Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
952408642
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Los Angeles, CA, US
Phone
800-433-6251
Rating
85
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$31,932,296
Expenses
$32,381,685
Assets
$27,508,184
Liabilities
$9,183,937

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

43 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • Yvonne Mariajimenez (President & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • Yvonne Mariajimenez (President & CEO): $293,071 total reported compensation
  • David Pallack (Senior Counsel): $249,629 total reported compensation
  • Sandra Chung (Chief Operating Officer): $210,518 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Through a combination of individual representation, high impact litigation and public policy advocacy, NLSLA combats the immediate and long-lasting effects of poverty and expands access to health, opportunity, and justice in Los Angeles’ diverse neighborhoods.

What it reported doing in 2024

Health and Medical Legal Community Partnership (MLCP): NLSLA is at the forefront of health advocacy in California. NLSLA advocates utilize direct representation, policy advocacy, and impact litigation to resolve widespread health access and health equity issues and run the nation's largest network of Medical Legal Community Partnerships (MLCP), through which lawyers collaborate with healthcare providers in clinics and hospitals to address the social determinants of health. NLSLA piloted the project for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. It proved so successful that today NLSLA's MLCP model is a permanent feature of the Los Angeles County health delivery system. NLSLA is also the largest member of the Health Consumer Alliance--a network of nine legal assistance programs operated by community-based legal services organizations across the State of California. As part of the alliance, NLSLA runs the Health Consumer Center--the largest project in the Alliance--which provides free legal information and representation to individuals struggling to access health insurance coverage or care and resolve problems with their health plans. Our advocates also work with clients to eliminate medical debt. This work includes challenging improper insurance denials, requesting financial assistance, overturning insurance denials, filing complaints with California's Department of Managed Health Care, working directly with providers and Medi-Cal, and State Fair Hearings. By utilizing these different strategies, in 2024, HCC's advocates successfully relieved more than $1,000,000 of client medical debt and recovered over $80,000 in bad medical debt. In 2024, NLSLA closed 1,893 cases related to health issues.

Operating model

Revenue model
Grant-funded. 88% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 80% 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. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 86
  • Transparency & Controls: 83
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 87.2%; rating input score 87
  • Program expense ratio: 87.8%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: $38.03 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd 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; 66th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
    • 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: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -1.4%; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.85; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.33; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 5.3%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 9.7% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 10.2% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 12.5% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 12 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 87.2% of revenue deployed · 87.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 33 of 33 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $28.4M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $293K · 43 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $1.5M reported
  • Consistency: 37 of 37 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2013 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 30 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 22 filed related-organization links
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

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

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 25/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 48/100.