Oregon · Nonprofit
METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC
METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC (Oregon) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,637,041 to it, the largest being MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST ($724,698). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $35M
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Metropolitan Public Defender Services Inc does
Mission
Our mission is to provide quality representation and zealous advocacy to each client, to conduct our work with professionalism and dignity, and to promote improvement in the administration of justice.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The organization provided criminal and juvenile legal services to indigent defendants in multnomah and washington counties and capital crime defense services across the state of oregon. Metropolitan public defender services (mpd) handles thousands of criminal and juvenile cases per year and is recognized nationally for its leadership in the public defense community, its training programs, and the guidance, supervision, and support of its attorneys. With this reputation and role come an abiding interest in criminal legal system issues, and the knowledge and ability to affect change in those systems, both at the county and state levels.continued on schedule o.mpd's community law division provides barrier reduction services to individuals with prior involvement in the criminal, housing, and immigration legal systems through legal representation assisting with reintegration and restoration into the community. These services are available to veterans, non-citizens, and individuals in public housing and poverty reduction programs through various federal, city, and county contracts.
$33,196,037 spentof which $582,401 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $33,196,037.
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.
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 $7.4M to $21M (+189%).
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 94% · 2020 95% · 2021 95% · 2022 97% · 2023 94% · 2024 94% · 2025 93%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 7 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
Carl Macpherson
Executive director
Board chair
Roberta Phillip-Robbins
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2022: the base narrowed from 2 funders to 1 funder, grant income rose $139k → $167k.
1 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC’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
METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
41% 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 METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 71% · 2018 100% · 2019 38% · 2020 42% · 2021 47% · 2022 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
87% of METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC's grant income comes from Oregon funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $56k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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 METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $500k on record.
- Department of Veterans Affairs$500k
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 METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES 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 Oregon
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
94% 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 METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES 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 METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC?
- METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC (Oregon) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,637,041 to it, the largest being MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST ($724,698). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $1,637,041 in grants to METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC?
- MEYER MEMORIAL TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $724,698 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like METROPOLITAN PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Oregon. 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 Metropolitan Public Defender Services →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 7 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