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Michigan · Nonprofit

THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER

THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER (Michigan) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,160,910 to it, the largest being EDWIN J AND RUTH M SHOEMAKER FOUNDATION ($425,000). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$1.1M
Funders on record
53
Grants received
$2.2M
Net assets
$2.7M
38/53 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 28%
01What it does

What Thomas More Law Center does

Mission

Public interest law firm dedicated to educate and defend the citizens of the united states with respect to their constitutional rights and liberties and, in furtherance thereof, to conduct scholarly research, and publish writings.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Thomas More Law Center, during 2025, was involved in 13 active legal matters in 8 various states. The legal matters were related to issues of religious freedom, traditional family values, the sanctity of human life, and the preservation of a strong and sovereign united states of america. The law center increased its total number of pro-bono attorneys to 828.

    $1,035,728 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,035,728.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.8M) Expenses 100 ($1.8M) Net assets 100 ($1.0M)2018 Revenue 97 ($1.8M) Expenses 109 ($2.0M) Net assets 72 ($724k)2019 Revenue 95 ($1.7M) Expenses 90 ($1.6M) Net assets 97 ($972k)2020 Revenue 85 ($1.5M) Expenses 76 ($1.4M) Net assets 118 ($1.2M)2021 Revenue 112 ($2.0M) Expenses 56 ($1.0M) Net assets 222 ($2.2M)2022 Revenue 235 ($4.3M) Expenses 217 ($3.9M) Net assets 247 ($2.5M)2023 Revenue 62 ($1.1M) Expenses 57 ($1.0M) Net assets 267 ($2.7M)2024 Revenue 62 ($1.1M) Expenses 63 ($1.1M) Net assets 273 ($2.7M)2025 Revenue 59 ($1.1M) Expenses 65 ($1.2M) Net assets 267 ($2.7M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (59)Expenses (65)Net assets (267)Peer revenue range

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 $3.0M to $3.8M (+26%).

$2.3M
$1.9M
$2.0M
$2.2M
$3.0M
$3.8M
$3.8M
$3.6M
$3.2M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 7%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

95% of THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 11,814 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$25k
’17
−$198k
’18
$111k
’19
$174k
’20
$1.0M
’21
$374k
’22
$98k
’23
−$9k
’24
−$93k
’25
15
months of
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed546464554
Joined·+0+2+0+2+0+1+0+0
No longer listed·10202001
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $130k → $320k.

9 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 53 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

THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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

43% 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 THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER.

20%
largest funder
49%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 31% · 2019 35% · 2020 12% · 2021 31% · 2022 26% · 2023 25% — 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

63% of THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER draws 51% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 17 states in all.

IL
WI
MI
NY
OR
NV
OH
PA
NJ
CT
CA
UT
VA
AZ
OK
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Michigan out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $921k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−9% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve14.8mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)−6% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER

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 Michigan

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

89% of spending goes to programs.

Program 89%Management 9%Fundraising 2%

Governance

3
board members
33%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

62%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 37 states

AK
ME
NH
WA
ND
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
OR
NV
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
UT
CO
KY
WV
VA
MD
NM
KS
AR
TN
NC
SC
OK
MS
AL
GA
TX
FL

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER?
THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER (Michigan) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,160,910 to it, the largest being EDWIN J AND RUTH M SHOEMAKER FOUNDATION ($425,000). 38 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER have?
IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $2,160,910 in grants to THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER, 38 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER?
EDWIN J AND RUTH M SHOEMAKER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $425,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Michigan. 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 Thomas More Law Center →

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 53 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