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CHARITY REVIEW
Issued: October 2024 Expires: October 2026

Lawyers For Children

Accredited Charity
Accredited Charity

Meets Standards
(212) 966-6420
110 Lafayette Street
New York, NY, 10013
https://www.lawyersforchildren.org
📄 Full Report 🖨️ Print 📋 BBB Charity Standards

Standards For Charity Accountability

Governance

  1. Board Oversight
  2. Board Size
  3. Board Meetings
  4. Board Compensation
  5. Conflict of Interest

Measuring Effectiveness

  1. Effectiveness Policy
  2. Effectiveness Report

Finances

  1. Program Expenses
  2. Fundraising Expenses
  3. Accumulating Funds
  4. Audit Report
  5. Detailed Expense Breakdown
  6. Accurate Expense Reporting
  7. Budget Plan

Fundraising & Info

  1. Truthful Materials
  2. Annual Report
  3. Website Disclosures
  4. Donor Privacy
  5. Cause Marketing Disclosures
  6. Complaints

Lawyers For Children meets the 20 Standards for Charity Accountability.

Stated Purpose:
When children are in crisis, Lawyers For Children is at their side to provide protection, support and hope. LFC offers free legal and social work advocacy to abused and neglected children, children in foster care, and children in high conflict custody cases, insuring that every young person that we represent finds the love, safety and true sense of family that they need.

Year, State Incorporated:
1984, NY

Since 1984, the attorneys and social workers at Lawyers For Children (LFC) have been transforming the hopes of children in foster care into reality, by providing critically needed, top quality legal representation and social work services. Every day, LFC staff can be found in the courtroom and in the community, advocating on behalf of children in New York City whose parents or guardians have voluntarily placed them into foster care, and children who are the subject of abuse, neglect, termination of parental rights, custody, visitation and adoption proceedings. We listen carefully to our clients, help them understand their options and vigorously advocate to protect their right to a safe, secure and supportive place to call home. For some clients, this means returning to live safely with their families. For others, it means speeding their adoption or, for many of our clients who are over 18, setting out on their own with the information and support necessary to establish homes of their own. In addition to our unique, multi-disciplinary approach to advocacy on behalf of individual children, we are committed to continually explore new and innovative special projects to protect and advocate for children, including: Immigration, Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation, Substance Use, LGBTQIA+ rights, Education, Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities, Adolescents Confronting Transition/Youth Preparing to Age-Out of Foster Care, Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence, Public Policy & Special Litigation and Juvenile Justice.

For the year ended March 31, 2023, Lawyers For Children's program expenses were:

Program $8,305,954
Total Program Expenses $8,305,954

Chief Executive
Glenn Mersch-Ampel, Executive Director

Board Size
15

Method(s) Used:
Direct mail appeals, Print advertisements (newspapers, magazines, etc.), Grant proposals, Internet, Cause-related marketing (affinity credit cards, consumer product sales, etc.)

This organization is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is eligible to receive contributions deductible as charitable donations for federal income tax purposes.

The following information is based on Lawyers For Children's audited financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2023.

Source of Funds
Grant - State of New York $6,035,613
Contributions $3,061,376
Fellowship income $32,000
Interest income $17,294
Total Income $9,146,283

Programs: 86% Fundraising: 4% Administrative: 10%

Total Income $9,146,283
Total expenses: $9,620,609
  Program expenses $8,305,954
  Fundraising expenses $376,597
  Administrative expenses $938,058
  Other expenses $0
Income in Excess of Expenses $-474,326
Beginning Net Assets $2,758,207
Other Changes In Net Assets $0
Ending Net Assets $2,283,881
Total Liabilities $7,186,508
Total Assets $9,470,389

An organization may change its practices at any time without notice. A copy of this report has been shared with the organization prior to publication. It is not intended to recommend or deprecate, and is furnished solely to assist you in exercising your own judgment. If the report is about a charity and states the charity meets or does not meet the Standards for Charity Accountability, it reflects the results of an evaluation of information and materials provided voluntarily by the charity. The name Better Business Bureau is a registered service mark of the International Association of Better Business Bureaus.

This report is not to be used for fundraising or promotional purposes.

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Report completed by:
BBB Foundation of Metropolitan New York