California · Nonprofit
EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER
EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER (California) receives grants from 85 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,675,493 to it, the largest being THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ($4,919,917). 55 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $8.7M
- Funders on record
- 85
- Grants received
- $24M
- Net assets
- $7.1M
What East Bay Community Law Center does
Mission
East Bay Community Law Center's mission is to promote justice and build a more healthy, secure, productive and hopeful community by providing: 1) legal services and policy advocacy that responds to the needs of low-income communities, (continued on schedule o)and 2) law training that prepares future attorneys to be skilled and principled advocates committed to finding innovative solutions to the causes and conditions of proverty.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Program #1: the East Bay Community Law Center provided 4,217 low-income community members with 5,415 legal services addressing problems related to housing, health, immigration, public benefits, criminal records, education rights, juvenile defense, consumer debt, homelessness, community economic justice, and other general civil legal issues, as well as policy advocacy on the state and local level addressing issues impacting ebclc's clients and community. Ebclc recovered over $4.8 million for its clients in fy25, through favorable settlements in eviction cases, and securing discharge of debts and access to public benefits. Additionally, 149 clients were provided with rental assistance and financial support for immigration application fees and debt relief.
$5,911,959 spentof which $264,780 as grants$273,736 earned by the program75% of program spendingProgram #2: the East Bay Community Law Center provided clinical training to 66 law and social work students during fy25. Students work directly with clients to provide legal and other support services under the supervision of attorneys and/or social workers in all of ebclc practice areas.
$1,951,024 spent$1,500,000 earned by the program25% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,862,983.
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 2020 to 2021, from $6.9M to $10M (+51%).
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 23% · 2018 33% · 2019 33% · 2020 49% · 2021 31% · 2022 31% · 2023 29% · 2024 49% · 2025 47%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
79% of EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Zoe Melissa Polk
Executive director
Board chair
Tiffany Thomas
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 22 funders to 37 funders, grant income rose $1.4M → $3.2M.
20 of 85 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 85 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
EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
57% 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 EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 24% · 2019 42% · 2020 48% · 2021 33% · 2022 24% · 2023 23% — broadly stable.
“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 EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 65% 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
77% of EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $9.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER's funding base is broadening — from 22 funders to 37 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER
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
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER: 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 EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER?
- EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER (California) receives grants from 85 organizations whose IRS filings report $23,675,493 to it, the largest being THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION ($4,919,917). 55 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 85 organizations giving $23,675,493 in grants to EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER, 55 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER?
- THE SAN FRANCISCO FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,919,917 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EAST BAY COMMUNITY LAW CENTER 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.
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 85 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