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New York · Nonprofit

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC (New York) receives grants from 796 organizations whose IRS filings report $279,967,626 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($32,315,829). 359 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

$68M
Revenue FY2025
796
Funders on record
$280M
Grants received
$423M
Net assets
359/796 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year

Against its field

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 50 civil rights nonprofits its size.

Operating margin7% · below the median
Months of reserve6.7mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)9% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 50 civil rights nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($34M) Expenses 100 ($17M) Net assets 100 ($61M)2018 Revenue 66 ($22M) Expenses 110 ($19M) Net assets 108 ($66M)2019 Revenue 110 ($37M) Expenses 136 ($23M) Net assets 132 ($80M)2020 Revenue 442 ($150M) Expenses 158 ($27M) Net assets 333 ($203M)2021 Revenue 513 ($174M) Expenses 250 ($42M) Net assets 561 ($341M)2022 Revenue 247 ($84M) Expenses 286 ($49M) Net assets 593 ($361M)2023 Revenue 87 ($29M) Expenses 304 ($52M) Net assets 632 ($384M)2024 Revenue 223 ($76M) Expenses 344 ($58M) Net assets 682 ($415M)2025 Revenue 202 ($68M) Expenses 375 ($64M) Net assets 696 ($423M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (202)Expenses (375)Net assets (696)Peer revenue range

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

66% of NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (96% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 160 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$17M
17
$3.6M
18
$14M
19
$123M
20
$132M
21
$35M
22
$22M
23
$17M
24
$4.7M
25
6.7
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 79 funders to 212 funders, grant income rose $8.7M → $30M.

121 of 796 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)53% 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 NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 796 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

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left

58% 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 NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC.

12%
largest funder
31%
top three
~21
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 61% · 2018 13% · 2019 15% · 2020 18% · 2021 34% · 2022 11% · 2023 34%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

24% of NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 45% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

53% of NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $133M that is directly attributable, 50% of it comes from New York funders.

AK
ME
VT
NH
WA
ID
MT
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
SD
IA
IN
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
DE
AZ
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
OK
LA
GA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
New York out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $147M arriving through sponsors registered in 35 statesis 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.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 796 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Organizations like NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In New York

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

67% of spending goes to programs.

Program 67%Management 17%Fundraising 16%

Governance

25
board members
96%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

88%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 40 states

AK
ME
NH
WA
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
MO
KY
WV
VA
MD
AZ
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
DC
HI
OK
MS
AL
GA
FL

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Earl Warren Legal Training Program · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC?
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC (New York) receives grants from 796 organizations whose IRS filings report $279,967,626 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($32,315,829). 359 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC have?
IRS filings report 796 organizations giving $279,967,626 in grants to NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC, 359 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC?
NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $32,315,829 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUC FUND INC 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 796funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing