Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW
JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,678,174 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,088,178). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.6M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $6.7M
- Net assets
- $9.5M
What Judge David L Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law does
Mission
Our objectives are to protect the legal rights of adults and children with mental disabilities and to improve their access to appropriate care, treatment, education, housing, employment, and other support.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Litigation - the bazelon centers lawyers engage in cutting-edge litigation to protect and advance legal rights for people with mental disabilities. The litigation generally uses and is founded upon laws that protect and benefit people with disabilities, including among others the americans with disabilities act (equality of opportunity), the individuals with disabilities education act (special education), and the medicaid act (health and mental health care). The bazelon center files class actions cases, amicus ("friend of the court") briefs in important appellate cases and represents individual clients in cases with the potential for broad impact. The bazelon center partners with local advocates, large private law firms, and other public interest law groups.
$712,478 spent51% of program spendingPolicy advocacy - the bazelon center pursues a comprehensive mental health policy agenda, particularly at the federal level, to reform systems and programs to protect the rights of children and adults with mental disabilities. The bazelon centers staff promote these goals in federal legislation and regulation, policy analysis and research and grassroots advocacy. Recently, the bazelon centers policy advocacy has focused on expanding community-based mental health services, diverting people with mental disabilities from the criminal justice system, increasing the supply of affordable housing, protecting unaccompanied minors, and technology and ai.
$596,119 spent42% of program spendingTechnical assistance and education - the bazelon center provides technical assistance to state and local governments, attorneys and other advocates, and other organizations working to advance the law and improve public services systems. The bazelon center publishes materials on a wide range of issues, including health care, education, housing, employment, criminal justice, and foster care. The bazelon center has some contract work, usually from larger nonprofit organizations, to provide technical assistance on disability law.
$92,619 spent7% of program spendingLobbying - advocating for the bazelon center's program objectives through federal policy and strategic policy development. The bazelon center also communicates through digital newsletters and alerts and various social media platforms. From time to time, the bazelon center urges people to contact their congressional delegates through these communications.
$8,520 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,409,736.
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 $5.7M to $9.5M (+65%).
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 32% · 2020 15% · 2021 15% · 2022 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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.
Board chair
Eve Hill
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 12 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $175k → $603k.
12 of 31 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 JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW leans on a few funders — its largest provides 31% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
47% 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 JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 64% · 2019 41% · 2020 28% · 2021 33% · 2022 41% · 2023 41% — broadly stable.
“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
52% of JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW draws 99% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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.
Organizations like JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW
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 Washington, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
67% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
58%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 38 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW: 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 JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW?
- JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,678,174 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,088,178). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $6,678,174 in grants to JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW?
- FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,088,178 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like JUDGE DAVID L BAZELON CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH LAW find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Judge David L Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law →
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 31 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