MALDEF multiplied its donated funds by enticing the Deans of many law schools to pitch in university money to provide more funds to MALDEF scholars. Many of the Deans who earmarked university money in this way were in fact MALDEF members. For example, Dean Robert Yegge of the University of Denver proposed a series of tutorials for newly-admitted Chicano law students.

The University of Denver also proposed, financially contributed to, and held a long series of summer preparatory programs for prospective Mexican-American law students in conjunction with MALDEF. This program allowed them to make selections at the end of the summer regarding those who would receive further scholarships for law school.

Why was Dean Yegge so much more motivated than any other law school dean to serve the needs of young Mexican-American students? Yegge was University of Denver's Law School Dean from the 1960's to the 1970's. Upon Yegge's death in 2006, the Denver Post wrote about him:

MALDEF was very organized, annually nominating and selecting members for its Board of Directors:

• Board members from '68-'78
• Board nominations '68-'86
• '75-'76 Board
• Board members from '83-'84
• Board members to 1984
• '84-'85 staff Board nominees
• Board members from '84-'85
• 1986 staff Board nominees
• 1987 nominated Board and officers
• 1988 nominated Board and officers
• Board members (no date)

In FY 86, MALDEF's revenue (including restricted and unrestricted categories) was nearly three million dollars. The major funders included the Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller fund, and Anheuser-Busch. Legal fee awards from court cases comprised $266,000 of the 1986 revenues. In 1985, legal fee awards from court cases comprised $471,300! MALDEF is clearly making money from filing cases in federal courts, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, by litigating and winning attorney's fees. Since MALDEF sues primarily state- and federally-funded agencies, a large proportion of these fees are likely to have come from Americans' tax dollars. It is notable that private donations amounted to only $20,000 in 1986, or less than 1% of MALDEF's total revenues in 1986. In other words, the attorneys and judges who were educated with MALDEF scholarships donate precious little back to the pot for future Mexican-American prospective students. Such a deal! Why would MALDEF continue to demand monies from corporations and private foundations when their own highly-paid leadership refuses to do so in any significant amounts? MALDEF apparently believes that others should donate to their causes but they would prefer to hold on to their own (perhaps ill-gotten) personal gains.

Training of legal staff has clearly been a priority for MALDEF, as evidenced by the list of education and training seminars provided in their corporate documents. For example, in 1987 alone, MALDEF staff and attorneys attended nine education/training seminars, meetings, or conferences, including the following topics: immigration law strategy, immigration-related employment discrimination, intensive litigation training, voting rights, leadership, recent development in civil rights, and litigation and advocacy strategies in education, employment, political access, immigrants' rights, and English-plus language rights.

MALDEF held annual Board meetings in a variety of MALDEF cities, including Chicago in 1984 and Santa Fe in 1985. All of this information is available in the Stanford University Green Library special collection of MALDEF corporate records.