GiveBetter x Houston

AVDA

Survivor legal advocacy, trauma counseling and family safety

Research time: ~9 min on GPT-6.1 Sol
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.
  • Modeling — estimated costs, QALYs and uncertainty.

Updated: 2026-10-06

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Summary

What do they do? AVDA provides legal advocacy and trauma support for domestic-abuse survivors in Greater Houston and neighboring counties. Its attorneys and advocates help with safety planning, protective orders, divorce, custody and access to practical resources. The deep review assesses both health and net household resources, using a newer Harris County support reference and full client burdens.

Why we’re interested in this organization:

  • Primary grant and service records identify a local legal-advocacy delivery route and concrete resource mechanisms.

  • Randomized intensive advocacy research supports possible lasting safety and wellbeing gains, while its transfer to AVDA remains a judgment.

  • The model keeps household costs and transfer-payer losses even when outcomes would also occur through alternatives.

Our main reservations:

  • Supported adults and children are not deduplicated households, completed cases or clinical responders.

  • The exact current recipient outcomes and donation-sensitive capacity remain unverified, and the latest reviewed cost is FY 2023.

  • Income research is observational; local utility, earnings, overlap and burden values remain conditional hypotheses.

What do you get for your dollar? $1.3M per DALY in Houston. DALY is our one-year comparison unit. QALY-based health gains and income-welfare equivalents retain their original assumptions; they are not measured clinical DALYs. Conditional annual whole-recipient cost divided by a limited modeled local channel; not a verified marginal gift offer or complete portfolio EV.

Primary grant-maker describes over 2,500 adult/child Harris survivors supported in 2024; not unique households, completed cases or causal health/resources. BIPP, outreach, other counties and child-specific effects remain unmodeled, not zero-valued.

1. What do they do?

AVDA provides legal advocacy and trauma support for domestic-abuse survivors in Greater Houston and neighboring counties. Its attorneys and advocates help with safety planning, protective orders, divorce, custody and access to practical resources. The deep review assesses both health and net household resources, using a newer Harris County support reference and full client burdens.

2. Monitoring and information sharing

A primary Impact100 Houston 2025 award entry describes more than 2,500 Harris County survivors supported in 2024 and a $24,666 legal-advocacy grant. We use 2,500 as a rounded lower descriptive reference, not an exact observed unique cohort or successful legal outcome. It includes women and children. Request distinct adult households, completed cases, counseling dose, time to safety, retained earnings and payer incidence. The official 2024 report is linked through Canva but its body was inaccessible; current homepage 2025 counters also lack retrievable numbers. Neither is treated as reviewed output. BIPP and outreach are not added to this cohort.

3. Qualitative assessment

The 1994 randomized intensive postshelter advocacy study found better quality of life but no significant between-group physical-abuse difference at six months. The larger 1999 randomized study followed 278 women over two years and found less violence, better quality of life and improved resource access. Both used intensive ten-week advocacy, not AVDA’s measured legal/counseling dose; neither supplies a local QALY coefficient. The Iowa legal-aid panel followed 150 women initially, 85 at one year and 32 at two years; it found favorable changes but no relationship with type or amount of legal services and no untreated comparison. A later income paper reports about $5,500 total annual income change after private/public components, not causal disposable earnings or a charity-return estimate. The model therefore retains uncertain finite health and net-resource judgments and tests the observational figure separately. Houston legal services include Harris, Fort Bend, Austin, Waller, Grimes and Washington; the current numerator is Harris-only, so it uses local share 1 rather than attributing all regional activity to Houston.

