New York · Nonprofit
LEGAL SERVICES NYC
LEGAL SERVICES NYC (New York) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $109,691,996 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($98,722,975). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $18M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $110M
- Net assets
- $16M
What Legal Services NYC does
Mission
Legal Services NYC is a non-profit organization that provides free civil legal assistance to low-income people in new york city. A community-based organization serving more than 100,000 people annually, lsnyc is the nation's largest organization exclusively devoted to providing free civil services to the poor, with programs located in low-income neighborhoods throughout new york city.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Housing assistance - we fight tenant harassment, preserve affordable housing, and defend clients in eviction proceedings. We also help tenants pursue rent overcharge claims and actions to improve housing conditions, all of which keep tenants from living in unsafe conditions and becoming homeless.
$8,984,480 spentof which $2,458,859 as grants$7,089,064 earned by the program60% of program spendingOther - we represent people in other civil legal matters, such as consumer, immigration and employment matters. In the consumer area, we defend individuals being sued in debt collection cases and enforce people's right to fair debt collection. Our immigration practice focuses on adjustment of status, naturalization replacements. In the employment arena, we help people get wages to which they are entitled and defend people's employment rights. We also help client groups assert their rights to habitable homes, decent schools and nondiscriminatory housing.
$2,765,434 spent$2,182,023 earned by the program19% of program spendingIncome maintenance - we help people access and retain government benefits. Through our income security and benefits work, we assist clients when government benefits are wrongfully denied, inaccurately calculated, or improperly terminated; and we represent families and individuals for whom unemployment insurance, food stamps, medicaid/medicare and other public assistance and safety net programs constitute critical lifelines.
$2,373,996 spent$1,873,164 earned by the program16% of program spendingFamily assistance - our family law practice preserves families wherever possible, while providing our clients and their children with legal and social services.we help: victims of domestic violence obtain orders of protection and other relief; clients prepare guardianships or adoptions for dependent children; clients obtain divorces, separation agreements, annulments, child custody and child support; parents or guardians in abuse and neglect cases and at termination of parental rights proceedings.
$824,153 spent$650,285 earned by the program6% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,948,063.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2021 to 2022, from $26M to $39M (+52%).
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: 2019 10% · 2020 20% · 2021 18% · 2022 25% · 2023 17% · 2024 23%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
33% of LEGAL SERVICES NYC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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
Velazquez Liza May
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $1.2M → $17M.
14 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 SERVICES NYC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 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 SERVICES NYC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 90% of grant income and the top three 94%; 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 SERVICES NYC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 36% · 2018 90% · 2019 91% · 2020 93% · 2021 93% · 2022 92% · 2023 95% — 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
31% of LEGAL SERVICES NYC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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 SERVICES NYC draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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 SERVICES NYC's funding base is broadening — from 13 funders to 15 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 254 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding LEGAL SERVICES NYC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.4M on record.
- Department of Justice$1.2M
- Department of Veterans Affairs$180k
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 SERVICES NYC
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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
95%
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 4 related entities
- Brooklyn Legal Services Inc · exempt
- Lsny-Bronx Corporation · exempt
- Manhattan Legal Services · exempt
- Queens Legal Services Corporation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LEGAL SERVICES NYC: 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 SERVICES NYC?
- LEGAL SERVICES NYC (New York) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $109,691,996 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($98,722,975). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LEGAL SERVICES NYC have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $109,691,996 in grants to LEGAL SERVICES NYC, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEGAL SERVICES NYC?
- LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $98,722,975 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEGAL SERVICES NYC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 2019–2024), and the filings of 53 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