Connecticut · Nonprofit
LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC
LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,842,365 to it, the largest being Jones Day Foundation ($1,020,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.8M
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What Lawyers Without Borders Inc does
Mission
To protect the integrity of the legal process, serve the underserved, and promote the culture of pro bono service in the legal profession - all with a neutral orientation.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Program serves the underserved sectors of society, providing quality pro bono legal services. In kind contributions of services totaled $2,261,671.
$1,342,441 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,342,441.
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 2019 to 2020, from $453k to $1.2M (+160%).
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 64% · 2018 80% · 2019 78% · 2020 42% · 2021 53% · 2022 35% · 2023 63% · 2024 82%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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
Joel M Cohen
Chair/board of directors
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $40k → $273k.
5 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 16% 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 LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC’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
LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
93% 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 LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 50% · 2019 100% · 2020 73% · 2021 43% · 2022 50% · 2023 81% — 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
60% of LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC draws 100% of its grant income from funders outside Connecticut, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $286k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 6 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $9.0M on record.
- Department of State$9.0M
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 LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS 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 Connecticut
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
69% 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
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Lawyers Without Borders UK · exempt
- Lawyers Without Borders Kenya · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS 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 LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC?
- LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC (Connecticut) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,842,365 to it, the largest being Jones Day Foundation ($1,020,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $1,842,365 in grants to LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC?
- Jones Day Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,020,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LAWYERS WITHOUT BORDERS INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Connecticut. 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 Lawyers Without Borders →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 13 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