North Carolina · Nonprofit
PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES
PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES (North Carolina) receives grants from 136 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,982,069 to it, the largest being DOGWOOD HEALTH TRUST ($10,572,667). 86 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $18M
- Funders on record
- 136
- Grants received
- $29M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Pisgah Legal Services does
Mission
Pisgah Legal Services pursues justice to improve lives for low-income people in western north carolina through legal assistance and advocacy. Pisgah Legal Services envisions a community where all people have access to civil legal assistance when they need it to protect their basic rights and secure essentials, such as housing, health care, income, and safety from abuse. We envision a community with policies and services in place that reduce poverty and ease the burdens of poverty on our neighbors. The organization tracked 35 million in quantifiable benefits secured for its clients in 2024, although many legal outcomes cannot be valued in dollars, such as escaping from domestic violence or homelessness. More than 25,800 people were served at no charge. The organization played a vital role in immediate tropical storm helene recovery efforts and will contine to do so in the future .
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Health and economic opportunity: provide affordable care act and medicaid enrollment assistance to help people understand, acquire, maintain, and utilize affordable health care coverage. Provide free tax return preparation under vita standards to qualifying households with the goal of increasing the uptake in unclaimed tax credits in order to decrease child poverty. Provide legal services to patients to social determinants of health.
$4,150,893 spent39% of program spendingDomestic violence and child abuse prevention services: in 2024, the organization provided free legal advice and representation to help more than 5,622 adults and children who were victims of domestic or sexual violence to escape abuse and rebuild their lives. Staff and volunteer attorneys help victims/survivors secure court protective orders to improve safety, and address barriers to independence, such as child custody, division of marital property, housing problems, income, and consumer protection so that victims can establish new lives apart from their abusers. The organization also collaborates with domestic violence shelters, law enforcement, and other community partners to reduce domestic violence in area communities and to improve services for victims. 28% of the organization's closed legal cases involved issues related to domestic violence and child abuse.
$1,493,321 spentof which $1,000 as grants14% of program spendingHomelessness prevention: prevents families and individuals from losing their homes to eviction or foreclosure and improves existing housing conditions. 34% of legal cases closed in 2024 presented as housing issues.
$1,632,642 spentof which $205,021 as grants15% of program spending- legal services to the poor: helps low-income individuals address consumer protection issues, income shortfalls, and manage their limited resources. This work includes helping restore drivers' licenses and expunge criminal records so that people can increase their incomes. - elder law: helps seniors live independently in their homes as long as possible. Protects seniors from financial or physical abuse or harassment and assists with end-of-life planning. 2024 expenditures: 413,609. - children's law project: helps disadvantaged children avoid homelessness, access essential services such as medical care and public education, and escape situations of abuse. 2024 expenditures: 348,686. - benefits law: obtains and protects public benefits for low-income people, including food and nutritional services, medicaid, social security, and others. Pisgah legal assists medicaid beneficiaries and applicants to protect medicaid rights. 2024 expenditures: 161,138. - justice for all project: assists eligible immigrants with securing legal immigration status or work authorization and addresses other basic needs like safety and housing so that immigrants may lift themselves and their families out of…
$3,479,293 spentof which $4,753 as grants32% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $10,756,149.
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 2023 to 2024, from $10M to $15M (+47%).
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 28% · 2018 31% · 2019 31% · 2020 54% · 2021 39% · 2022 23% · 2023 29% · 2024 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
98% of PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 25 funders to 62 funders, grant income rose $910k → $4.7M.
27 of 136 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 136 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
PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 59%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
51% 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 PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 32% · 2018 25% · 2019 13% · 2020 24% · 2021 64% · 2022 30% · 2023 43% — 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
51% of PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES'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
93% of PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES's grant income comes from North Carolina funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES 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 PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.4M on record.
- Department of Veterans Affairs$950k
- Department of the Treasury$887k
- Department of Justice$600k
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 PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES
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 North Carolina
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
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 PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES: 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 PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES?
- PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES (North Carolina) receives grants from 136 organizations whose IRS filings report $28,982,069 to it, the largest being DOGWOOD HEALTH TRUST ($10,572,667). 86 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES have?
- IRS filings report 136 organizations giving $28,982,069 in grants to PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES, 86 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES?
- DOGWOOD HEALTH TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $10,572,667 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like PISGAH LEGAL SERVICES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Carolina. 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 Pisgah Legal Services →
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 136 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