Maryland · Nonprofit
MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC
MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC (Maryland) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,957,627 to it, the largest being MARYLAND LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($6,723,708). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.0M
- Funders on record
- 50
- Grants received
- $10.0M
- Net assets
- $3.4M
What Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service Inc does
Mission
The mission of the maryland volunteer lawyers service (mvls) is to remove barriers to justice through free civil legal help, community engagement, and advocacy for equitable laws. (see schedule o for the complete mission statement.)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Mvls provides legal help in a broad range of civil legal matters including family, housing, consumer, criminal record relief, estate planning & administration, and tax controversy. Last year, mvls' pro bono program matched over 2,266 low-income clients with attorneys and tax professionals for free representation in civil cases. Mvls has more than 800 active volunteers on its panel and employs staff attorneys with subject matter expertise in all legal areas listed above to support volunteers. Mvls recruits volunteers from all sectors of the bar, including small and solo firms, large law firms, corporations and government attorneys, and from accounting firms.
$1,992,660 spent51% of program spendingThe judicare project is a reduced-fee program designed to provide free legal services to clients who otherwise would be unable to afford representation in contested family law cases. Mvls operates this project in 15 maryland counties and baltimore city. Experienced volunteer lawyers are paid $120/hour for up to 35 hours to resolve these difficult cases. For the year ended june 30, 2025. Our judicare panel attorneys closed 194 cases, primarily involving contested custody that directly benefited 543 family members.
$750,747 spent19% of program spendingHousing stability is a core focus at mvls, with a particular emphasis on older adults to ensure they can age in place and successfully pass on their assets to their next generation the advanced planning project educates marylanders about the need to do estate planning so they can pass their most important asset, their home, to their family. This program combats generations of wealth extraction from communities of color, many of whom had not engaged in estate planning and had lost their homes to tax sale or foreclosure. The my home, my deed, my legacy project builds upon this work and provides pro bono legal services for estate planning and deed disentanglement to clients who were traditionally denied access to justice. In fy25, mvls handled 641 estates and deeds cases.
$668,021 spent17% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$495,381 spent$5,440 earned by the program13% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,906,809.
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 2022 to 2023, from $2.5M to $4.7M (+87%).
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 33% · 2018 43% · 2019 26% · 2020 31% · 2021 38% · 2022 32% · 2023 37% · 2024 22% · 2025 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Susan Francis
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $270k → $2.4M.
7 of 50 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 MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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
MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 79%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
80% 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 MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 63% · 2018 42% · 2019 67% · 2020 45% · 2021 24% · 2022 74% · 2023 66% — 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
48% of MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% 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
94% of MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC's grant income comes from Maryland funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $112k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 793 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.9M on record — $1.0M federal, $1.9M state.
- Department of the Treasury$1.0M
- Grant$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 MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC
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 Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC: 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 MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC?
- MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC (Maryland) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,957,627 to it, the largest being MARYLAND LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($6,723,708). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC have?
- IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $9,957,627 in grants to MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC?
- MARYLAND LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $6,723,708 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MARYLAND VOLUNTEER LAWYERS SERVICE INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. 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 Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service →
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 50 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