Pennsylvania · Nonprofit
NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION
NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,040,496 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($12,297,300). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $9.7M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $3.7M
What Neighborhood Legal Services Association does
Mission
The mission statement of Neighborhood Legal Services Association is to meet the civil legal needs of the poor and vulnerable in our community through effective legal representation and education.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
On its FY2023 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
While all our services are significant, nls has expanded our lawyer of the day program to four magisterial district courts. This is a change in the way we approach eviction cases, as we previously limited our representation to clients with cases on appeal from the magisterial district courts to the court of common pleas. As part of this program, nls provides a lawyer on site on eviction calendar day in four of the magisterial district courts with the highest number of eviction cases. The process starts when a landlord files an eviction action against a tenant in one of the four courts. After the initial eviction filing, rent help pittsburgh contacts every tenant they can to offer resource navigation, including rental assistance and referrals to neighborhood legal services. While some tenants take advantage of this situation to contact nls for an intake before their court date, other tenants show up at court unaware of the resources available to them. When that happens nls staff attorneys set the tenants up for an intake with our program and then refer the tenants to rent help pittsburgh for help in locating rental assistance and other resources. Tenants who do not contact nls before their court date, can apply for our services and receive help the day of their court hearing through the attorney and paralegal on the spot in the courtroom. The essence of this program is that any qualifying tenant in eviction court that day who needs a lawyer will receive legal representation.…
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Nls handled 10,565 cases during the reporting period. Pro bono attorneys handled 1,122 cases. Approximately 6% of the total cases involved consumer issues, 35% involved family issues (75% of these were pfas), 44% involved housing issues, 6% involved income maintenance issues (ssi, food stamps, tanf, unemployment compensation), 5% involved employment issues, and the remaining 3% involved such issues as health, driver's license suspensions, property taxes, and advanced directives. Of the cases handled, 73% were for individuals between 18 and 54, 27% for individuals aged 60 and over, and less than 1% for those under 18. Most of these individuals were female (74%). Forty-six percent (46%) of the clients were white, 46% were black, and 8% were other ethnic groups such as asian, hispanic, and native american. Non-english speakers comprised 1% of our clients.
$7,594,041 spent$2 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2023 Form 990. Program spending in total: $7,594,041.
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 2019 to 2020, from $2.4M to $3.7M (+52%).
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 3% · 2018 7% · 2019 15% · 2020 15% · 2021 20% · 2022 9% · 2023 44% · 2024 97% · 2025 98%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Kristine Bergstrom
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 7 funders, grant income rose $5k → $2.2M.
5 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 1% 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: $29M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network Inc Fka/ Pennsylvania Legal Services); $1.3M from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest The United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania). These are real filings, and they are not money NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION raised.
From the IRS filings of NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 18 of 19 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
NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 88% of grant income and the top three 97%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
97% 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 NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 81% · 2019 77% · 2020 94% · 2021 80% · 2022 90% · 2023 98% — 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
50% of NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION draws 89% of its grant income from funders outside Pennsylvania, across 3 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $157k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 793 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION
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 Pennsylvania
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
96% 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 NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION: 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 NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION?
- NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION (Pennsylvania) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,040,496 to it, the largest being LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION ($12,297,300). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $14,040,496 in grants to NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION?
- LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION is the largest funder on record, with $12,297,300 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NEIGHBORHOOD LEGAL SERVICES ASSOCIATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Pennsylvania. 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 Neighborhood Legal Services Association →
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 19 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