Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS
EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 112 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,282,240 to it, the largest being GT HOLLY SKOLNICK FELLOWSHIP FOUNDATION INC (FKA GTH FELLOWSHIP FOUNDATION INC) ($8,087,543). 73 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $24M
- Funders on record
- 112
- Grants received
- $64M
- Net assets
- $32M
What Equal Justice Works does
Mission
Equal Justice Works creates opportunities for lawyers to transform their passion for equal justice into a lifelong commitment to public service.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Legal fellowships in the public interest:Equal Justice Works supported 181 design your own fellows serving in two-year fellowships at 82 host organizations across 47 cities in 22 states. Through the dyo fellowship, fellows design and lead innovative legal service projects that address unmet legal needs in their communities while launching long-term careers in public interest law. Dyo fellows provide direct legal services, policy and advocacy, and community education in areas such as veterans' benefits, civil rights, access to education, community economic development, and voting rights. In addition to the dyo program, Equal Justice Works supported 70 fellows through six unique issue focused fellowship programs focused on civil legal issues affecting underserved communities including crime victims, disaster survivors, individuals and families affected by substance abuse disorder, and those facing housing and financial instability. These fellows worked at 56 legal services providers across the country. These fellowship programs aim to serve individuals while also creating broader impact through capacity building. As one example, the crime victims advocacy program placed 20 fellows…
$15,977,121 spentof which $12,587,486 as grants92% of program spendingLaw school engagement and advocacy:Equal Justice Works also offers programs to increase the number of law students and lawyers dedicating all or part of their careers to public service by engaging and collaborating with law schools, students, and attorneys. Equal Justice Works maintains a robust law school membership, which includes over 90% of aba-accredited law schools, and helps ensure those members know of and participate in the programs offered by Equal Justice Works, including fellowships described above as well as the following programming for law students. The organization provides short-term summer student fellowships programs. The rural summer legal corps (rslc) program is a joint partnership of the legal services corporation (lsc) and Equal Justice Works. The rslc program connects public interest law students with civil legal aid organizations to address pressing legal issues facing rural communities. In the summer of 2025, 50 student fellows participated in the program from 36 law schools. During their summer, rslc student fellows collectively contributed more than 15,000 hours to help rural communities, with 5,560 hours spent on direct legal services. These student…
$1,317,537 spent$133,666 earned by the program8% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $17,294,658.
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 2017 to 2018, from $22M to $30M (+38%).
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 25% · 2018 14% · 2019 27% · 2020 13% · 2021 13% · 2022 9% · 2023 5% · 2024 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS’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. 4 of the last 8 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
Verna Williams
Chief executive officer
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 22 funders to 51 funders, grant income rose $2.0M → $8.9M.
22 of 112 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $2.9M from 19 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Greater Washington Community Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS raised.
From the IRS filings of EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 112 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
EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 13% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
58% 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 EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 28% · 2019 19% · 2020 17% · 2021 14% · 2022 15% · 2023 13% — 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
56% of EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS'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
EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS draws 90% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 24 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $14M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS's funding base is broadening — from 22 funders to 51 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 254 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $19.3M on record — $19.2M federal, $8k state.
- Department of Justice$17.3M
- Corporation for National and Community Service$1.9M
- FL$5k
- OK$2k
- NJ$1k
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 EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS
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.
Where the money goes
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 17 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS: 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 EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS?
- EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 112 organizations whose IRS filings report $64,282,240 to it, the largest being GT HOLLY SKOLNICK FELLOWSHIP FOUNDATION INC (FKA GTH FELLOWSHIP FOUNDATION INC) ($8,087,543). 73 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS have?
- IRS filings report 112 organizations giving $64,282,240 in grants to EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS, 73 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS?
- GT HOLLY SKOLNICK FELLOWSHIP FOUNDATION INC (FKA GTH FELLOWSHIP FOUNDATION INC) is the largest funder on record, with $8,087,543 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 112 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