California · Nonprofit
IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE
IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE (California) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,859,579 to it, the largest being UFW FOUNDATION ($2,669,225). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $14M
- Funders on record
- 23
- Grants received
- $4.9M
- Net assets
- $7.9M
What Immigrant Legal Defense does
Mission
Immigrant Legal Defense's mission is to promote justice through the provision of legal representation to underserved immigrant communities.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
ILDs Educational-Legal Partnerships in California focus on providing free, high-quality immigration legal services to our states students from kindergarten through higher education. By partnering with school systems, including nine California State University (CSU) campuses, thirty-four California Community College campuses, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), West Contra Costa County Unified School District and partnerships with schools in Sonoma County ILD is able to address the urgent, gaping immigration legal needs of youth, immigrant families, unaccompanied minors and asylum seekers. Through these partnerships, we are building a sustainable and replicable service delivery model that connects our clients with the legal, educational, social and mental health services necessary to enable clients to focus on their studies and to create real and lasting change in their lives. In 2025, ILD continued our CSU Immigration Services Project, our free legal services and education delivery project in collaboration with the CA Department of Social Services (CDSS) and 9 campuses of the CA State University (CSU) system: San Francisco, San Jose, East Bay, Maritime, Stanislaus, Fresno,…
$8,355,447 spentof which $139,430 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $8,355,447.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 $3.9M to $8.3M (+116%).
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: 2019 0% · 2020 0% · 2021 71% · 2022 79% · 2023 61% · 2024 55% · 2025 34%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE’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. 1 of the last 7 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.
Board chair
Sarah J Diaz
Board president
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 9 funders, grant income fell $1.0M → $493k.
7 of 23 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 LEGAL DEFENSE’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.
How concentrated its funding is
IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
76% 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 LEGAL DEFENSE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 97% · 2020 89% · 2021 52% · 2022 23% · 2023 46% — 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
67% of IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
88% of IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $53k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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 LEGAL DEFENSE runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 152 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 152 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE
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
88% 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 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE: 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 LEGAL DEFENSE?
- IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE (California) receives grants from 23 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,859,579 to it, the largest being UFW FOUNDATION ($2,669,225). 13 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE have?
- IRS filings report 23 organizations giving $4,859,579 in grants to IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE, 13 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE?
- UFW FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $2,669,225 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like IMMIGRANT LEGAL DEFENSE 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 2019–2025), and the filings of 23 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