Maryland Legal Services Corporation
Baltimore, MD · EIN 52-1266744. Reported 121 grants totalling $101.9M to 45 organizations across tax years 2021-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Maryland Legal Services Corporation, the IRS classifies it under crime & legal rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE I80Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 45 distinct organizations, with 47% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
- How much its list changes. 97% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $163,912. Half of what it reported fell between $60,000 and $647,072; the smallest was $29,664 and the largest $22.9M. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Aid Bureau Inc | Baltimore, MD | $47.8M | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Community Legal Services of Prince Georges County Inc | Greenbelt, MD | $6,650,359 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Capital Area Immigrants Rights Coalition | Washington, DC | $6,649,999 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service Inc | Baltimore, MD | $4,759,293 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland Inc | Baltimore, MD | $4,688,392 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Disability Rights Maryland Inc | Baltimore, MD | $3,846,654 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Homeless Persons Repres Proj | Baltimore, MD | $3,238,629 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Shore Legal Access Inc | Easton, MD | $2,766,863 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Public Justice Center Inc | Baltimore, MD | $2,427,782 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| CASA Inc | Hyattsville, MD | $2,244,533 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| The United Way of Central Maryland Inc | Baltimore, MD | $1,621,061 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| House of Ruth Maryland Inc | Baltimore, MD | $1,611,920 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| The Womens Law Center of Maryland Inc | Towson, MD | $1,515,463 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Equal Justice Works | Washington, DC | $1,500,000 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Montgomery County Maryland Bar Foundation Inc | Rockville, MD | $1,496,462 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Bar Foundation of Harford County | Bel Air, MD | $1,373,130 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center Inc | Uppr Marlboro, MD | $913,024 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Allegany Law Foundation Inc | Cumberland, MD | $579,585 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Associated Catholic Charities Inc | Timonium, MD | $568,215 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Community Law Center Inc | Baltimore, MD | $561,901 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington Inc | Washington, DC | $526,652 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation Inc | Baltimore, MD | $501,164 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Mid Shore Council on Family Violence Inc | Easton, MD | $410,575 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Freestate Legal Project Inc | Baltimore, MD | $399,330 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Baltimore Bar Foundation Inc | Baltimore, MD | $323,039 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault Inc | Silver Spring, MD | $303,954 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Heartly House Inc | Frederick, MD | $298,788 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| St Ambrose Housing Aid Center Inc | Baltimore, MD | $287,702 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| University of Baltimore Foundation Inc | Baltimore, MD | $241,904 | 4 | 3 | 2023 |
| Ayuda Inc | Washington, DC | $229,580 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Southern Maryland Center for Family Advocacy Incorporated | Hollywood, MD | $212,883 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Whitman-Walker Clinic Inc | Washington, DC | $185,557 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Hopeworks of Howard County Inc | Columbia, MD | $170,137 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center | Washington, DC | $153,892 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Sexual Assault Spouse Resource Center Inc | Bel Air, MD | $150,225 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Life Crisis Center Inc | Salisbury, MD | $140,928 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| CASA Citizens Assisting and Shelter Ing the Abused Inc | Hagerstown, MD | $140,438 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Tahirih Justice Center | Falls Church, VA | $115,028 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Maryland Public Interest Law Project Inc | Baltimore, MD | $81,750 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Civil Justice Inc | Baltimore, MD | $67,228 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| World Relief Corporation O National | Baltimore, MD | $50,004 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Child Justice Inc | Silver Spring, MD | $49,671 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Annapolis Immigration Justice Network | Annapolis, MD | $47,880 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Amara Legal Center Inc | Washington, DC | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Volunteer Legal Advocates | Washington, DC | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
39 of 45 (87%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 35 of 45 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 37 | $22.8M | $120,779 |
| 2022 | 40 | $31.5M | $174,927 |
| 2023 | 44 | $47.7M | $189,351 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
91% of its giving went to organizations in Maryland. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
Down to the city
Find more funders like Maryland Legal Services Corporation
We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.
No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.
Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $163,912 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Maryland.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Maryland Legal Services Corporation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 3 returns (tax years 2021-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 15 Charles Plaza 102, Baltimore, MD, 21201.
EIN 52-1266744 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.