Contents
Doug Emhoff, spouse of former Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed the audience at Bet Tzedek’s 2025 Annual Dinner Gala. 3
Background
Bet Tzedek provides free legal representation and advice to residents of Los Angeles County. The group started in 1974 and primarily focused on protecting the Fairfax district’s “elderly Jewish residents” from predatory landlords. 4
The group claims to assist over 90,000 Los Angeles residents annually by working with over 1,000 volunteers and pro bono attorneys. 5 The group provides comprehensive legal services for seniors and dependent adults; small businesses; homeowners, tenants and the homeless; families and children, and transgender people. 5 It also offers clinics on at least nine different topics including elder abuse, employment rights, conservatorship, and tenants’ rights. 6
In 2023, Bet Tzedek partnered with Loyola Marymount University law school’s Genocide Justice Clinic to assist Holocaust survivors with seeking reparations. 7
Bet Tzedek partners with several local cities and government agencies, bar associations and Jewish organizations, as well as left-of-center groups such as National Employment Law Project, Los Angeles LGBT Center, and the Los Angeles Urban League. 8
Transgender Work
Bet Tzedek assists with obtaining identification documents that correspond with transgender individuals’ desired gender expression and supports those “who identify as transgender and gender non-conforming.” The group’s work in this area began in 2016, when it joined the LGBT Bar Association of Los Angeles to ensure that transgender youth could “receive accurate gender identity recognition under the law,” as well as access medical care and attend school free without discrimination. 9
Bet Tzedek is “committed to pursuing justice for people of all gender identities and expressions” and supports gender on-conforming, non-binary and transgender people. The group allows members of those groups to access medical care, fight school discrimination, avoid discrimination and retaliation at work, and negotiate “denials to housing or shelter.” 2 The group also has a free clinic to assist people in changing their name or gender marker. 2
Financials
In 2023, Bet Tzedek reported a revenue of $20,110,679 and expenses of $18,727,224. 10 In 2023, it received $471,824 from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, 11 $154,750 from the California Community Foundation 12 and $121,417 from the left-of-center Acacia Center for Justice, which provides counsel and legal advice to illegal immigrants. 13 In 2022, the group received $50,000 from the left-of-center Ford Foundation. 14
Leadership
As of 2025, Diego Cartagena was serving as president and CEO of Bet Tzedek. He was named president and CEO in 2020 and is the first non-Jew to hold the position. 4 Cartagena joined Bet Tzedek in 2012. 15 He previously worked at Alliance for Children’s Rights and did a fellowship with Equal Justice Works in 2004. 16 He has also been a board member at OneJustice. 16 Cartagena earned a law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law, where he focused on critical race studies. 15
As of 2025, the group had a staff of over 100, with a board of directors, a president’s council, and the new leadership council. 17 Bet Tzedek’s board had 48 members and nine executive committee members at the time. 18
Financial Statistics
Total Assets
Total Revenue
Total Expenses
| Year | Total Assets | Total Revenue | Total Expenses | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $30,228,552 | $20,110,679 | $18,727,224 | View |
| 2023 | $27,531,507 | $18,203,140 | $17,048,169 | View |
| 2022 | $20,270,766 | $14,946,367 | $13,872,707 | |
| 2021 | $20,991,806 | $14,183,587 | $12,842,006 | View |
| 2020 | $18,393,417 | $13,692,611 | $10,677,758 | View |
Prior year filings: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011
Revenue Detail
Expenses Detail
Employee Compensation
- Number of Employees: 139
Highest Earning Employees
Grant Activity
All-time grants received statistics from Candid dataset:
- Total Grant Value: $45,101,675
- Number of Grants: 1,084
- Number of Funders: 242
Selection of highest value grants received from the last seven years: