GiveBetter x New York City

New York Lawyers for the Public Interest

Disability, environmental and health justice with pro bono legal support

Research time: 4 min on GPT-6 Astra Light
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.

Updated: 2026-09-14

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Summary

What do they do? NYLPI combines disability, environmental and health advocacy with a pro bono clearinghouse. The recipient is broader than its medical-legal program, which connects vulnerable people to care and legal protections. The conditional medical-legal price is a partial-health estimate and should not be read as the return or comparative rank of its policy portfolio.

Why we’re interested in this organization:

  • Current testimony identifies actual people reached and specific barriers to effective care.

  • Original financials permit a full-cost reconstruction including netted events and rental expenses.

  • The mixed litigation, organizing and volunteer-provider approach can address barriers clinical services alone cannot resolve.

Our main reservations:

  • Screenings and representation are not health improvements.

  • The larger policy and disability portfolio remains unpriced, making a small delivery component unsuitable as a complete ranking.

  • Statewide work and displaced metro residents require beneficiary-based geography, not office location.

What do you get for your dollar? $409.1M per better life: ten additional quality-adjusted life years in New York City. Whole annual NYLPI recognized expense charged to a conditional near-term immigration-linked clinical-care component for MSA residents. Disability, environmental and wider legal benefits remain unpriced. Not measured whole-portfolio return or a proven lower bound..

Screened individuals -> effective-care changes beyond alternatives -> finite utility difference minus burden.

1. What do they do?

NYLPI, EIN 13-2860703, is the entire recipient. Its FY 2025 return describes disability justice, environmental justice, health justice and pro bono programs. The latter three cannot be removed from costs to make a Health Justice price appear cheaper. Current work includes care access for immigrants, accessibility, crisis-response alternatives and environmental implementation. Health Justice Current portfolio proposals

2. Monitoring and information sharing

March 2026 testimony reports 85 people receiving comprehensive immigration/health screenings and 60 direct immigration cases in FY 2025. A separate medical-provider count is 44 screenings; these groups may overlap and are not summed. The described release and treatment examples show a plausible mechanism but do not identify average incremental health. We anchor only to 85 screened people, then explicitly model a probability of changed effective care. Original testimony

Request a deduplicated case record linking advocacy to effective care, alternative representation, health trajectory and residence. Clinical evaluations can inform a legal proceeding without changing treatment; representation can protect rights with value outside QALYs. Neither is automatically a clinical success.

3. Qualitative assessment

The work addresses credible medical barriers, and current training recruits clinicians to identify deficiencies and prepare individualized advocacy. Oregon's randomized coverage experiment illustrates that access can improve mental health without detectable near-term physical-health gains. It is a mechanism check, not a direct NYLPI effect estimate. Current medical training Clinical access evidence

Commercial waste zones, climate enforcement, accessible transit and disability rights could dominate total health value. Existing laws, city appropriations and other coalition members remain the policy counterfactual. Current submissions establish a role but do not quantify its effect on implementation or resident exposure, so they are described rather than assigned invented emissions or treatment counts. Current waste implementation work

4. What do you get for your dollar?

The conditional partial-health price is about $409 million per 10 MSA QALYs.

This conditional calculation prices only a medical-legal health component against the entire recipient's annual gross cost. It is not a best estimate of complete portfolio return, a lower bound, or a basis for concluding that NYLPI ranks below direct-service charities. Other policy and disability health is unpriced.

The model starts from 85 annual people screened, assumes 25% obtain a consequential effective-care change, 50% of that work is additional to alternatives, and 50% of proportional capacity responds to an ordinary gift. Conditional health improvement is 0.1 utility for six months, less 0.0005 QALYs of process burden per attributable screened person, discounted 3% at year end. Every clinical and attribution factor is a judgment, not an observed success rate. Benefits stop within one year; no lifelong transplant or detention-release award is inferred from a case narrative.

An 85% MSA-resident share is a weak-confidence judgment for this component only. NYC residents detained outside the boundary can still qualify by residence; nonresident statewide clients cannot. Orange County NY is outside the official 22-county MSA, so a detention facility there is not itself a local-benefit claim. The geography of the whole NYLPI portfolio remains different and unestimated.

A clinical-cost stress adds $5,000 per donor-attributable effective-care case, while a separate 25% recipient-cost stress tests unrecognized pro bono and volunteer resources. These are illustrative, not audited additions. Zero replacement, adverse burden and wide positive alternatives are retained.

Model, assumptions and sensitivity

Whole annual gross recognized recipient resources; partial medical-legal health only, not full policy portfolio or comparative ranking.

g=.85 subjective MSA residency of modeled health clients; statewide cases and detention outside MSA require residence tracing. Official22-county boundary, not CSA.

Qall=N*a*b*(p*u*t-h)/(1+d); QMSA=g*Qall; Price10=10*C/QMSA when positive.

C
8609977 USD annual gross recipient expense (observed). Original financial reconstruction or specified testimony count; current-scale transfer is judgment. [return2025] [schedule2025]
N
85 people screened per historical FY (observed). Original financial reconstruction or specified testimony count; current-scale transfer is judgment. [testimony] [oregon]
p
0.25 fraction (judgment). Explicit uncalibrated assumption, not source-measured yield. [testimony] [oregon]
a
0.5 fraction (judgment). Explicit uncalibrated assumption, not source-measured yield. [testimony] [oregon]
b
0.5 fraction (judgment). Explicit uncalibrated assumption, not source-measured yield. [testimony] [oregon]
u
0.1 health utility gain (judgment). Explicit uncalibrated assumption, not source-measured yield. [testimony] [oregon]
t
0.5 years (judgment). Explicit uncalibrated assumption, not source-measured yield. [testimony] [oregon]
h
0.0005 QALYs lost per attributable screened person (judgment). Explicit uncalibrated assumption, not source-measured yield. [testimony] [oregon]
g
0.85 fraction (judgment). Explicit uncalibrated assumption, not source-measured yield. [testimony] [oregon]
d
0.03 annual discount (judgment). Explicit uncalibrated assumption, not source-measured yield. [testimony] [oregon]

Partial medical-legal health, not policy portfolio: Cost: $8.6M; New York City QALYs: 0.21043689320388348; all-population QALYs: 0.24757281553398058. {"C":8609977,"N":85,"p":0.25,"a":0.5,"b":0.5,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.0005,"g":0.85,"d":0.03}

Mostly information with little treatment change: Cost: $8.6M; New York City QALYs: 0.0009283980582524274; all-population QALYs: 0.0015473300970873791. {"C":8609977,"N":85,"p":0.1,"a":0.25,"b":0.1,"u":0.05,"t":0.25,"h":0.0005,"g":0.6,"d":0.03}

Frequent consequential care access: Cost: $8.6M; New York City QALYs: 5.269819478155339; all-population QALYs: 5.547178398058252. {"C":8609977,"N":85,"p":0.6,"a":0.75,"b":0.75,"u":0.2,"t":1,"h":0.0005,"g":0.95,"d":0.03}

Complete donor replacement: Cost: $8.6M; New York City QALYs: 0; all-population QALYs: 0. {"C":8609977,"N":85,"p":0.25,"a":0.5,"b":0,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.0005,"g":0.85,"d":0.03}

No effective care with process burden: Cost: $8.6M; New York City QALYs: -0.01753640776699029; all-population QALYs: -0.02063106796116505. {"C":8609977,"N":85,"p":0,"a":0.5,"b":0.5,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.001,"g":0.85,"d":0.03}

Induced outside clinical resources: Cost: $8.6M; New York City QALYs: 0.21043689320388348; all-population QALYs: 0.24757281553398058. {"C":8636539.5,"N":85,"p":0.25,"a":0.5,"b":0.5,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.0005,"g":0.85,"d":0.03}

Unrecognized volunteer-resource stress: Cost: $10.8M; New York City QALYs: 0.21043689320388348; all-population QALYs: 0.24757281553398058. {"C":10762471.25,"N":85,"p":0.25,"a":0.5,"b":0.5,"u":0.1,"t":0.5,"h":0.0005,"g":0.85,"d":0.03}

Counterfactual: Existing public funding, ordinary legal/clinical partners, alternative care and established laws continue. No historical advocacy success automatically belongs to a new gift.

Attribution: p effective clinical change, a additional work versus alternatives, b financial response; each once. 44 medical evaluations and60 immigration cases not added to85 screened individuals.

