California · Nonprofit
Tribal Law and Policy Institute
Tribal Law and Policy Institute (California) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $520,488 to it, the largest being The Skadden Foundation ($148,369). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.8M
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $520k
- Net assets
- $687k
What Tribal Law and Policy Institute does
Mission
Tribal Law and Policy Institute (TLPI) is a Native American operated non-profit:Dedicated to providing free publication resources, comprehensive training, and technical assistance for Native nations and tribal justice systems in pursuit of our vision to empower Native communities to create and control their own institutions for the benefit of all community members, now, and for future generations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Tribal Healing to Wellness Court Training and Technical Assistance Program: provided a wide array of training and technical assistance to Tribes to build capacity to plan, develop, or enhance alternatives to incarceration. Assisted Tribal jurisdictions in developing tribal adult, DWI, and/or Veteran's Healing to Wellness Courts (also known as "drug courts or "wellness courts"). Provided TTA to strengthen existing Healing to Wellness Courts. Provided field with state-of-the-art information and resources on effective strategies for addressing substance-abusing offenders in tribal drug courts.
$3,143,594 spent55% of program spendingOffice of Juvenile and Delinquency Prevention Tribal Youth Resource Center: TLPI, in collaboration with project partner, the National Native Children's Trauma Center, provided a range of individualized, intensive, culturally-specific, trauma-informed Tribal TTA to support Tribal efforts to prevent and reduce juvenile delinquency by strengthening Tribally driven approaches along the juvenile justice continuum including delinquency prevention and intervention initiatives; interventions for court-involved youth; treatment services for at-risk/high-risk youth, services for youth in detention or out-of-home placement; and services for children who are victims of sex trafficking.
$128,665 spent2% of program spendingOther Program Activities:1. Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Tribal Justice System Capacity Building TTA Enhancing Tribal/State Collaborations: Provided training, technical assistance to BJA Tribal Court grantees and developed resources for intergovernmental collaborations. Developed, maintained and updated the Walking On Common Ground Website (www.walkingoncommonground.org). Provided resources on Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA) and Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).2.Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Violence Against Women Act 2022 Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction Training and Technical Assistance Project (VAWA STCJ TTA): Provided support training and technical assistance (TTA) specific to grantees and potential grantees of the OVW Tribal Jurisdiction program to plan for, implement and exercise Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction (STCJ). Provided learning opportunities and TTA to tribal leadership, judges, courts, prosecutors, defense counsel, law enforcement, court services, victim advocates, child welfare staff, and other internal and external partners within the tribal justice system. Specific activities include continued support for the Intertribal Working Group…
$2,437,707 spent$428,507 earned by the program43% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,709,966.
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 2017 to 2018, from $434k to $756k (+74%).
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 96% · 2018 92% · 2020 96% · 2021 94% · 2022 95% · 2023 93% · 2024 90% · 2025 93%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of Tribal Law and Policy Institute’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Gerald Gardner
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 2 funders, grant income rose $50k → $78k.
2 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 Tribal Law and Policy Institute’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
Tribal Law and Policy Institute leans on a few funders — its largest provides 29% of grant income and the top three 79%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 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 Tribal Law and Policy Institute.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 62% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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
25% of Tribal Law and Policy Institute's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 44% 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
Tribal Law and Policy Institute draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $14k 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
Tribal Law and Policy Institute's funding base is broadening — from 1 funders to 2 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 852 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding Tribal Law and Policy Institute receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $35.3M on record — $35.3M federal, $200 state.
- Department of Justice$34.3M
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.0M
- (EE) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES$200
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 Tribal Law and Policy Institute
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
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 Tribal Law and Policy Institute: 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 Tribal Law and Policy Institute?
- Tribal Law and Policy Institute (California) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $520,488 to it, the largest being The Skadden Foundation ($148,369). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Tribal Law and Policy Institute have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $520,488 in grants to Tribal Law and Policy Institute, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Tribal Law and Policy Institute?
- The Skadden Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $148,369 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Tribal Law and Policy Institute 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 Tribal Law and Policy Institute →
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 9 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