California · Nonprofit
Immigrant Defenders Law Center
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (California) receives grants from 98 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,390,892 to it, the largest being CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,848,047). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $39M
- Funders on record
- 98
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $33M
What Immigrant Defenders Law Center does
Mission
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) is a next-generation social justice law firm that defends our immigrant communities against injustices in the immigration system.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) fights to protect the rights of immigrants and uphold due process in the U.S. immigration system by providing free, high-quality deportation defense and related legal support across Southern California. As the state's largest pro bono nonprofit deportation defense provider, ImmDef represents people in immigration court through offices in Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Ana, and San Diego-reaching approximately 10,000 adults and children each year in more than 10 counties. Through direct representation and legal support services, ImmDef helps individuals and families assert their rights, navigate complex proceedings, and access wraparound supports, including legal education, individualized consultations, and referrals to social services and community resources. ImmDef prioritizes assistance for especially vulnerable community members, including unaccompanied children, separated families, deported veterans, people with mental health disabilities, and individuals who are detained. Services are delivered through four core programs: (1) Children's Representation Program, which represents thousands of children in removal proceedings and provides…
$17,007,157 spentof which $61,029 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $17,007,157.
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 2024 to 2025, from $16M to $36M (+121%).
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: 2020 87%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of Immigrant Defenders Law Center’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $268k → $1.1M.
22 of 98 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 44% 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 Immigrant Defenders Law Center’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 98 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
Immigrant Defenders Law Center has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% 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
77% 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 Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 30% · 2019 25% · 2020 45% · 2021 33% · 2022 58% · 2023 47% — 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
21% of Immigrant Defenders Law Center's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 33% 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
Immigrant Defenders Law Center draws 58% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 21 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
Immigrant Defenders Law Center runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 165 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 165 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like Immigrant Defenders 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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Immigrant Defenders 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 Immigrant Defenders Law Center?
- Immigrant Defenders Law Center (California) receives grants from 98 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,390,892 to it, the largest being CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($1,848,047). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Immigrant Defenders Law Center have?
- IRS filings report 98 organizations giving $12,390,892 in grants to Immigrant Defenders Law Center, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Immigrant Defenders Law Center?
- CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,848,047 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Immigrant Defenders 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 98 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