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California · Nonprofit

LEGAL AID OF MARIN

LEGAL AID OF MARIN (California) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,264,002 to it, the largest being LEONARD & BERYL BUCK FOUNDATION ($3,469,333). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$2.8M
Funders on record
25
Grants received
$5.3M
Net assets
$3.2M
16/25 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 48%
01What it does

What Legal Aid of Marin does

Mission

To provide access to the civil justice system through quality legal services, encompassing practical solutions, to low income, vulnerable and otherwise underserved residents of marin county.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Legal services legal services consist of advice, counsel, brief service, legal clinics, limited scope and full scope representation, community education, and related services for low-income and otherwise marginalized marin residents. Service areas include housing law, employment law, and poverty-alleviation legal services. Both staff and members of the private bar provide legal services at no-cost to clients. Legal services include services for seniors aged 60 and older. Marin community court - the marin community court is an alternative, post-conviction sentencing collaborative program with Legal Aid of Marin, the marin superior court, and saint vincent de paul society of marin county. Through the marin county court project, individuals eliminate fines and driver's license holds for civil infractions - thereby eliminating barriers to getting and keeping housing and employment.

    $1,968,838 spentof which $100,073 as grants$8 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,968,838.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.0M) Expenses 100 ($993k) Net assets 100 ($831k)2018 Revenue 126 ($1.3M) Expenses 99 ($986k) Net assets 134 ($1.1M)2019 Revenue 105 ($1.1M) Expenses 107 ($1.1M) Net assets 133 ($1.1M)2020 Revenue 188 ($1.9M) Expenses 142 ($1.4M) Net assets 191 ($1.6M)2021 Revenue 192 ($1.9M) Expenses 167 ($1.7M) Net assets 223 ($1.9M)2022 Revenue 224 ($2.2M) Expenses 175 ($1.7M) Net assets 284 ($2.4M)2023 Revenue 289 ($2.9M) Expenses 241 ($2.4M) Net assets 345 ($2.9M)2024 Revenue 275 ($2.8M) Expenses 247 ($2.5M) Net assets 381 ($3.2M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (275)Expenses (247)Net assets (381)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $1.9M to $2.9M (+54%).

$865k
$1.1M
$1.2M
$1.8M
$1.9M
$2.9M
$3.3M
$3.7M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

100% of LEGAL AID OF MARIN’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,392 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$11k
’17
$282k
’18
−$10k
’19
$478k
’20
$271k
’21
$505k
’22
$508k
’23
$299k
’24
0.6
months of
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

Laura Mcmahon

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed2022182119232425
Joined·+6+0+5+3+7+5+3
No longer listed·4425342
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 8 funders, grant income rose $466k → $634k.

9 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 OF MARIN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 24 of 25 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 OF MARIN leans on a few funders — its largest provides 66% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

99% 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 OF MARIN.

66%
largest funder
83%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 72% · 2019 84% · 2020 57% · 2021 65% · 2022 77% · 2023 67% — 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

47% of LEGAL AID OF MARIN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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 OF MARIN draws 85% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 6 states in all.

WI
RI
CA
MO
DE
NC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
California out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

LEGAL AID OF MARIN runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits its size.

Operating margin11% · above the median
Months of reserve0.6mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)16% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Government funding LEGAL AID OF MARIN receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $150k on record.

Federal$150k
grants $150kcontracts $0
Top agencies
  • Department of Veterans Affairs$150k

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 OF MARIN

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

80% of spending goes to programs.

Program 80%Management 15%Fundraising 5%

Governance

22
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

84%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

CA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LEGAL AID OF MARIN: 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.

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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 OF MARIN?
LEGAL AID OF MARIN (California) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,264,002 to it, the largest being LEONARD & BERYL BUCK FOUNDATION ($3,469,333). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does LEGAL AID OF MARIN have?
IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $5,264,002 in grants to LEGAL AID OF MARIN, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of LEGAL AID OF MARIN?
LEONARD & BERYL BUCK FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,469,333 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like LEGAL AID OF MARIN 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 25 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