California · Nonprofit
National Center for Youth Law
National Center for Youth Law (California) receives grants from 126 organizations whose IRS filings report $65,494,886 to it, the largest being CONRAD N HILTON FOUNDATION ($10,444,000). 83 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $16M
- Funders on record
- 126
- Grants received
- $65M
- Net assets
- $19M
What National Center for Youth Law does
Mission
For over 50 years, the National Center for Youth Law has put children and youth at the heart of the pursuit of justice. Guided by their insights, we use litigation, policy change, partnerships, and research to ensure that every child's rights are protected and every voice is heard.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education: Through research, collaboration, and advocacy, we work with students, educators, and public-agency partners to turn schools into positive, compassionate environments where every student - especially those in the foster system, the justice system, or those experiencing homelessness - belongs and is respected. We challenge discriminatory discipline, fight to strengthen education services, and provide cutting-edge research so that students' voices and experiences guide the decisions that shape their learning.
$3,616,047 spent27% of program spendingChildren's Health & Wellbeing: National Center for Youth Law's ("NCYL's") health & wellbeing work improves the lives of children and youth across issue areas. Led by youth with lived experience, our Reproductive Health Equity Project for Foster Youth (RHEP) tears down policy barriers that keep young people from accessing sexual and reproductive health care services. Our advocacy to help children and youth flourish includes strengthening approaches to mental health. NCYL also works to transform the child welfare system to better support youth and families. With respect to combating commercial sexual exploitation of children and youth, our collaborative work shifts the response from criminalization to healing and centering the voices of survivors in policy discussions. A key part of NCYL's work in this area is also training providers, advocates, and communities on laws that protect adolescents' confidentiality, ensuring that every youth can seek help for their physical and mental well-being without fear or stigma.
$3,489,633 spentof which $295,084 as grants26% of program spendingYouth Justice & Equity: Together with youth, their families, community leaders, and system officials, NCYL is working to create a justice system that fosters growth rather than punishment. We spearhead campaigns to erase burdensome juvenile fines and fees in states across the country, and through coalition building, communication strategies, training and technical assistance, work to build a justice landscape where all young people can heal and thrive.
$3,191,771 spentof which $931,250 as grants24% of program spendingLegal Strategies: NCYL defends the rights of children across the country, and our lawsuits focus on bringing about systemic change in each of our core issue areas. At a time when democratic institutions and civil rights protections are under increasing strain, NCYL's legal work helps hold public systems accountable to the children and families they are meant to serve.
$2,067,931 spent$220,310 earned by the program15% of program spendingChildren's Human Rights & Dignity: NCYL believes that no circumstance strips a child of their inherent dignity, whether that circumstance is migration, family crisis, or poverty. As co-counsel in Flores, NCYL represents children in federal immigration custody, advocating for humane conditions and reuniting children with their families in accordance with the law. We also lead efforts to dismantle practices that harm children in the foster system, fight to ensure that youth have access to health care and education, and promote youth-centered, community-centered, and family-centered policies that preserve families and reduce reliance on the foster system.
$1,175,052 spent9% of program spendingOther small programs unrelated to the significant programs currently listed.
$39,570 spent0% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $13,580,004.
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.
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 $23M to $31M (+38%).
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 23% · 2018 19% · 2019 16% · 2020 15% · 2021 31% · 2022 19% · 2023 31% · 2024 19% · 2025 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
Shakti Belway
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 47 funders, grant income rose $2.5M → $8.3M.
26 of 126 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 21% 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 National Center for Youth Law’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 126 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
National Center for Youth Law has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 16% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
32% 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 National Center for Youth Law.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 24% · 2018 15% · 2019 13% · 2020 17% · 2021 12% · 2022 30% · 2023 18% — 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
48% of National Center for Youth Law'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
57% of National Center for Youth Law's grant income comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $14M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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.
Government funding National Center for Youth Law receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.6M on record.
- Department of Health and Human Services$3.6M
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 National Center for Youth Law
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
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 National Center for Youth Law: 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 National Center for Youth Law?
- National Center for Youth Law (California) receives grants from 126 organizations whose IRS filings report $65,494,886 to it, the largest being CONRAD N HILTON FOUNDATION ($10,444,000). 83 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does National Center for Youth Law have?
- IRS filings report 126 organizations giving $65,494,886 in grants to National Center for Youth Law, 83 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of National Center for Youth Law?
- CONRAD N HILTON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $10,444,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like National Center for Youth Law 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 126 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