Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
530196600
IRS 990 coverage
2017–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Washington, DC, USA
Phone
2026281161
Rating
82
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Reported finances

Revenue
$15,789,338
Expenses
$16,620,369
Assets
$17,379,695
Liabilities
$2,882,632

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

55 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • VIKRAM SWARUUP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
  • JENNIFER LEVY (PRESIDENT)
  • KWAKU AKOWUAH (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • NADIRA CLARKE (IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT)

Highest reported compensation

  • VIKRAM SWARUUP (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $268,299 total reported compensation
  • ROBERT PERGAMENT (DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT): $228,413 total reported compensation
  • STEPHANIE N TROYER (LEGAL DIRECTOR): $219,082 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Legal aid's mission is to 'make justice real' - in individual and systemic ways - for persons living in poverty in the district of columbia. In particular, legal aid provides civil legal assistance to individuals, families, and communities in the district who could not otherwise afford to hire a lawyer. Legal aid staff and volunteers provide a continuum of services from client education to full representation before a court or an administrative tribunal. Types of cases include preventing evictions and homelessness, preserving affordable housing, preserving home ownership, ensuring a safe and decent place to live, curbing abusive debt collection practices, securing access to health care, nutrition, and public benefits, protecting families against domestic violence, promoting family stability through child support and custody arrangements, and providing a range of civil legal services to the immigrant client community.

What it reported doing in 2025

THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA works to ensure that families, individuals and communities living in poverty have equal and meaningful access to justice by providing advice, brief assistance, representation and referrals. In addition to direct client services, and Organization advocates for systemic change on matters that grow directly from individual cases. The core priorities of the Organization include keeping people housed, securing access to health care and public benefits, protecting limited assets and income, protecting immigrants' rights, securing safety from domestic violence and finding family stability. The Organization also has a nationally-recognized appellate practice, the Barbara McDowell Appellate Advocacy Project.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 90% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 79
  • Transparency & Controls: 79
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 24
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 85.4%; rating input score 85
  • Program expense ratio: 79.4%; rating input score 79
  • Fundraising efficiency: $15.63 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th 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: -5.3%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.05; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.17; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 8.7%; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 12.2% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 9.9% per year; rating input score 100; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 85.4% of revenue deployed · 79.4% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 48 of 48 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $13.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $268K · 55 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $218K reported
  • Consistency: 35 of 35 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 47/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 10/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 31/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 56/100.