Legal Aid of North Carolina

What it reported doing in 2025

Legal aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers to economic opportunity. Lanc focuses its advocacy on cases that affect its clients' basic human needs - safety from violence, shelter and income - and cases involving systemic and structural injustices and inequalities that broadly affect low-income north carolinians. Lanc's core cases involve domestic violence, housing, public benefits, consumer rights, employment, education, health care, and disaster relief and recovery. Clients are generally people with incomes below 125% of the federal poverty level. Three-quarters of our clients are women, many of whom have minor children. In 2023, lanc handled over 27,000 cases in 100 counties of North Carolina. Lanc has 23 office locations and operates 13 statewide or regional projects that focus on discrete areas of law or serve special client populations. Lanc is a full-service law firm that provides a comprehensive array of services to clients, from advice and brief service to full representation in court. Lanc also conducts self-help legal workshops that educate and empower clients to handle certain basic legal issues themselves. Lanc also produces and distributes self-help and educational resources like handbooks, brochures and videos. In addition to proving high-quality legal representation and counsel across the state to tens of thousands of low-income households, lanc administers various public benefits programs for qualified North Carolina citizens. For example, lanc is the administrator of the federal aca enrollment process in North Carolina. In this project, lanc staff serve as certified navigators to provide outreach and enrollment services to low-income North Carolina consumers about the affordable care act and assist them in enroliing in health insurance plans. Lanc is currently operating a call center and assistance project, called ombudsman, on behalf of the state dhhs. This project assists patients from medicaid-eligible recipients in North Carolina who are experiencing medicaid access issues with providers. The ombudsmen help patients overcome obstacles to medicaid eligibility and reimbursement, including resolving misunderstandings or miscommunications between patients and providers. Lanc is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is funded by a wide variety of sources, including federal grants, state court fees, charitable foundations, state and local bar associations, law firms and individuals. Nearly half of lanc's funding comes from the federal legal services corporation, which is funded by a congressional appropriation for grants to civil legal aid organizations across the country.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 88.7%; rating input score 89
• Program expense ratio: 86.4%; rating input score 86
• Fundraising efficiency: $136.15 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
  • Compensation committee: Pass
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 99.9%; rating input score 100; 49th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -2.5%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.65; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.75; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 2.2%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 55th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 7% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 14% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings