Texas · Nonprofit
FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE
FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE (Texas) receives grants from 263 organizations whose IRS filings report $52,133,525 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($10,010,815). 168 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $29M
- Funders on record
- 263
- Grants received
- $52M
- Net assets
- $22M
What First Liberty Institute does
Mission
First Liberty Institute provides pro bono legal services to advance and defend religious liberty for individuals, churches, and other ministries and organizations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Legal: First Liberty Institute (fli) provides pro-bono legal services to advance and defend religious liberty for individuals, churches, synagogues, and other religious ministries. During 2024-2025 fli represented plaintiffs in 101 cases and administrative proceedings filed throughout the united states, helping protect the religious liberty of individuals, churches, synagogues, and other religious ministries.
$10,501,268 spentof which $10,000 as grants$1,745,809 earned by the program51% of program spendingEducation: reaching and educating the public about key issues and legal cases that impact their religious liberties. Through use of video, websites, speaking engagements, letters, and collateral materials, we reach target audiences with important information and empower them to take action.
$10,269,190 spentof which $144,918 as grants$154,550 earned by the program49% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $20,770,458.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2021 to 2022, from $15M to $21M (+40%).
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.
92% of FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 6 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
Kelly Shackelford
President/CEO
Board chair
Mark Cover
Chair exec comm/board member
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 45 funders to 123 funders, grant income rose $2.3M → $8.3M.
47 of 263 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% 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 FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 263 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
FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% 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
74% 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 FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 17% · 2019 22% · 2020 23% · 2021 23% · 2022 23% · 2023 21% — growing more concentrated.
“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
49% of FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
69% of FIRST LIBERTY 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. Of the $16M that is directly attributable, 60% of it comes from Texas funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $36M arriving through sponsors registered in 23 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
FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 63 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 63 civil rights nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $30k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$30k
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 FIRST LIBERTY 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 Texas
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
99%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 24 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FIRST LIBERTY 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 FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE?
- FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE (Texas) receives grants from 263 organizations whose IRS filings report $52,133,525 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($10,010,815). 168 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 263 organizations giving $52,133,525 in grants to FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE, 168 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE?
- NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC is the largest funder on record, with $10,010,815 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Texas. 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 2020–2025), and the filings of 263 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