California · Nonprofit
Public Interest Law Project
Public Interest Law Project (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,107,520 to it, the largest being CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($490,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.9M
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $4.7M
What Public Interest Law Project does
Mission
The purpose of the Public Interest Law Project is to (1) render legal services to low income persons who may be in need thereof and are financially unable to pay for the same; and (2) provide technical assistance, training, research, and litigation support to California legal aid organizations.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Inclusive affordable housingPILP's housing work is designed to support Californians in need of affordable housing. We focus on equitable use and ownership of land to increase, protect, and preserve affordable housing and tenant protections for lower income Californians. We specialize in affordable and fair housing; land use, inclusive development and redevelopment, relocation assistance, preservation of subsidized housing, and landlord-tenant laws. In 2024, we advanced justice across California by winning enforceable commitments in Clovis to rezone for 1,300 affordable homes, launch a $1.8 million Housing Trust Fund, and adopt the Central Valley's first inlcusionary zoning ordinance. We protected the mobilehome residents is San Leandro from unlawful rent hikes, co-sponsored state legislation (AB 2023) to strengthen housing planning laws, and defended the Surplus Land Act against rollbacks. We also ended discriminatory leasing policies in San Bernardino, increasing access for over 26,000 Section 8 tenants, and distributed a strategy brief for the legal aid sector related to use and ownership of land in California.
$960,409 spent57% of program spendingProtecting and advancing civil rights of unhoused personsCalifornia is home to more than half of all unhoused people, many in unsafe conditions without access to basic necessities including food, shelter, and health care. PILP protects and advances the civil rights of unhoused people across the state; fights the criminalization of homelessness; and works to ensure equitable access to benefits and services that are designed to help unhoused people get and keep stable housing. In 2024, we continued to fight for the civil rights of unhoused persons in San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, and Santa Rosa.
$360,153 spent21% of program spendingBreaking down barriers to equitable disbursement of public benefitsThose eligible for public benefits in California include chronically homeless people with disabilities, female-headed, and lower income families with children that disproportionately identify as female households and Black or Latina. PILP breaks down systemic barriers to the equitable disbursement of public benefits, primarily focused on CalFresh; CalWORKS; General Assistance/Relief; and other funds targeted to helping unhoused people, people with disabilities, immigrants, foster youth, and disaster survivors can meet their basic needs. In 2024, we developed and widely distributed a multilingual toolkit to expand access to underutilized housing and homelessness programs within public benefits frameworks, reaching qualified legal service programs, community groups, and thousands of eligible individuals.
$360,153 spent21% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,680,715.
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 2020 to 2021, from $2.3M to $3.6M (+55%).
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: 2021 10% · 2022 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of Public Interest Law Project’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Shashi Hanuman
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $20k → $295k.
3 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 71% 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 Public Interest Law Project’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Public Interest Law Project leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 89%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
100% 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 Public Interest Law Project.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2019 54% · 2020 79% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 76% — 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
0% of Public Interest Law Project's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% 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
71% of Public Interest Law Project's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $323k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $785k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Public Interest Law Project runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Public Interest Law Project
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 Public Interest Law Project: 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 Public Interest Law Project?
- Public Interest Law Project (California) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,107,520 to it, the largest being CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($490,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 71% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Public Interest Law Project have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $1,107,520 in grants to Public Interest Law Project, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Public Interest Law Project?
- CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $490,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Public Interest Law Project 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.
Play a game about who funds Public Interest Law Project →
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 8 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