Massachusetts · Nonprofit
NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC
NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,246,787 to it, the largest being MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP ($2,867,988). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $22M
- Funders on record
- 45
- Grants received
- $19M
- Net assets
- $46M
What National Consumer Law Center Inc does
Mission
The national consumer law center works for consumer justice and economic security for low-income and other disadvantaged people in the u.s. Through its expertise in policy analysis and advocacy, publications, litigation, expert witness services, and training.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Promoting economic opportunity for people with low-incomes by increasing access to sustainable housing and homeownership, utilities, and car ownership.to reduce the obstacles people with low incomes encounter in obtaining safe housing and essential transportation, nclc develops and advocates reforms to promote access to fair lending and housing laws, foreclosure avoidance programs, and affordable access to utilities. Cars are essential for many families to achieve economic mobility, so nclc also promotes effective car ownership programs and combats misleading and discriminatory sales and lending practices. A focus on advancing equity and racial justice is integral to this advocacy, as systemic racism in housing, mortgage and auto lending that leads to higher rates of poverty, lack of housing, a persistent wealth gap, and community disinvestment.
$4,868,124 spent$4,298,807 earned by the program43% of program spendingProtecting low-income people, families, and communities from predatory lending, risky financial products, abusive credit reporting and debt collection, and other forms of economic exploitation. Nclc pursues reforms to federal and state policy, regulation, and legislation to help people with low incomes, people of color, justice-involved individuals, and people with limited english proficiency have access to secure bank accounts; safe access to credit with interest rate caps; and a path to pursue a fresh start through a reasonable bankruptcy process. Nclc advances policy solutions to combat: predatory lending; abusive overdraft fees and interest rates; scam robocalls and texts; irresponsible credit reporting; crippling medical debt; forced arbitration; junk fees; excessive student loan debt; and unfair and deceptive debt collection practices.
$3,225,775 spent$4,537,318 earned by the program28% of program spendingEducating front-line legal services and non-profit lawyers, private attorneys, federal and state policymakers, regulatory and enforcement officials, and courts about substantive consumer law issues through conferences and trainings, expert witness services, and in-depth treatises, reports and issue briefs. Nclc provides training and educational resources to consumer law attorneys and advocates. Nclc publishes 21 consumer law treatises on every aspect of consumer law. Nclc advocates update its digital library regularly and provide sample pleadings, articles, trial tips, and strategies. Nclc produces three annual conferences, which in 2024 provided high-level training to more than 1,600 lawyers. At conferences and in online trainings, nclc trained more than 11,135 advocates in 2024. Nclc litigates consumer law cases on behalf of its low-income clients, and provides expert witness services and consulting on consumer law and utility issues.
$3,285,152 spent$3,668,884 earned by the program29% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $11,379,051.
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 $35M to $43M (+24%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 1% · 2021 1% · 2022 1% · 2023 0% · 2024 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
31% of NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (95% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 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
Richard Dubois
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 22 funders, grant income rose $1.8M → $2.5M.
8 of 45 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 14% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.2M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Consumer Law Building Corporation). These are real filings, and they are not money NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC raised.
From the IRS filings of NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER 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
NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
44% 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 CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 21% · 2019 16% · 2020 22% · 2021 16% · 2022 18% · 2023 17% — 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
56% of NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC draws 81% of its grant income from funders outside Massachusetts, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 254 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 254 crime & legal nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.2M on record — $817k federal, $432k state.
- Department of the Treasury$563k
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau$254k
- MA$208k
- CT$131k
- FL$79k
- VT$10k
- OR$2k
- DE$2k
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 CONSUMER LAW CENTER 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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
61%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 28 states
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Consumer Law Building Corporation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER 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 NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC?
- NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 45 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,246,787 to it, the largest being MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP ($2,867,988). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC have?
- IRS filings report 45 organizations giving $19,246,787 in grants to NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER INC?
- MASSACHUSETTS LEGAL ASSISTANCE CORP is the largest funder on record, with $2,867,988 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), 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