Massachusetts · Nonprofit
GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC
GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $123,192,398 to it, the largest being MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP ($98,417,304). 70 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $35M
- Funders on record
- 111
- Grants received
- $123M
- Net assets
- $58M
What Greater Boston Legal Services Inc does
Mission
Greater boston legal services (gbls) is the primary provider of free civil (non-criminal) legal assistance to the almost 341,000 low-income persons living in metropolitan boston to help them secure some of the most basic necessities of life. Our clients include homeless families seeking access to emergency shelter or permanent housing, women and children escaping abuse, families facing destitution, poor individuals and families facing illegal or inappropriate eviction, low-income homeowners exploited by mortgage scams, elders inappropriately denied medical and prescription drug benefits, disabled individuals denied critical benefits, low-wage workers illegally denied earned wages, and victims of torture and persecution seeking asylum.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Greater boston legal services (gbls) is the primary provider of free civil (non-criminal) legal assistance for the almost 339,000 low-income persons living in metropolitan boston to help them secure some of the most basic necessities of life. Our clients are homeless families seeking access to emergency shelter or permanent housing, women and children escaping abuse, families facing destitution, poor individuals and families facing illegal or inappropriate eviction, low-income homeowners exploited by mortgage scams, elders inappropriately denied medical and prescription drug benefits, disabled individuals denied critical benefits, low-wage workers illegally denied earned wages and victims of torture and persecution seeking asylum. In 2025, gbls handled 14,960 cases, providing critical legal assistance to 11,971 people living in poverty. Assistance ranged from brief service and advice to full representation, based on the needs of the case. Thousands of additional poor individuals and families who were not gbls' clients also benefited from gbls' work through community legal education programs and impact advocacy efforts such as class action suits, legislative and administrative…
$23,381,282 spentof which $475,194 as grants$303,957 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $23,381,282.
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.
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 $43M to $55M (+27%).
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 55% · 2018 56% · 2019 55% · 2020 60% · 2021 68% · 2023 70% · 2024 63% · 2025 56%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Jacquelynne Bowman
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 31 funders to 52 funders, grant income rose $8.8M → $17M.
17 of 111 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 111 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
GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 80% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
95% 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 GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 76% · 2018 77% · 2019 80% · 2020 72% · 2021 78% · 2022 78% · 2023 82% — 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
57% of GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
97% of GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $6.7M 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.
Government funding GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8.6M on record — $2.5M federal, $6.1M state.
- Department of the Treasury$1.2M
- Department of Health and Human Services$700k
- Department of Justice$600k
- (MM) PURCHASED CLIENT/PROGRAM SVCS$3.5M
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$2.6M
- (JJ) OPERATIONAL SERVICES$366
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 GREATER BOSTON 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 GREATER BOSTON 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 GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC?
- GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 111 organizations whose IRS filings report $123,192,398 to it, the largest being MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP ($98,417,304). 70 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC have?
- IRS filings report 111 organizations giving $123,192,398 in grants to GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC, 70 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC?
- MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP is the largest funder on record, with $98,417,304 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREATER BOSTON LEGAL SERVICES INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 111 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