4. What do you get for your dollar?

Initial $311K becomes $1.3M per DALY (one modeled equivalent year). The change comes from replacing the historical regionwide reference with a newer Harris-only support reference and correcting burdens to include all exposed households, not just additional outcomes. Whole FY 2023 cost remains $4,051,637; this partial local channel is not a measured whole-portfolio or marginal-gift return. Health is 4.23 QALYs, signed income/consumption is -1.126572 welfare equivalents, and combined benefit is 3.103528. Income is assessed, not set to zero or omitted because it is negative. Judgments: 2,500 supported adults/children × 0.5 household mapping gives 1,250 exposed household proxies. Additional case response 0.3 gives 375 incremental outcome households; conditional clinical response 0.25 gives 93.75 responders. Utility 0.03 for two years, half-year delay and 3% discount are retained transfer judgments; clinical utility covers physical/trauma symptoms only, not the same financial security already in resources. All 1,250 households retain full 0.00 QALY harm and $100 incremental access burden, including clients whose outcomes alternative aid might produce. Of the 375 additional outcomes, resource response 0.3 gives 112.5 households with one-year net work resources $1,500, otherwise-paid medical costs $100 and external support resources $800. Positive-only overlap 0.5 leaves $1,100 after the separate full access cost; the remaining 1,137.5 households incur the full $100 burden. These are not observed success rates or causal dollar gains. The $1,500 is disposable after tax, withdrawn benefits and recurring work costs; access burden is a distinct cost, not deducted twice. Existing AVDA emergency cash is excluded as a new gain because it is already financed through the numerator. Full $800 counterpart losses per successful recipient are spread over a judged distinct 10,000 payer households at $35,000 baseline, with geographic share applied once. Payer distribution is uncertain, including whether the abuser and recipient remain one consumption unit. No property award, retail legal fee or ordinary survivor earnings is a new income gain. Negative components and full external/retaliation costs are not overlap-discounted. The $5,500 sensitivity is an unadjusted historical association, not a causal after-cost income prediction; overlap and explicit burdens still apply. Zero additional outcome retains harms/costs; no-exposure is tested separately. Shorter duration, clinical-null, financial-only, adverse, payer-loss and full-resource cases remain inspectable. At the unchanged historical regionwide cohort and local share, correcting all-exposed burdens alone gives $570K, versus the initial $311K; the remaining change to $1.3M is chiefly the narrower newer Harris reference. This is not evidence that AVDA’s whole portfolio became four times less effective: other counties, BIPP, prevention and child-specific effects remain unmeasured, not assumed zero.

Model, assumptions and sensitivity

Whole reviewed FY 2023 AVDA annual cost versus a conditional newer Harris-only survivor support channel; unmatched vintage and partial portfolio, not marginal gift EV.

Rounded 2024 Harris County support reference only; g=1 for this local cohort. Whole recipient cost also covers nonlocal and unmodeled programs.

Exposed = N × unique. Incremental outcome households = exposed × b. Health = (clinicalN × unique × b × clinicalResponse × q × finite discounted duration − exposed × full union harm discounted at onset) × g. Resources = one signed household log for successful/other exposed households plus full distinct payer/provider incidence with geography once. Price = annual cost / positive combined health and resources.

C
4051637 USD annual recognized cost (observed). Reviewed original FY 2023 whole cost retained; newer listed audit not retrieved. [finance]
N
2500 supported survivor reference (judgment). 2,500 is a rounded lower descriptive reference from the primary 2025 grant entry describing over 2,500 Harris adult/child survivors supported in 2024, not exact unique households. [grant2025] [services]
clinicalN
2500 supported survivor reference (judgment). Same supported-survivor reference used as opportunities, with household/response judgments; not a separate observed clinical cohort. [grant2025] [services]
clinicalResponse
0.25 explicit model parameter (judgment). 0.25 clinical response conditional on additional case outcome; external advocacy trials do not supply this AVDA rate. [rct1994] [rct1999] [services]
unique
0.5 explicit model parameter (judgment). 0.5 household mapping of mixed adults/children is a judgment, not observed deduplication. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
b
0.3 explicit model parameter (judgment). 0.3 incremental case outcome versus alternative aid is a hypothesis, not completion or donor capacity. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
q
0.03 clinical QALY units (judgment). 0.03 physical/trauma symptom utility only; not a measured QALY or duplicated financial-security utility. [rct1994] [rct1999] [services]
T
2 explicit model parameter (judgment). Two finite years retained as uncertain external intensive-advocacy transfer; shorter and null cases tested. [rct1994] [rct1999] [services]
g
1 explicit model parameter (judgment). Harris-only modeled reference is inside Houston MSA, so no population or second geographic multiplier. [grant2025] [services]
delay
0.5 explicit model parameter (judgment). Retained explicitly uncertain finite initial parameter; not measured recipient causal effect. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
discount
0.03 explicit model parameter (judgment). Retained explicitly uncertain finite initial parameter; not measured recipient causal effect. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
success
0.3 explicit model parameter (judgment). Retained explicitly uncertain finite initial parameter; not measured recipient causal effect. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
medicalGain
100 USD household net resources or costs (judgment). Retained explicitly uncertain finite initial parameter; not measured recipient causal effect. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
workGain
1500 USD household net resources or costs (judgment). $1,500 disposable work-resource hypothesis after tax, benefit withdrawal and recurring work costs; not the observed $5,500 association. [income-study] [legal-panel] [services]
transferGain
800 USD household net resources or costs (judgment). $800 external support-transfer hypothesis; excludes recipient-funded emergency cash and property stocks. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
overlap
0.5 explicit model parameter (judgment). Retained explicitly uncertain finite initial parameter; not measured recipient causal effect. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
cost
100 USD household net resources or costs (judgment). $100 separate incremental access/court/travel/time burden on every exposed household, not outcome responders only. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
baseline
25000 explicit model parameter (judgment). Retained explicitly uncertain finite initial parameter; not measured recipient causal effect. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
harm
0.00 clinical QALY units (judgment). 0.001 full clinical harm per exposed household irrespective of outcome attribution. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
payerLoss
800 USD household net resources or costs (judgment). Full $800 transfer/counterparty loss per successful resource household; no positive-only overlap discount. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
payerPeople
10000 explicit model parameter (judgment). Retained explicitly uncertain finite initial parameter; not measured recipient causal effect. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
payerBaseline
35000 explicit model parameter (judgment). Retained explicitly uncertain finite initial parameter; not measured recipient causal effect. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
externalCost
0 USD household net resources or costs (unknown). Other partner/provider incidence unknown in central; full exposed-household external costs stressed. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]
resourceYears
1 explicit model parameter (judgment). Retained explicitly uncertain finite initial parameter; not measured recipient causal effect. [services] [finance] [cg-cost]

central: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

clinical null: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: -1.23; all-population health QALYs: -1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

financial only: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

current cost unknown: Cost: unknown; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

full unknown: Cost: unknown; Houston health QALYs: unknown; all-population health QALYs: unknown. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

zero expansion: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: -1.23; all-population health QALYs: -1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -2.47. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

true zero: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

no exposure: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 0.00; all-population health QALYs: 0.00. Income-equivalent healthy years: 0.00. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

adverse: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: -11.62; all-population health QALYs: -11.62. Income-equivalent healthy years: -4.18. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

positive net access resources: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -2.20. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

no resource success: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -2.47. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

no gains: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -3.74. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

negative resource overlap zero: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -4.41. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

negative resource overlap one: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

mixed sign: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -3.18. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

payer loss 1600: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -2.39. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

external provider cost: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -2.89. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

annual full response: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 16.97; all-population health QALYs: 16.97. Income-equivalent healthy years: 2.00. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

half geography: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 2.12; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -0.56. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

all unique: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 8.46; all-population health QALYs: 8.46. Income-equivalent healthy years: -2.25. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

zero resource duration: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -2.47. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

six month health: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 0.15; all-population health QALYs: 0.15. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

one year health: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 1.54; all-population health QALYs: 1.54. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

full volunteer cost hypothesis: Cost: $5.0M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

weak clinical: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: -0.50; all-population health QALYs: -0.50. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

full transfer incidence: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.13. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

survivor work displacement: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -3.85. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

case failure with burdens: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: -1.23; all-population health QALYs: -1.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.51. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

four year case delay: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 3.81; all-population health QALYs: 3.81. Income-equivalent healthy years: -1.02. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

weak additional case outcome: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: -1.10; all-population health QALYs: -1.10. Income-equivalent healthy years: -2.43. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

historical wide cohort: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 9.69; all-population health QALYs: 10.77. Income-equivalent healthy years: -2.58. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

observational income association: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: 3.34. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

full resource opportunity cost: Cost: $5.0M; Houston health QALYs: 4.23; all-population health QALYs: 4.23. Income-equivalent healthy years: -3.77. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

high retaliation burden: Cost: $4.1M; Houston health QALYs: -0.70; all-population health QALYs: -0.70. Income-equivalent healthy years: -6.07. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

Counterfactual: Other legal aid, public protection and benefit systems, affordable private counsel where available, alternative counseling, family support and case outcomes without this provider.

Attribution: b is the share of supported household proxies whose outcomes improve beyond alternative providers; clinicalResponse and resource success are distinct conditional outcomes, not marginal-gift probability. Harms and access costs cover all exposures irrespective of b.

Rounded supported survivor count is source-based; household mapping, causal response, utility, duration, resource gains, payer incidence and capacity remain judgments. Randomized external advocacy does not identify AVDA causal effects; observational income change does not identify attributable disposable earnings.

