C R L a Foundation
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
The mission of CRLAF is to achieve social justice and equity in partnership with farmworkers and the underserved in rural communities through community, legislative and legal advocacy. Our vision is for all farmworkers and their families to be treated with dignity and respect. CRLAF helps increase the capacity of rural immigrants to advocate for themselves, to develop leadership, and to become more engaged in their communities as stakeholders driving the agenda for improved economic and social conditions. We work in the areas of immigration and citizenship, labor, housing, education, community health, worker safety, and environmental justice.
- Income
- $7.0 million
- Spending
- $6.0 million
- Spent on programs
- 84%
- Reserves
- 10.8 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- government grants, 88%
- Employees
- 59
- Volunteers
- 87
- Highest pay
- $200,314, deputy director
Source: Form 990 for the year ending September 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Good: 74 out of 100.
Reserves
28 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 10.8 months of spending.
Debt
16 of 20It owes 20% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 15% of income.
Income trend
0 of 15Income fell 54% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1584% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 4 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending September 30, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100.
Independent board
25 of 258 of 8 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 September 30, 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 (7)
- $1.9 million spent. CRLAF's Immigration Project: Collective work is organized across three different project areas: Affirmative Legal Services, Removal Defense, and San Joaquin Immigrant Empowerment. The Immigration Project provides community education, legal training to qualified legal services providers, assistance to eligible immigrants applying for affirmative immigration benefits, and representation before USCIS and the Executive Office for Immigration Review. The Removal Defense Project provides direct representation in detained and non-detained court cases. The AOD program provides training, technical assistance, and scheduling support to pro bono attorneys to increase their capacity to represent individuals who otherwise would lack representation in Immigration Court. The San Joaquin Immigrant Empowerment Project's work centers around the complex intersection of public health, immigrants' rights, and immigration law. During this fiscal year, we focused especially on providing immigration legal services, advocacy, education and outreach, and legal training. The Immigration Project also provided technical assistance to other community partners addressing two major challenges facing immigrant communities: the quickly-changing federal administration's enforcement priorities and updates to case processing, and to the impacts on undocumented workers' rights and remedies due to their immigration status. We additionally provide regular immigration legal services to survivors of crime at a women's center in San Joaquin County. Most of CRLAF's immigration cases in this region are humanitarian cases, such as U visa, T visa, or VAWA applications. From San Joaquin to near Fresno county, CRLAF is one of the only organizations currently taking these types of cases at no cost to the client, as most of the individuals we serve do not have the means to hire a private attorney, and there is a huge unmet need for attorneys to take on humanitarian aid cases pro bono in this region. CRLAF plans to continue building community capacity to support such work moving forward. Finally, in FY25, in furtherance of its role as a statewide support center, and in line with its strong history as an incubator for new projects that expand capacity and resources to support our client communities, CRLAF incubated and spun off part of its immigration unit as an independent 501(c)(3) organization to provide expanded direct immigration legal services in the Sacramento Valley. CRLAF provided $500,000 in startup funds and subgranted additional funds to ensure continuity of services for clients being served by the spin off.
- $708,969 spent. Sustainable Rural Communities (SRCP): CRLAF's Sustainable Rural Communities Project works to ensure equal access to healthcare for California's farmworker and rural indigent population through a three-part strategy of health data development, analysis and dissemination; public policy analysis and discussion; and community outreach, education, capacity building, and advocacy. This project addresses the systemic causes of our communities' poverty, poor health, and degraded environments due to lack of regulatory enforcement and generational disinvestment. We coordinate with other advocates on a local, regional, and statewide strategy to craft large-scale solutions around healthcare for all, environmental justice issues (land use, unmet transit needs, water quality), foster more accountable and inclusive governance, and direct financial resources to rural, farmworker, migrant, immigrant, and disadvantaged communities. Safe Drinking Water: Since 2015, our team has administered an Interim Emergency Bottled Water program to the two unincorporated farmworker communities in western Fresno County with over 700 residents. CRLAF continues to advocate with Cantua Creek and El Porvenir residents for clean, safe drinking water access, while simultaneously working with California's Water Resources Control Board to ensure the communities' uninterrupted bottled water delivery until a permanent solution is reached. Statewide Drought Project: In 2022, CRLAF was selected to lead a statewide three-year drought resilience project to identify and develop an innovative and collaborative policy platform and to conduct efforts centering farmworker communities economic opportunities and access to water and other resources in California's ongoing drought. As a result of this three-year collaborative work, we were able to leverage funding for community education and infrastructure projects for the San Joaquin Valley, Inland Empire, and California's Central Coast. We also provided advocacy for the state's climate bond to benefit these regions.Farmworker Health Study: CRLAF led a budget request to update a 20-year old study of farmworker health data that CRLAF had initiated and advocated for UC Merced Community and Labor Center to undertake. We gained final approval in the state budget for a 3-year study in the amount of $1.5 million. The study was published by UC Merced in 2023. The data has been used to inform policy and demonstrate the severe inequities that rural farmworkers and their families face. This study and our on-the-ground work with affected communities has been instrumental in strengthening our argument for stronger health and safety protections for all rural client communities. We continue to use this report for advocacy and improving access to health care coverage for rural immigrants.Health4All: Over the past couple of years, CRLAF has provided critical support and advocacy alongside various other coalitions and organizations to defend the two recent Medi-Cal expansions, first for undocumented elderly aged 50 and above, then for young adults aged 19-26, as federal cuts and resulting state cuts will further negatively impact farmworkers and reverse progress on eliminating the uninsured and underinsured healthcare access gaps. These actions will exacerbate already disparate health care access for thousands of California residents.
