Washington · Nonprofit
THE WAY TO JUSTICE
THE WAY TO JUSTICE (Washington) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,361,774 to it, the largest being LEGAL FOUNDATION OF WASHINGTON ($430,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.4M
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $1.4M
What The Way to Justice does
Mission
Empowering the community through advocacy and access.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Our clients and their loved ones have been unjustly impacted by our legal system. Too often, access to justice is denied due to poverty and structural bias. In our work, we focus on addressing systemic racism, removing barriers, empowering the most vulnerable, and amplifying the voices of the impacted community to create a more just system. We understand that change will not happen overnight, so another aspect of our work is focused on navigating systems as they are, to find The Way to Justice.
$3,003,106 spent$6,300 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,003,106.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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 2024 to 2025, from $1.6M to $2.3M (+39%).
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 95% · 2022 98% · 2024 84% · 2025 86%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of THE WAY TO JUSTICE’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (97% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 4 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
Virla Spencer
CEO
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $235k → $576k.
3 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 THE WAY TO JUSTICE’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
THE WAY TO JUSTICE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
86% 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 THE WAY TO JUSTICE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 64% · 2022 64% · 2023 56% — 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.
Where its funders are
100% of THE WAY TO JUSTICE's grant income comes from Washington funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $199k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
THE WAY TO JUSTICE has grown faster than three-quarters of the 431 civil rights nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 431 civil rights nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like THE WAY TO JUSTICE
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 Washington
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE WAY TO JUSTICE: 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 THE WAY TO JUSTICE?
- THE WAY TO JUSTICE (Washington) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,361,774 to it, the largest being LEGAL FOUNDATION OF WASHINGTON ($430,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THE WAY TO JUSTICE have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $1,361,774 in grants to THE WAY TO JUSTICE, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE WAY TO JUSTICE?
- LEGAL FOUNDATION OF WASHINGTON is the largest funder on record, with $430,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE WAY TO JUSTICE find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington. 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 Way to Justice →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2021–2025), and the filings of 13 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