Sensitivity

  • clinical null: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • financial only: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • current cost unknown: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • full unknown: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • zero expansion: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • true zero: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • no exposure: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • adverse: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • positive net access resources: $2.0M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • no resource success: $2.3M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • no gains: $8.2M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • negative resource overlap zero: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • negative resource overlap one: $1.3M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • mixed sign: $3.9M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • payer loss 1600: $2.2M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • external provider cost: $3.0M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • annual full response: $214K per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • half geography: $2.6M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • all unique: $653K per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • zero resource duration: $2.3M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • six month health: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • one year health: $9.8M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • full volunteer cost hypothesis: $1.6M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • weak clinical: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • full transfer incidence: $1.3M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • survivor work displacement: $10.6M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • case failure with burdens: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • four year case delay: $1.4M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • weak additional case outcome: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • historical wide cohort: $570K per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • observational income association: $535K per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • full resource opportunity cost: $10.8M per DALY. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.
  • high retaliation burden: no finite positive estimate. Conditional Harris annual survivor-safety/resources channel with all-exposed burdens; full portfolio and marginal gift unknown.

Unresolved inputs

  • Current unique completed adult household cohort and clinical dose
  • Recipient causal physical/trauma utility versus realistic alternatives
  • Causal net resource gains and recipient/counterparty household boundaries
  • Latest full costs, outside opportunity incidence and marginal staffed donor capacity

Health and income breakdown

For the modeled $4.1M: 4.23 health QALYs + -1.13 income-equivalent healthy years in Houston: $1.3M per DALY. Income equivalents are welfare comparisons, not observed QALYs or DALYs.

Method and caveats.

5. Funding and previous grants

Current expanded working-poor representation is free, while clients may contribute court costs and fees; AVDA validates legal clients’ parking, so the $100 burden is an uncertain combined court/travel/time increment rather than an asserted parking fee. Other legal aid, public protections, compensation programs, private counsel where affordable and family support form the alternative. The new grant shows support for legal advocacy, not measured extra completed cases or an unrestricted gift bottleneck. Nine current attorney/paralegal teams do not establish spare capacity. A newer FY 2024 audit is listed but its original body was not retrieved; its index flags a material weakness, not verified cost or fraud. Full opportunity costs and other portfolio outcomes remain unresolved.

Annual expenses

Organization-level spending, including programs, administration and fundraising. The research list averages three comparable, consecutive full fiscal years when available.

  • FY 2023: $4.1M; org:avda, 12-month period, Original IRS FY 2023 whole functional expense $4,051,637, direct event field absent. FY 2022 $3,758,444, direct event field absent. FY 2021 whole $3,480,514 includes $90,557 direct donor event costs. Donated labor or external opportunity costs not fully recognized remain uncertainty.. Source
  • FY 2022: $3.8M; org:avda, 12-month period, Original IRS FY 2023 whole functional expense $4,051,637, direct event field absent. FY 2022 $3,758,444, direct event field absent. FY 2021 whole $3,480,514 includes $90,557 direct donor event costs. Donated labor or external opportunity costs not fully recognized remain uncertainty.. Source
  • FY 2021: $3.5M; org:avda, 12-month period, Original IRS FY 2023 whole functional expense $4,051,637, direct event field absent. FY 2022 $3,758,444, direct event field absent. FY 2021 whole $3,480,514 includes $90,557 direct donor event costs. Donated labor or external opportunity costs not fully recognized remain uncertainty.. Source

6. Sources

  1. Current survivor legal advocacy, fees and safety planning. AVDA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  2. Current trauma counseling and support. AVDA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  3. Official Houston AVDA donation route. AVDA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  4. Current counties and program footprint. AVDA. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  5. Original FY 2023 IRS return and explicitly 2022 survivor narrative. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  6. Original FY 2022 IRS return. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  7. Original FY 2021 IRS return. IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  8. Newer audit availability and control flag, original audit not reviewed. ProPublica. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  9. Coefficient Giving income welfare conversion. Coefficient Giving. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  10. Primary 2025 grant award describing 2024 Harris survivor support. Impact100 Houston. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  11. Original randomized six-month intensive advocacy study. Sullivan et al.. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  12. Original randomized two-year intensive advocacy study. Sullivan and Bybee. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.
  13. Original 2021 legal-aid income association study. Teufel et al.. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-10-06.