- $799,485 spent. Legal Services Support: (State Trust Funding): CRLAF's primary purpose is to serve as a statewide support center. CRLAF advocates provide training, technical assistance, and advocacy support to qualified legal services projects to increase their capacity to represent low-wage workers and their families with labor and employment, health access, housing, public benefit and disaster relief eligibility. CRLAF also engages in class action litigation, co-counseling, and direct representation of indigent clients who are ineligible for federally-funded legal services due to immigration status.
- $1.6 million spent. Legal Services Support:CRLAF is unique in that we primarily operate as a statewide legal support center, where we provide training, technical assistance, advocacy support, and resources to QLSPs and other partners across California. Key subjects include labor and employment, health advocacy, pesticide and worker safety, rural housing, and education advocacy. We provide education, consultations, and co-counseling, including advancing referrals from partners who are unable to represent undocumented individuals and mixed-status families. We are additionally involved in a couple of statewide projects working to prevent homelessness.
- Central Valley Partnership:The Central Valley Partnership is a project of CRLA Foundation that provides training, technical assistance, and advocacy support on immigration, health, and education equity. CRLAF received funds from the Paycheck Protection Program to support the organization's work due to the unprecedented effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
- Field Services:The Field Services Project provides legislative and administrative advocacy on labor and education, rural housing, rural health, pesticides and worker safety; training, technical assistance, and advocacy support to qualified legal services advocates on issues affecting farm worker and other low-wage worker issues; and co-counseling on labor, employment, and civil rights matters.Field Sanitation:Now called The Pesticide and Work Health and Safety Project works to shed light on and reduce agricultural work hazards and pesticide exposures faced by California's agricultural workers and other rural residents. The Project maintains an ongoing dialog with Cal-OSHA and local, state and federal pesticide regulatory officials to encourage more thorough investigations and stricter enforcement of existing laws and regulations, improvements in regulations, and increased use of safer and more sustainable pest control alternatives. We also provide technical assistance to legal services programs and community organizations on developing outreach materials, accessing and understanding pesticide and work safety laws and regulations and public records and responding to pesticide poisoning incidents. We collaborate with members of other non-profit organizations to educate policy makers, agency officials and the public about heat stress, pesticide exposure and other work and environmental health and safety hazards affecting California's farmworkers and other rural poor.CA Advocacy for Farm Workers:Project monitors state and federal legislation of importance to farm workers, acts as a watchdog over operation of the federal H-2A agricultural guest worker program in California, and takes positions in support of farm worker interests in important regulatory actions undertaken by state agencies that affect agriculture.
- Rural Housing Project:This project engages in legislative and administrative advocacy on low-income rural and farmworker housing issues, publishes a quarterly newsletter on state housing issues, and conducts training on housing issues throughout the state. In response to COVID-19, our housing policy team worked in the State Capitol and with the Judicial Council of California to halt evictions to keep families safe from homelessness. From the Governor's orders calling for an eviction moratorium to the Judicial Council's adoption of an emergency protection rule preventing summonses from being issued in nearly all "unlawful detainer" eviction cases, our housing policy efforts helped to halt a potential massive wave of evictions across California.Our team continues to advocate at local and statewide levels to establish adequate protections for renters facing potential pandemic-related evictions. We are also working to develop a legislative response that would provide longer-term protections from eviction for non-payment of rent due to COVID-related loss of income.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending September 30, 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 November 6, 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 September 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 1982.
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 November 4, 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.