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California · Nonprofit

Criminal Justice Legal Foundation

Criminal Justice Legal Foundation (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,581,885 to it, the largest being BADER FAMILY FOUNDATION ($1,168,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.3M
Funders on record
20
Grants received
$3.6M
Net assets
$4.5M
15/20 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 97%
01What it does

What Criminal Justice Legal Foundation does

Mission

The only public interest law foundation in America that defends the rights of crime victims and law enforcement.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Represent the public interest in criminal cases before the appellate and supreme courts. The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation participated in numerous cases as a friend of the court during the current year.

    $302,013 spent
    58% of program spending
  2. Conduct extensive research on the major issues of criminal law and make prepared arguments and memoranda available to county, state and federal prosecutors and defense lawyers free of charge.

    $114,556 spent
    22% of program spending
  3. To provide the news media with timely and scholarly responses to claims made by anti-law enforcement advocates, and conduct and disseminate scholarly studies identifying programs and policies which improve the effectiveness of law enforcement and enhance public safety.

    $104,142 spent
    20% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $520,711.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($605k) Expenses 100 ($670k) Net assets 100 ($2.1M)2018 Revenue 99 ($597k) Expenses 102 ($683k) Net assets 105 ($2.2M)2019 Revenue 108 ($653k) Expenses 102 ($683k) Net assets 105 ($2.2M)2020 Revenue 105 ($636k) Expenses 90 ($603k) Net assets 110 ($2.3M)2021 Revenue 156 ($944k) Expenses 101 ($676k) Net assets 144 ($3.0M)2022 Revenue 156 ($943k) Expenses 107 ($720k) Net assets 139 ($2.9M)2023 Revenue 109 ($661k) Expenses 113 ($759k) Net assets 144 ($3.0M)2024 Revenue 247 ($1.5M) Expenses 102 ($683k) Net assets 191 ($4.0M)2025 Revenue 213 ($1.3M) Expenses 104 ($700k) Net assets 218 ($4.5M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (213)Expenses (104)Net assets (218)Peer revenue range

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 $3.0M to $4.0M (+33%).

$2.1M
$2.2M
$2.2M
$2.3M
$3.0M
$2.9M
$3.0M
$4.0M
$4.6M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

57% of Criminal Justice Legal Foundation’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,394 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$66k
’17
−$86k
’18
−$31k
’19
$33k
’20
$268k
’21
$222k
’22
−$98k
’23
$810k
’24
$591k
’25
24
months of
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.

Board chair

Rick Richmond

Chairman

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed131313131313131010
Joined·+1+0+1+1+0+0+0+1
No longer listed·10110031
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $134k → $609k.

5 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 Criminal Justice Legal Foundation’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

Criminal Justice Legal Foundation leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 68%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

33%
largest funder
68%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 23% · 2019 34% · 2020 38% · 2021 48% · 2022 42% · 2023 33% — 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

44% of Criminal Justice Legal Foundation's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 75% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

Criminal Justice Legal Foundation draws 54% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 8 states in all.

MN
WY
PA
CA
CO
VA
MD
TX

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $85k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Criminal Justice Legal Foundation runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 852 crime & legal nonprofits its size.

Operating margin46% · top quartile
Months of reserve24.1mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)10% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 852 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like Criminal Justice Legal 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 California

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

74% of spending goes to programs.

Program 74%Management 14%Fundraising 12%

Governance

10
board members
90%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

28%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Criminal Justice Legal 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.

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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 Criminal Justice Legal Foundation?
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation (California) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,581,885 to it, the largest being BADER FAMILY FOUNDATION ($1,168,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Criminal Justice Legal Foundation have?
IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $3,581,885 in grants to Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Criminal Justice Legal Foundation?
BADER FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,168,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Criminal Justice Legal Foundation find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. 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 Criminal Justice Legal →

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 20 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