Illinois · Nonprofit
LEGAL AID CHICAGO
LEGAL AID CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 87 organizations whose IRS filings report $98,934,698 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($51,429,265). 56 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $31M
- Funders on record
- 87
- Grants received
- $99M
- Net assets
- $15M
What Legal Aid Chicago does
Mission
At Legal Aid Chicago, we work together to provide high quality civil legal aid to people living in poverty and other vulnerable groups.through advocacy, education, collaboration, and litigation we empower individuals, protect fundamental rights, strengthen communities, create opportunities, and achieve justice.in carrying out our mission, we treat everyone with compassion and respect.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The children and families practice group handles our family law work (almost all of which involves domestic violence) which includes orders of protection, elder abuse, divorce, child custody, and child support. Its attorneys also work on behalf of relative caretakers and foster parents in abuse and neglect cases, and do special education work for youth who are in foster care.
$3,258,963 spent$1,000 earned by the program16% of program spendingLegal Aid Chicago's housing practice group (hpg) ensures that tenants live in decent, safe, and affordable housing that is free from discrimination by providing brief services, negotiation, mediation, and extended representation. Hpg defends residents against unfair or unwarranted eviction and subsidy terminations, enforces tenants' rights, and engages in activities that further the administration of justice.
$3,114,576 spent$41,750 earned by the program15% of program spendingThe immigrants and workers' rights practice group is a multi-disciplinary team that focuses on four areas of legal expertise: employment law, immigration law, human trafficking, and migrant farmworker law. Iwr clients are often low-wage workers, and immigrants, both newly-arrived and longstanding residents of the state. We represent clients seeking unemployment insurance benefits, clients with wage claims, and claims of employment discrimination including sexual harassment, racial and national origin discrimination, disability discrimination, and claims of wrongful termination. The team also represents immigrant survivors of crime and mental cruelty to obtain legal status under the violence against women act, the u.s. Visa process, asylum, and other immigration remedies. The human trafficking project provides victim advocacy and representation to citizen and immigrant survivors of labor and/or sex trafficking. Our migrant project provides direct legal services and outreach to migrant farmworkers, both domestic workers traveling in the migrant stream from texas and other states, and those here on special, short-term agricultural work visas. Our immigration, human trafficking, and…
$3,488,736 spent$160,960 earned by the program17% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$10,848,267 spent$5,600 earned by the program52% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $20,710,542.
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 2023 to 2024, from $18M to $20M (+15%).
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 58% · 2019 56% · 2020 61% · 2021 57% · 2022 74% · 2023 80% · 2024 68%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of LEGAL AID CHICAGO’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. 2 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.
Chief executive
Katherine Shank
CEO/exec. Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 47 funders, grant income rose $3.8M → $15M.
16 of 87 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 LEGAL AID CHICAGO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 87 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
LEGAL AID CHICAGO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 52% of grant income and the top three 76%; 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 LEGAL AID CHICAGO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 70% · 2019 58% · 2020 68% · 2021 65% · 2022 59% · 2023 59% — 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
54% of LEGAL AID CHICAGO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
LEGAL AID CHICAGO draws 58% of its grant income from funders outside Illinois, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.1M 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
LEGAL AID CHICAGO runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 254 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 254 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding LEGAL AID CHICAGO receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $9.6M on record.
- Department of Justice$3.4M
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$2.3M
- Corporation for National and Community Service$2.3M
- Department of Veterans Affairs$932k
- Department of the Treasury$613k
- Environmental Protection Agency$30k
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 LEGAL AID CHICAGO
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
80% 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
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Legal Action Chicago LLC · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LEGAL AID CHICAGO: 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 LEGAL AID CHICAGO?
- LEGAL AID CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 87 organizations whose IRS filings report $98,934,698 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($51,429,265). 56 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LEGAL AID CHICAGO have?
- IRS filings report 87 organizations giving $98,934,698 in grants to LEGAL AID CHICAGO, 56 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEGAL AID CHICAGO?
- LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $51,429,265 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEGAL AID CHICAGO find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 87 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