The Florida Bar Foundation Inc
Maitland, FL · EIN 59-1004604. Reported 175 grants totalling $155.0M to 43 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, 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 The Florida Bar Foundation Inc, by its IRS classification it raises and distributes funds for crime & legal (NTEE I120).
- How spread out its giving is. 43 distinct organizations, with 7% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 96% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $319,291. Half of what it reported fell between $124,053 and $942,008; the smallest was $10,324 and the largest $7,516,641. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community Legal Servies of Mid- Florida Inc | Orlando, FL | $11.1M | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County Inc | West Palm Bch, FL | $11.1M | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Bay Area Legal Services Inc | Tampa, FL | $10.2M | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Jacksonville Area Legal Aid Inc | Jacksonville, FL | $9,880,817 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association Inc | Orlando, FL | $9,610,769 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Legal Aid Service of Broward County Inc | Plantation, FL | $8,892,845 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Florida Legal Services Inc | Orlando, FL | $8,731,677 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Americans for Immigrant Justice | Virginia Gdns, FL | $7,230,521 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Legal Services of North Florida Inc | Tallahassee, FL | $6,789,907 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Dade Legal Aid | Miami, FL | $6,131,678 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Catholic Charities Legal Services Archdiocese of Miami Inc | Miami, FL | $6,021,214 | 6 | 5 | 2024 |
| Gulfcoast Legal Services Inc | St Petersburg, FL | $5,519,060 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Legal Services of Greater Miami Inc | Coral Gables, FL | $4,514,923 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Three Rivers Legal Services Inc | Gainesville, FL | $3,929,515 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Florida Rural Legal Services Inc | Lakeland, FL | $3,615,008 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Brevard County Legal Aid Inc | Rockledge, FL | $3,591,367 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Cuban American Bar Association Probono Project Inc | Miami, FL | $3,470,965 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Florida Health Justice Project | St Petersburg, FL | $3,423,115 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Seminole County Bar Association Legal Aid Society Inc | Longwood, FL | $2,881,298 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida Inc | Plantation, FL | $2,806,977 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Southern Legal Counsel Inc | Gainesville, FL | $2,727,255 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Innocence Project of Florida Inc | Tallahassee, FL | $2,590,523 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Legal Aid of Manasota Inc | Sarasota, FL | $2,252,191 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Collier Community Foundation Inc | Naples, FL | $2,113,846 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Floridas Children First Inc | Boca Raton, FL | $1,973,199 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Lee County Legal Aid Society | Fort Myers, FL | $1,625,809 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Community Law Program Inc | St Petersburg, FL | $1,555,321 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Northwest Florida Legal Services in | Pensacola, FL | $1,497,563 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Community Justice Project Inc | Miami, FL | $1,484,019 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Heart of Florida Legal Aid Society Inc | Bartow, FL | $1,337,656 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Idignity Inc | Orlando, FL | $1,246,885 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Florida State University | Tallahassee, FL | $1,024,457 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Lawyers for Children America Inc | Hartford, CT | $1,023,348 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| St Michael Legal Center for Womanand Children Inc | Brandon, FL | $901,639 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Florida Justice Institute Inc | Miami, FL | $775,803 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Tallahassee Bar Association Inc | Tallahassee, FL | $585,312 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Nova Southeastern University Inc | Ft Lauderdale, FL | $143,407 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| University of Miami | Coral Gables, FL | $143,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Term | Tallahassee, FL | $133,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Crossroads for Florida Kids Inc | Oldsmar, FL | $125,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| United Way of Indian River County Inc | Vero Beach, FL | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Disability Independence Group Inc | Coral Gables, FL | $87,583 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Idignity | Orlando, FL | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
37 of 43 (86%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida Inc
LAP - 2025 IOTA FUNDING AND RETURN OF UNSPENT FUNDS - Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County Inc
LAP - 2025 IOTA FUNDING, PRO BONO GRANTS AND SUMMER FELLOWS - Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association Inc
LAP/AOJ/LSA - 2025 IOTA FUNDING, LEGAL SERVICES FOR CHILDREN, PRO BONO GRANTS AND SUMMER FELLOWS - Florida Legal Services Inc
LAP/LSA - 2025 IOTA FUNDING, LEGAL SERVICES FOR CHILDREN, PRO BONO GRANTS AND SUMMER FELLOWS - Legal Aid Service of Broward County Inc
LAP - 2025 IOTA FUNDING AND PRO BONO GRANTS - Legal Services of North Florida Inc
LAP - 2025 IOTA FUNDING, LEGAL SERVICES FOR CHILDREN, SUMMER FELLOWS AND RETURN OF UNSPENT FUNDS
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 22 of 43 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 29 | $5,980,771 | $139,868 |
| 2021 | 39 | $6,835,447 | $137,583 |
| 2022 | 37 | $10.5M | $183,445 |
| 2023 | 33 | $37.5M | $649,706 |
| 2024 | 37 | $94.2M | $1,713,606 |
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
99% of its giving went to organizations in Florida. 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.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
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 $319,291 -- 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 Florida.
- 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.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from The Florida Bar Foundation Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 37 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 175 Lookout Place Ste 100, Maitland, FL, 32751.
EIN 59-1004604 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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