California · Nonprofit
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (California) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $76,763,583 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($49,218,701). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $78M
- Funders on record
- 78
- Grants received
- $77M
- Net assets
- $49M
What Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles does
Mission
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles seeks to achieve equal justice for people living in poverty across Greater Los Angeles. We change lives through direct representation, systems change, and community education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Housing and Communities and Eviction Defense Workgroup: The Housing & Communities workgroup takes a community lawyering approach to litigation and policy advocacy by supporting tenants and tenant organizations to enforce and enact housing laws. They defend residents of public housing and Section 8 voucher holders against losing their housing or housing subsidy. They also provide legal support to community-based organizations seeking to build healthy, economically vibrant communities. The Eviction Defense Workgroup provides direct representation to low-income individuals and families facing eviction; negotiates with landlords to ensure families can stay in their homes; helps clients living in uninhabitable conditions to get reductions in rent; and empowers tenants to advocate for their tenants' rights, all while working towards a tenants' right to counsel. LAFLA closed 2,142 housing related cases in this area of law in 2025.
$45,215,784 spentof which $36,818,629 as grants$43,663 earned by the program69% of program spendingEconomic Stability ("ESWG"): Assists vulnerable populations in obtaining and maintaining critical safety net benefits that helps them get food, housing, and medical care or services; Fights wage theft, wrongful terminations and discriminatory employment practices; Provides legal representation to disabled Angelenos in the Social Security Disability appeals process through the CBEST program, which assists individuals are homeless or at risk of homelessness in securing vital federal disability benefits; Discharges student loans based on disability or school fraud. In fact, LAFLA is the only legal services organization in the country that, for over 30 years, has consistently sought justice for low-income student loan borrowers and worked to change a higher education system that increasingly ignores the needs and experiences of low-income borrowers. In 2025, ESWG closed 1,690 cases in these areas of law.
$2,764,270 spent$17,930 earned by the program4% of program spendingImmigration Access ("IAWG"): Advocates provide trauma-informed legal assistance to survivors of torture and other harms seeking asylum in the United States by representing them before USCIS and EOIR; Represents survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault and other serious crimes to obtain protection and permanent residency; protects vulnerable unaccompanied children throughout the immigration process. In addition, advocates represent individuals seeking legal permanent resident and citizenship status. In 2025, IAWG closed 1,064 cases that addressed these legal issues.
$1,711,443 spent$10,000 earned by the program3% of program spendingClient Intake Workgroup: The Client Intake Workgroup's receptionist team performed trauma-informed legal intake for over 75,000 individuals in 2025, connecting qualified applicants with LAFLA's robust legal services and referring others to meaningful community resources. The Client Intake Workgroup's housing intake paralegal team delivers limited scope legal services, under direct attorney supervision, to indigent tenants experiencing housing insecurity and unsafe living conditions. In 2025, the Client Intake Workgroup closed 5,852 eviction diversion cases.Santa Monica Community Office: Funded through grants from the City of Santa Monica, this office provides legal services to residents of Santa Monica only. They staff a domestic violence clinic at the court and offer regular housing clinics. Attorneys work with local agencies and city services to provide family law, housing, government benefit and immigration services. This office closed 808 cases in 2025.Restoring Communities: Addresses the core legal needs of communities impacted by the criminal justice system by providing direct legal services to remove barriers to reentry to society, including employment barriers, by…
$15,417,450 spentof which $192,971 as grants$136,604 earned by the program24% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $65,108,947.
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 $28M to $46M (+64%).
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 69% · 2018 61% · 2019 78% · 2020 51% · 2021 91% · 2022 84% · 2023 84% · 2024 92% · 2025 91%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as 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 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.
Chief executive
Silvia Argueta
Executive Director
Board chair
C Cleo Ray
Community Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 18 funders, grant income rose $2.4M → $15M.
13 of 78 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.1M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Los Angeles Legal Aid Justice Center Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles raised.
From the IRS filings of Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 78 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 Foundation of Los Angeles leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
94% 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 Foundation of Los Angeles.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 58% · 2018 75% · 2019 71% · 2020 73% · 2021 70% · 2022 65% · 2023 53% — 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
36% of Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% 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 Foundation of Los Angeles draws 72% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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 Foundation of Los Angeles has grown faster 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
Government funding Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.6M on record.
- Department of Justice$3.0M
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.7M
- Department of Veterans Affairs$950k
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 Foundation of Los Angeles
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
89% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles: 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 Foundation of Los Angeles?
- Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (California) receives grants from 78 organizations whose IRS filings report $76,763,583 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($49,218,701). 34 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles have?
- IRS filings report 78 organizations giving $76,763,583 in grants to Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, 34 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles?
- LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $49,218,701 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles 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 78 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