New York · Nonprofit
SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC
SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC (New York) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,233,978 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($1,500,000). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.3M
- Funders on record
- 52
- Grants received
- $8.2M
- Net assets
- $1.8M
What Scale Justice Network Inc Fka Pro Bono Net Inc does
Mission
Scale justice builds digital tools and partnerships that help millions of people navigate the law, access justice, and live more secure lives. We achieve our mission by:- helping millions of people understand their legal rights and navigate our civil justice system- serving as a mission-driven partner to help allied organizations grow their reach and impact- championing systemic change to build a future where the power of the law belongs to everyone
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Civil justice program: our civil justice program incubates, scales and manages innovative online programs and partnerships that help people navigate the legal system and make that system fairer for everyone. Civil justice program services and accomplishments include: lawhelp.org, our network of statewide legal information portals in 15 states, helps millions of people without lawyers understand their rights, make informed decisions, and connect with free and low-cost help in their local community. Lawhelpny, the leading consumer legal information and referral resource for low-income new yorkers, provides nearly half a million new yorkers a year with plain language legal rights resources and referrals to trusted service providers to help protect their housing, safety, public benefits, families and more.lawhelp interactive (lhi), our self-help platform for creating legal documents, helps more than a million low-income and economically vulnerable individuals create free and accurate court forms and self-advocacy letters simply and easily, an essential step in being able to exercise, voice and defend their rights.multiple purpose built digital tools that increase access to jutice,…
$3,695,338 spentof which $10,000 as grants$1,460,587 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,695,338.
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 2021 to 2022, from $2.0M to $3.1M (+56%).
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 27% · 2019 13% · 2020 29% · 2021 41% · 2022 18% · 2023 22% · 2024 29% · 2025 34%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
65% of SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue 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. 3 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
Zach Zarnow
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 22 funders, grant income fell $1.6M → $951k.
12 of 52 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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 SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 52 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
SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 18% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
46% 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 SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 56% · 2019 46% · 2020 19% · 2021 19% · 2022 38% · 2023 42% — 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
45% of SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC draws 51% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 14 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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
SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC's revenue fell 32% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 852 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $850k on record.
- Department of Justice$496k
- District of Columbia Courts$353k
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 SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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 2 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET 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 SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC?
- SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC (New York) receives grants from 52 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,233,978 to it, the largest being HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC ($1,500,000). 27 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC have?
- IRS filings report 52 organizations giving $8,233,978 in grants to SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC, 27 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET INC?
- HOUSTON ENDOWMENT INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SCALE JUSTICE NETWORK INC FKA PRO BONO NET 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 52 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