California · Nonprofit
LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $47,337,372 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($32,258,408). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $19M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $47M
- Net assets
- $4.9M
What Legal Services of Northern California does
Mission
To empower the poor to identify and defeat the causes and effects of poverty within their communities by providing high quality civil legal services to the poor, seniors, and persons with disabilities in over twenty three counties in n. California.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
The legal services corporation provides 26.8% of lsnc's total funding. This funding is used to provide quality legal services to eligible low income people in 23 northern california counties. California state bar funds and equal access funds are used to supplement funds required to provide services to eligible clients in the 23 northern california counties served by lsnc. Senior services funding provided by area agencies on aging and the administration on aging to provide hicap, elder abuse, legal services, and a telephone hotline to address issues facing the elderly.
$11,562,055 spentof which $244,414 as grants$491,013 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $11,562,055.
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 2021 to 2022, from $5.8M to $8.1M (+40%).
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 56% · 2018 55% · 2019 60% · 2020 59% · 2021 81% · 2022 82% · 2023 85% · 2024 76%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA’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. 6 of the last 8 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
Gary F Smith
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 13 funders, grant income rose $1.3M → $7.2M.
7 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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 OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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 OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 91%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
97% 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 OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 80% · 2018 75% · 2019 72% · 2020 80% · 2021 78% · 2022 78% · 2023 73% — 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
53% of LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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 OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA draws 75% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.8M 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.
Against its field
LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 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 SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.9M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.9M
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 OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
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
81% 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
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Capital Pro Bono · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: 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 OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA?
- LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $47,337,372 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($32,258,408). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $47,337,372 in grants to LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA?
- LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $32,258,408 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LEGAL SERVICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 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 28 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