · partnership
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Cincinnati Bar Association: 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 Cincinnati Bar Association?
- Cincinnati Bar Association (Ohio) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $3,500 to it, the largest being THE BAHL & GAYNOR FOUNDATION ($3,500). 0 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Cincinnati Bar Association have?
- IRS filings report 1 organization giving $3,500 in grants to Cincinnati Bar Association.
- Who is the largest funder of Cincinnati Bar Association?
- THE BAHL & GAYNOR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Cincinnati Bar Association find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 1 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