Very weak-confidence partial estimate; no claim that a small clinical slice captures policy upside. Zero and adverse included; scenarios are not confidence bounds.

Sensitivity

  • Mostly information with little treatment change: 92,740,144,418 USD per 10 MSA QALYs. Scenario assumptions are judgments, not statistical confidence limits.
  • Frequent consequential care access: 16,338,277 USD per 10 MSA QALYs. Scenario assumptions are judgments, not statistical confidence limits.
  • Complete donor replacement: no finite positive-benefit price. Scenario assumptions are judgments, not statistical confidence limits.
  • No effective care with process burden: no finite positive-benefit price. Scenario assumptions are judgments, not statistical confidence limits.
  • Induced outside clinical resources: 410,409,951 USD per 10 MSA QALYs. Scenario assumptions are judgments, not statistical confidence limits.
  • Unrecognized volunteer-resource stress: 511,434,620 USD per 10 MSA QALYs. Scenario assumptions are judgments, not statistical confidence limits.

Unresolved inputs

  • Deduplicated care changes attributable to legal work and client residence.
  • Public funding displacement and ordinary-gift case response.
  • Health effects of disability, environmental and policy work outside the priced component.

5. Funding and previous grants

Gross recognized May-ending recipient expenses are $6,364,454 in 2023, $6,954,837 in 2024 and $8,609,977 in 2025. Starting from Form 990 Part IX, add donated services $42,067/$50,405/$73,579, netted rental costs $128,572/$133,411/$135,167 and netted event costs $293,978/$86,973/$558,923. Investment fees $26,271/$26,572/$26,410 already appear in Part IX and are not added again. FY 2024's Schedule D also reconciles $65,497 fundraising expense excluded from audit expense but already included in the return; it is not a further addback. Original FY 2025 return [Original FY 2024 reconciliation](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text/202541019349301504/IRS990Schedule D)

FY 2025 government grants were $1,826,105 and ending net assets $6,837,287, including $1,375,931 restricted. Cash and savings total $1,830,765; net assets also include receivables and other resources. Public support for the Immigrant Health Initiative and existing partner capacity remain in the baseline. No specific current unrestricted cash gap or extra case commitment was verified. Current funding testimony Donate

Expense appendix: FY 2025 Part IX comprises $6,068,823 program, $1,186,367 management/general and $587,118 fundraising, totaling $7,842,308. Adding $73,579 recognized donated services, $135,167 separately netted rental expense and $558,923 event expense yields $8,609,977. Investment fees are already included. Comparable recognized annual expenses for FY 2023–25 average $7,309,756; public clinical and unrecognized volunteer resources are not fully observed.

Annual expenses

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

  • FY 2023: $6.4M; NYLPI, EIN13-2860703, 12-month period, May-ending accrual Form990 expense plus recognized donated services and separately netted rental/event costs; investment fees retained once.. Source
  • FY 2024: $7.0M; NYLPI, EIN13-2860703, 12-month period, May-ending accrual Form990 expense plus recognized donated services and separately netted rental/event costs; investment fees retained once.. Source
  • FY 2025: $8.6M; NYLPI, EIN13-2860703, 12-month period, May-ending accrual Form990 expense plus recognized donated services and separately netted rental/event costs; investment fees retained once.. Source

6. Sources

  1. FY2023 original Form990. NYLPI / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  2. FY2023 original ScheduleD reconciliation. NYLPI / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  3. FY2024 original Form990. NYLPI / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  4. FY2024 original ScheduleD reconciliation. NYLPI / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  5. FY2025 original Form990. NYLPI / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  6. FY2025 original ScheduleD reconciliation. NYLPI / IRS. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  7. Health Justice portfolio. NYLPI. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  8. FY27 medical-legal delivery and funding testimony. NYLPI. Published: 2026-03-19; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  9. Current medical-records review training. NYLPI. Published: 2026-02-09; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  10. Current citywide disability/environment implementation proposals. NYLPI. Published: 2026-07-06; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  11. Current commercial waste-zone implementation advocacy. NYLPI. Published: 2026-03-06; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  12. Randomized insurance-access clinical outcomes. Baicker et al., NEJM. Published: 2013-05-02; retrieved: 2026-09-14.
  13. Official donation route. NYLPI. Published: not stated; retrieved: 2026-09-14.