Massachusetts · Nonprofit
COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC
COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 68 organizations whose IRS filings report $108,086,052 to it, the largest being MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP ($87,685,604). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $28M
- Funders on record
- 68
- Grants received
- $108M
- Net assets
- $19M
What Community Legal Aid Inc does
Mission
The mission of community legal aid is to improve the lives of low-income and elderly people through legal assistance that protects fundamental rights, secures access to basic needs, and challenges policies and practices that harm our clients.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
To provide legal assistance in noncriminal proceedings or matters to individuals unable to afford legal assistance in the central and western massachusetts area. Clients served 9,300
$22,110,074 spent$211,216 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $22,110,074.
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 2023 to 2024, from $19M to $28M (+48%).
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 82% · 2018 86% · 2019 86% · 2020 83% · 2021 89% · 2022 88% · 2023 87% · 2024 86% · 2025 76%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Jonathan Mannina
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $6.3M → $15M.
11 of 68 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 68 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
COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 81% of grant income and the top three 95%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% 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 COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 92% · 2018 73% · 2019 74% · 2020 70% · 2021 75% · 2022 78% · 2023 80% — 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
68% of COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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
88% of COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $739k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters 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 COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $13.1M on record — $9.7M federal, $3.4M state.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$8.1M
- Department of Justice$1.4M
- Department of Veterans Affairs$219k
- (MM) PURCHASED CLIENT/PROGRAM SVCS$1.6M
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$1.0M
- (JJ) OPERATIONAL SERVICES$792k
- (EE) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES$19k
- (RR) BENEFIT PROGRAMS$2k
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 COMMUNITY LEGAL AID 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Central West Justice Center Pllc · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for COMMUNITY LEGAL AID 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 COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC?
- COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 68 organizations whose IRS filings report $108,086,052 to it, the largest being MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP ($87,685,604). 50 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC have?
- IRS filings report 68 organizations giving $108,086,052 in grants to COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC, 50 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC?
- MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP is the largest funder on record, with $87,685,604 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMMUNITY LEGAL AID INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Community Legal Aid →
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 68 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