Vermont · Nonprofit
Vermont Law School
Vermont Law School (Vermont) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,607,286 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($12,811,071). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $54M
- Funders on record
- 71
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $33M
What Vermont Law School does
Mission
We are committed to developing a generation of leaders who use the power of the law to make a difference in our communities and the world. Vermont Law and Graduate School's mission statement is: "To educate students in a diverse community that fosters personal growth and that enables them to attain outstanding professional skills and high ethical values with which to serve as lawyers and environmental and other professionals in an increasingly technological and interdependent global society." Our motto is "law for the community and the world."
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Vermont Law and Graduate School provides outstanding legal and environmental education, with an emphasis on public service. The Environmental Law Center at VLGS houses the deepest graduate environmental law program in the country, offering Master's and LLM programs on campus, online, and in hybrid formats, and is consistently ranked among the nation's best by U.S. News and World Report. The school offers experiential opportunities through clinics and external training. In Fall of 2024, 730 full and part-time (both residential and online) students were enrolled in JD and other advanced degree programs. Vermont Law and Graduate School awarded 212 JD, Master's and LLM degrees in 2024.
$39,279,722 spentof which $15,682,000 as grants$34,093,710 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $39,279,722.
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 2024 to 2025, from $49M to $56M (+15%).
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 9% · 2018 6% · 2019 6% · 2020 6% · 2021 17% · 2022 11% · 2023 16% · 2024 13% · 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
36% of Vermont Law School’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (23% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Board chair
Glenn Berger
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 19 funders to 31 funders, grant income rose $781k → $3.4M.
14 of 71 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 77% 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 Vermont Law School’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 71 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
Vermont Law School leans on a few funders — its largest provides 73% of grant income and the top three 80%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
81% 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 Vermont Law School.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 63% · 2019 64% · 2020 54% · 2021 41% · 2022 88% · 2023 80% — 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
37% of Vermont Law School's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
77% of Vermont Law School'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 $4.0M that is directly attributable, 78% of it comes from funders outside Vermont, across 22 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $14M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
Vermont Law School runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 3,794 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,794 education nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding Vermont Law School receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $36.5M on record — $31.8M federal, $4.7M state.
- Department of Justice$15.6M
- Department of Agriculture$12.6M
- Department of Education$1.3M
- Small Business Administration$1.3M
- Department of Veterans Affairs$790k
- Department of State$217k
- Other Grants$2.6M
- Grants$1.6M
- Balanced & Restorative Justice$174k
- Emgcy Rental Housing Stability$156k
- Other Contr and 3rd Pty Serv$76k
- Gr, Awards, Scholarships&Loans$66k
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 Vermont Law School
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 Vermont
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- VLS Campus Holdings LLC · disregarded
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Vermont Law School: 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 Vermont Law School?
- Vermont Law School (Vermont) receives grants from 71 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,607,286 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($12,811,071). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Vermont Law School have?
- IRS filings report 71 organizations giving $17,607,286 in grants to Vermont Law School, 40 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Vermont Law School?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $12,811,071 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Vermont Law School find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Vermont. 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 71 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