Delaware · Nonprofit
DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC
DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC (Delaware) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,585,642 to it, the largest being DELAWARE BAR FOUNDATION ($3,939,999). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.3M
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $4.6M
- Net assets
- $884k
What Delaware Volunteer Legal Services Inc does
Mission
To provide quality pro bono legal services to individuals with meritorious civil legal problems.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Legal services to domestic violence victims - the legal services to domestic violence victims program focuses on latino population in delaware. While domestic violence crosses all socio-economic lines, it is especially high among poverty clients. Attorney's meet with clients at the latin american community center in wilmington as well as other locations.
$315,898 spent$315,898 earned by the program8% of program spendingPfa pro bono program - through the pro bono program, our goal is to evaluate as many pfa cases each week as possible and place the most meritorious cases prior to the hearing with the volunteer attorneys. During the days leading up to each pfa day, the dpbp spends time daily in preparation for pfa day. This includes telephone conversations with prospective clients and volunteer attorneys about their cases, review of the need to bring in witnesses and evidence, and review of petitions, police reports, and other documents provided to dvls by victims, their advocates and others.
$112,200 spent$112,200 earned by the program3% of program spendingRight to representation - delaware's three legal aid agencies have joined forces to form the eviction defense program (edp). Throuh the combined legal expertise of clasi, dvls, and lscd, the edp functions as a collaborative effort among the agencies. The project's vision is simple, keep tenants housed. The legal processes surrounding eviction are daunting, and the reality is that many renters are unaware of the rescources available to assist them. The goal is to connect renters to the legal rescources. Utilizing attorneys and qualified tenant advocates to provide representation for tenants.
$1,543,973 spent$1,693,600 earned by the program40% of program spendingDvls is a non-profit organization whose mission is to deliver pro bono legal services to needy delawareans. Each client, other than victims of crime, must meet a percentage of the official poverty threshold, as defined each year by the u.s. Office of management and budget - federal poverty standards (45 c.f.r. Part 1611) for income eligibility. Dvls targets those having incomes at or below 125% of the federal poverty level. A person whose gross income exceeds 125% of the federal poverty limit, but does not exceed 200% of the federal poverty limit may in certain cases be provided legal assistance. Certain clients, such as domestic violence victoms, those over 60 years of age and the terminally ill, face the less restrictive standard of 200% of the poverty level. In addition, dvls clients must have a meritorious civil legal problem that is not fee generating. Cases meeting these criteria are placed with one of the agency's pro bono attorneys, staff or law students. Legal representation ranges from brief consultations to litigation. The clients dvls serves are each unique, but one characteristic they share is that they have nowhere else to turn for legal assistance. Dvls volunteer…
$1,846,906 spent48% of program spendingThe legal services to domestic violence victims program focuses on community outreach in delaware. While domestic violence crosses all socio-economic lines, it is especially high among poverty level clients. Attorney's meet with clients at the latin american community center in wilmington as well as other locations
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,818,977.
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 $740k to $1.1M (+55%).
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 15% · 2018 12% · 2019 15% · 2020 14% · 2021 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
51% of DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).
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
Janine Howard - O'Rangers Esquire N
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $396k → $640k.
1 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC’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
DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 86% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
89% 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 DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 96% · 2019 96% · 2020 66% · 2021 96% · 2022 78% · 2023 63% — 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
89% of DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC's grant income comes from Delaware funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $148k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 793 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $7.6M on record.
- GRANTS IN AID$5.6M
- FED GRANT SUB RECIPIENT$1.2M
- LEGAL SERVICES$825k
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 DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES 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 Delaware
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Delaware State Bar Association · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES 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 DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC?
- DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC (Delaware) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,585,642 to it, the largest being DELAWARE BAR FOUNDATION ($3,939,999). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $4,585,642 in grants to DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC?
- DELAWARE BAR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,939,999 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DELAWARE VOLUNTEER LEGAL SERVICES INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Delaware. 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 Delaware Volunteer Legal Services →
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 5 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