Washington, D.C. · Nonprofit
WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION
WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,253,843 to it, the largest being US JUSTICE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC ($1,300,000). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $4.8M
- Funders on record
- 53
- Grants received
- $5.3M
- Net assets
- $39M
What Washington Legal Foundation does
Mission
The foundation works with our legal system to maintain balance in the courts and help our government strengthen america's free enterprise system. The foundation champions free market principles, individual rights, business civil liberties and legal ethics. It serves the public interest through litigation and representation, legal public policy analysis, intern programs, research and briefs, web seminars, monographs, educational materials, media briefings and educational video commentaries. The foundation accomplishes its mission by shaping public policy through litigation and advocacy, publishing timely legal studies and educating policy-makers and public through extensive communications outreach.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Litigation, legal public policy analysis, clinical legal intern program, briefs and research documents, public legal issues, monograph series, educational legal studies, nine different publication formats, media briefings, web seminars, and educational video commentaries.
$1,220,096 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,220,096.
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 2023 to 2024, from $35M to $39M (+11%).
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: 2020 5% · 2021 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
66% of WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (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.
Board chair
Constance C Larcher
Chair / president
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 26 funders, grant income rose $348k → $442k.
9 of 53 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 17% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $452k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest American Legal Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION’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
WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% 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
37% 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 WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 22% · 2018 74% · 2019 22% · 2020 13% · 2021 18% · 2022 16% · 2023 17% — 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
54% of WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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
WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION draws 57% of its grant income from funders outside Washington, D.C., across 16 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $915k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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
WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION 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 WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION
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, D.C.
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
62% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 7 states
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION: 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 WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION?
- WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION (Washington, D.C.) receives grants from 53 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,253,843 to it, the largest being US JUSTICE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC ($1,300,000). 39 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 53 organizations giving $5,253,843 in grants to WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION, 39 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION?
- US JUSTICE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,300,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WASHINGTON LEGAL FOUNDATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Washington, D.C.. 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 Washington Legal →
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 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing