Form 990 for tax year 2023

Totals

Total revenue

$16,716,889

Total expenses

$23,928,459

Contributions and grants received

$12,145,675

Grants paid

$84,337

Program service revenue

$1,350,172

Investment income

$1,990,148

Other revenue

$1,230,894

Total assets, end of year

$82,428,396

Total liabilities, end of year

$17,962,216

Net assets or fund balances, end of year

$64,466,180

Program services expenses (Part IX)

$12,003,011

Management and general expenses

$9,215,654

Fundraising expenses

$2,709,794

Program service expenses (Part III)

$12,003,011

Program services were 50.2% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

Line items

Every line the filer filed in Parts VIII, IX and X, as filed and in filed order. Blank columns are left out, and the lines are not forced to add up to the totals above.

Mission and programs · 2023

• Voting Rights Project:The Voting Rights Project works through coordinated and integrated programs of litigation, voter protection, advocacy, and education to protect the right to vote for communities of color who are most likely to be disenfranchised. The Project's signature voter protection effort is the nonpartisan Election Protection coalition, a national membership coalition boasting well over 300 organizational members. The Lawyers' Committee serves as co-convener of the coalition and coordinates infrastructure, training and development of volunteer attorneys for the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline that provides expert assistance to voters nationwide.

  Expenses $3,807,111 · Revenue $134,658

• Public Education & General Legal:The General Legal department coordinates the legal work of the Lawyers' Committee, including attorneys, court cases, and pro bono activities. The Lawyers' Committee also leverages public education and national visibility to inform public discourse and to educate and inform the public and policy makers about our critical work and relevant civil rights issues.

  Expenses $2,593,149 · Grants $84,337 · Revenue $1,028,206

• Fair Housing & Community Development Project:The Fair Housing & Community Development Project fights housing discrimination by working to enforce the federal Fair Housing Act and promote greater opportunity for low-income people of color. Through impact litigation, policy advocacy, consulting services, and support for housing justice organizations, the FHCD Project works to ensure equitable access to crucial resources and meaningful housing choices for Black communities.

  Expenses $799,154 · Revenue $174,766

• Educational Opportunities Project:The Educational Opportunities Project works to ensure that all students receive equal educational opportunities in public schools and institutions of higher education. The Project uses litigation and policy tools to promote high education access, racially inclusive learning environments, and K-12 educational equity. It also combats exploitation of students by for-profit colleges.

  Expenses $908,482

• Economic Justice Project:The Economic Justice Project engages in impact litigation and legal advocacy to ensure that communities of color can access opportunities and meaningfully engage in the economy to lead dignified lives free from discrimination.

  Expenses $551,253 · Revenue $11,000

• Capacity Building

  Expenses $830,687

• Criminal Justice Project:The Criminal Justice Project challenges structural racism within the criminal justice system and aims to ensure that Black people and other people of color enjoy safety from violence by the state and by white supremacists. Areas of focus include promoting police accountability and combatting the criminalization of poverty and holding white supremacists accountable through a sub-unit known as the James Byrd, Jr. Center to Stop Hate.

  Expenses $831,568

• Stop Hate Project (now known as James Byrd, Jr. Center to Stop Hate):Please refer to the Criminal Justice Project paragraph above for further information.

  Expenses $318,329

• Public Policy:The Public Policy Project advocates for the effective advancement of civil rights law at the state and federal level working with other organizations, executive branch officials, and legislators. The project's work focuses on racial justice issues addressed by the organization's other units, including voting rights, educational opportunities, criminal justice, digital justice, and economic justice.

  Expenses $336,209

• George N. Lindsay & Jerry Shestack Fellowships:The Lawyers' Committee annually sponsors the two-year George N. Lindsay Civil Rights Fellowship, which provides an opportunity for recent law school graduates to immerse themselves in civil rights legal practice by working with many of the nation's leading civil rights experts at the national office of the Lawyers' Committee in Washington, D.C. The fellows engage in substantive legal activities, including co-counseled litigation with prominent law firms, legislative and public policy advocacy, and public education on important civil rights matters.The Jerry Shestack Fellowship fosters the development of early career lawyers who have demonstrated the potential to carry on Shestack's lifelong commitment to civil rights while supporting the Lawyers' Committee's high impact. Fellows are selected periodically in consultation with the Shestack Justice Advisory Committee and engage in civil rights litigation of national significance, working alongside leads of the civil rights bar at the Lawyers' Committee and in private practice for two years.

  Expenses $241,648

• NC Regional Office

  Expenses $9,273 · Revenue $3,242

• Digital Justice Initiative:The Digital Justice Initiative works at the intersection of racial justice, technology, and privacy. Unregulated artificial intelligence, predatory commercial data practices, discriminatory algorithms, surveillance and invasions of privacy, disinformation, and online hate disproportionately target and harm communities of color, especially Black Americans. The Project works to ensure that everyone can enjoy the equal the internet's goods and services without fear of discrimination.

  Expenses $776,148

As filed on the 2023 return. The filer continues this part on Schedule O, which is not shown here.

Listed in Part VII

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. A Schedule J breakdown is as filed: base pay, bonus, other, deferred compensation and nontaxable benefits from this organization, with any from related organizations beside each, and the filer's own total. It is shown with the Part VII listing of the same name on the same return. The form gives no key between the two, so that pairing is ours, and is marked matched by us.

Schedule J

Part I's answers as filed. A line not listed was left unanswered; on lines 1a and 3 that means the box was not checked.

Grants on this return

• The Urban Institute

  $33,362

  General Operating Support

• The Access Project Inc

  $19,550

  General Operating Support

• Southern Coalition For Social Justice

  $14,615

  General Operating Support

• Georgia Justice Project Inc

  $9,070

  General Operating Support

• Community Legal Services Inc

  $7,740

  General Operating Support

Provenance

Return type

form_990

Tax year

2023

Filed

9 November 2024

IRS schema version

2023v5.1

Source object

202403209349304505

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