New York · Nonprofit
FASHION LAW INSTITUTE
FASHION LAW INSTITUTE (New York) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $10 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($10). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $144k
- Funders on record
- 1
- Grants received
- $10
- Net assets
- $94k
What Fashion Law Institute does
Mission
The Fashion Law Institute is the world's first academic center dedicated to the legal issues arising throughout the life of a garment. The Institute carries out its purposes as an educational organization by advancing the field of fashion law through formal instruction, experiential education, and scholarly research.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Teaching and research in fashion law remained central to the Institute's mission. The foundational course continued to be the original Fashion Law course, which defined the field and was created and taught by the Institute's founder, Professor Susan Scafidi. Other courses included Fashion and International Trade, covering cutting-edge issues in customs and other matters affecting the global supply chain; Fashion and Commercial Real Estate Law, covering the legal framework for leasing, owning, and managing real property in the fashion economy; Fashion Law and Social Justice, examining the role of fashion in constructive social change; the Fashion Law and Finance course, exploring the role of law and lawyers in developing a global fashion brand; Fashion Ethics, Sustainability and Development, exploring the intersection of fashion law and social values, including such topics as green fashion, fair trade and fashion-related social enterprise; Fashion Licensing, examining the law and business of fashion licensing, the anatomy of a license agreement, and current trends in the industry in the US and worldwide; Cosmetics Regulation, examining legal and ethical issues pertaining to…
$3,779 spent3% of program spendingIn conjunction with the Institute's classroom instruction, a related aspect of the Institute's educational mission is the advancement of understanding in fashion law through seminars, symposia, continuing legal education, Fashion Law Bootcamp, and other programs open to both students and the general public. Topics covered in the 2024-25 academic year included women designers and fashion law; cutting-edge legal issues facing lawyers in the fashion industry; crisis management; current developments in antitrust and intellectual property law; and the future of sustainability and fashion ethics in the wake of recent legal developments. The Fashion Law Institute also continued to conduct its pro bono Fashion Law Pop-Up Clinic program, both in person and online via Zoom, with eight Pop-Up Clinics held during the 2024-2025 academic year. At each Pop-Up Clinic, students met with lawyers and designers for attorney-supervised legal training by assisting fashion clients. Besides gaining educational experience through being involved in pro-bono consultations, students also learned about fashion law and the fashion business by serving in Institute-supervised internships as well as by assisting…
$122,714 spent$141,805 earned by the program97% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $126,493.
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 2018 to 2019, from $10k to $58k (+465%).
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.
1% of FASHION LAW INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (57% 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2021: the base held at 1 funder, grant income held at $5.
1 of 1 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 100% 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 FASHION LAW INSTITUTE’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.
Where its funders are
100% of FASHION LAW INSTITUTE'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. Too little is directly attributable to place on a map.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10 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
FASHION LAW INSTITUTE runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 16,849 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 16,849 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like FASHION LAW INSTITUTE
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FASHION LAW INSTITUTE: 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 FASHION LAW INSTITUTE?
- FASHION LAW INSTITUTE (New York) receives grants from 1 organization whose IRS filings report $10 to it, the largest being AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION ($10). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 100% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FASHION LAW INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 1 organization giving $10 in grants to FASHION LAW INSTITUTE, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FASHION LAW INSTITUTE?
- AMAZONSMILE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $10 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FASHION LAW INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Fashion Law Institute →
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 1 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