Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM
CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $90,000 to it, the largest being THE WILSON SONSINI GOODRICH & ROSATI FOUNDATION ($40,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $84k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $90k
- Net assets
- $-50347
What Consumers for a Responsive Legal System does
Mission
Consumers for a Responsive Legal System works to make the legal system more accessible, affordable, and accountable to its users.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Advocacy: Advocate for a more user-friendly legal system through changes to regulations and laws governing lawyers as well as changes to lawyers' business practices. Responsive Law is the only group speaking for consumers before the American Bar Association and at numerous state-level proceedings.
$34,734 spent70% of program spendingEducation: Educate people about obstacles to affordable legal help and about how to more effectively use the legal system, including information about how to effectively use a lawyer and alternatives to traditional use of a lawyer such as limited-scope representation, non-lawyer services, and self-help.
$12,405 spent25% of program spendingSelf-Help Resources: Provide information and resources for people using the legal system without the assistance of a lawyer.
$2,481 spent5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $49,620.
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 2019 to 2020, from $4k to $44k (+1017%).
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.
100% of CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (65% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Tom Gordon
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $15k → $20k.
3 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 56% 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 CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM’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
CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders 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 CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2022 50% · 2023 50% — 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
56% of CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $40k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 1 state.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $50k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM's revenue fell 43% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,277 education nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM
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.
Public support
69%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 36 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM: 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 CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM?
- CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $90,000 to it, the largest being THE WILSON SONSINI GOODRICH & ROSATI FOUNDATION ($40,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 56% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $90,000 in grants to CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM?
- THE WILSON SONSINI GOODRICH & ROSATI FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $40,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CONSUMERS FOR A RESPONSIVE LEGAL SYSTEM 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.
Play a game about who funds Consumers for a Responsive Legal System →
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 4 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