Massachusetts · Nonprofit
METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC
METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,693,559 to it, the largest being MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP ($16,648,685). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.0M
- Funders on record
- 45
- Grants received
- $23M
- Net assets
- $6.0M
What Metrowest Legal Services Inc does
Mission
Metrowest legal services (mwls) provides free legal services in civil cases to protect and advance the rights of low-income, elderly, disabled and other disenfranchised people in the 45 communities it serves, with the goal of helping clients obtain legal, social and economic justice.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Mwls handled 3,949 cases during fy25, an increase of 18% over fy24. Of those handled, the types of cases handled were consistent with the results of the 2023 needs assessment. Cases handled included housing and immigration - 31% each, family - 16%, document drafting for seniors - 10%, government benefits and health care access - 6%, consumer - 4%, and education - 2%. Mwls advocacy resulted in significant economic benefits for clients during the year including $6,795,587 in direct dollar benefits to clients and $4,108,684 in direct dollar savings to clients. Mwls continued to recruit and train private attorneys participating in the private bar involvement program. Mwls continued its lawyer for the day in marlborough and started a new lawyer for the day in the norfolk probate and family court in canton in the spring of 2025. The senior citizen legal project held 108 elder legal clinics at 10 local senior centers that provided legal advice to 474 seniors. The immigration unit held bi-monthly clinics at voices against violence where immigrant survivors were screened for possible immigration relief available to them. Mwls conducted extensive outreach across substantive units and as an…
$4,261,129 spent$15,083 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,261,129.
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 2024 to 2025, from $5.5M to $6.7M (+22%).
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: 2018 9% · 2020 10% · 2021 44% · 2022 42% · 2023 34% · 2024 27% · 2025 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (72% for the typical peer).
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
Elizabeth Soule Esq
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $1.5M → $3.2M.
8 of 45 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 METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 45 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
METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 73% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
91% 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 METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 66% · 2018 68% · 2019 62% · 2020 59% · 2021 67% · 2022 75% · 2023 73% — 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
72% of METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 73% 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
99% of METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC's grant income comes from Massachusetts funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $526k 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
METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 369 unclassified nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 369 unclassified nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.0M on record.
- (MM) PURCHASED CLIENT/PROGRAM SVCS$2.8M
- (PP) STATE AID/POL SUB$171k
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 METROWEST LEGAL 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 Massachusetts
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
88% 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 METROWEST LEGAL 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 METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC?
- METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,693,559 to it, the largest being MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP ($16,648,685). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC have?
- IRS filings report 45 organizations giving $22,693,559 in grants to METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC?
- MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP is the largest funder on record, with $16,648,685 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like METROWEST LEGAL SERVICES INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. 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 Metrowest Legal Services →
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 45 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