Pangea Legal Services
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
Pangea's mission is to provide deportation defense services, advocate for policy change, and provide education and legal empowerment for our immigrant communities.
- Income
- $2.8 million
- Spending
- $2.7 million
- Spent on programs
- 77%
- Reserves
- 11.8 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- donations and private grants, 57%
- Employees
- 23
- Volunteers
- 9
- Highest pay
- $94,887, executive dir.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Good: 71 out of 100. Higher than 44% of charities in its peer group (crime and legal services, $1m to $10m).
Reserves
28 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 11.8 months of spending.
Debt
16 of 20It owes 18% of what it owns.
Living within its means
12 of 15Income exceeded spending by 2% of income.
Income trend
0 of 15Income fell 44% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1577% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 5 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 57% of charities in its peer group (crime and legal services, $1m to $10m).
Independent board
25 of 256 of 6 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (3)
- $1.8 million spent. Direct Legal Representation: In 2025, Pangea has proudly represented 380 people in complex immigration matters. This includes asylum, family petitions, permanent residency, cancellation of removal and immigrant visas. Weve also offered more than 100 free legal consultations consisting of individualized legal advice, Know Your Rights orientations, and referrals. ANAR Launched a multilingual monthly community education webinar series with over 1,500 unique attendees. Held 4 workshops with volunteer attorneys providing free assistance to asylum, adjustment of status, and work authorization applicants. Organized community outreach efforts across California.
- $266,910 spent. Education and Legal Empowerment: In 2025, Pangea worked to resource and protect communities. Pangea continues to provide free consultations, monthly asylum Know Your Rights workshops, Healing Justice workshops, and Pro bono clinics. Pangea also successfully launched our hybrid Employment Authorization Document (EAD) clinic for asylum seekers. With the assistance of pro bono attorney attorney teams from Morrison Foerster (MoFo), we successfully prepared 60 EAD applications for Bay Area residents. In 2025, Pangea continues to hold a central role in Rapid Response Coverage around the Bay Area. We provide coverage across San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. This year, Pangea also stepped further into a leadership role regionally. We have helped coordinate the expansion of rapid response networks around the Bay Area, from recruiting and training new partner organizations to join the ranks of emergency legal responders, to training community members to serve community responder volunteers and dispatches, to convening strategy conversations within and across our networks. In partnership with Mission Action, Pangea helps ALEP workshop participants, who do not have attorneys, gather evidence and prepare for their immigration court hearings. In 2025, 2 families who attended the ALEP workshops won their asylum cases. From January through March 2025, FREE SF hosted an in-person fellowship for eight SF immigrant community members as part of our Sanctuary Voices program The fellowship built participants advocacy skills and supported them with resources to change narratives about public safety issues in San Francisco. In March 2025, FREE SF and San Francisco Immigrant Legal & Education Network (SFILEN) partnered together to give an educational workshop on San Franciscos sanctuary policy as part of the solution to public safety, and a know-your-right presentation to San Francisco Supervisors staff and other city hall staff. The majority of attendees were new staff who wanted to share resources to their constituents. We used this as an opportunity to educate new staff on the criminalization of immigrant communities.
- $1,253 spent. Policy Advocacy: In May 2025, FREE SF resourced Indivisible SF to create their call to action urging District Attorney Jenkins to end her collusion with federal agencies that have fast-tracked immigrants into ICE detention and deportation. This was the first time that Indivisible SF meaningfully engaged with this campaign. FREE SF met frequently with Indivisible SF, ultimately inviting them to join FREE SF as a partner in our work to disentangle law enforcement from ICE and other federal agencies targeting immigrant communities.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since April 2013.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 21, 2026.
Could it be confused with another charity? Worth knowing.
A much larger organization has a similar name: Legal Services Corporation (Washington, DC), EIN 52-1039060. If that is the one you meant, check the EIN before giving.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated October 13, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.