Litigation to Advance Social Justice

Posted by Impact Fund on August 21, 2017

Impact Fund Offers Support for Litigation to Advance Social Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants to nonprofit legal firms, private attorneys, and/or small law firms working to advance social justice in the areas of civil and human rights, environmental justice, and poverty law.

Through the fund’s litigation program, grants of up to $25,000 will be awarded in support of public interest litigation that has the potential to benefit a large number of people, lead to significant law reform, and raise public consciousness of social justice issues. Preference is civil rights, human rights, anti-poverty, and environmental justice cases that will affect a marginalized group. Most of its grants are for class actions, but the fund also will support multi-plaintiff and environmental justice cases that aim to significantly affect a larger system. Impact Fund grants may be used for out-of-pocket litigation expenses such as expert fees and discovery costs, but not for attorney’s fees, staff, or other overhead.

Grants will be awarded to private attorneys, small legal firms, and nonprofit legal entities that do not have sufficient access to funding sources. Specifically, grants are intended to support cases that could not be effectively prosecuted, and/or in which financial hardship would occur to the applicant if supplementary funding were not available. Grants may cover reasonable costs and out-of-pocket expenses (including non-recoverable costs) such as deposition expenses, expert fees, and investigation expenses.

For the 2017 winter grant cycle, the deadline for Letters of Interest is October 10, 2017. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application by November 7, 2017.

Visit the fund’s website for complete program guidelines.

Deadline: October 10, 2017 (Letters of Interest)

https://www.impactfund.org/about-legal-case-grants/