California · Nonprofit
LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO
LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO (California) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $38,937,690 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($23,394,921). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $30M
- Funders on record
- 41
- Grants received
- $39M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Legal Aid Society of San Diego does
Mission
To improve lives by advancing justice through effective, efficient and vigorous legal advocacy, outreach and education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
"provide legal services to the indigent in the following substantive areas: health, housing, support for families, maintaining economic stability, safety & stability, and free clinics. What we doaccess to health care: we provide free help to those with problems gaining health coverage or health services who qualify for our services. We can help if there are changes in your health services, when there is a termination or change in health coverage and when there is a need to resolve problems with health plans. (see schedule o)mental health: we provide free help for those with mental health problems. We can assist with obtaining medication, accessing care, or appealing a decision by your county mental health plan. We can assist you when your plan tries to reduce, terminate or deny services (medi-cal notice of action). We can also help you with a grievance concerning quality or appropriateness of care. We are the county-designated patients' rights advocate for outpatient mental health services. We are your advocate for any problems you have with outpatient mental health services. We will investigate and resolve issues raised by you or your family. We educate clients about their legal…
$25,821,078 spent$316,300 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $25,821,078.
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 2019 to 2020, from $10M to $15M (+50%).
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 72% · 2018 74% · 2019 75% · 2020 82% · 2021 84% · 2022 96% · 2023 90% · 2024 86% · 2025 95%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Joanne L Franciscus
Executive director
Board chair
Joanna Fox Esq
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $1.9M → $6.3M.
6 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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 SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 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 SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 60% 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
75% 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 SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 78% · 2018 65% · 2019 61% · 2020 70% · 2021 56% · 2022 67% · 2023 59% — 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
67% of LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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 SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO draws 62% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $517k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.
Government funding LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $6.0M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$4.5M
- Department of the Treasury$1.2M
- Department of Veterans Affairs$300k
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 SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO
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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO: 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 SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO?
- LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO (California) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $38,937,690 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($23,394,921). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO have?
- IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $38,937,690 in grants to LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO?
- LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $23,394,921 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO 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.
Play a game about who funds Legal Aid Society of San Diego →
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 41 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