Public Interest Litigation

Posted by Impact Fund on November 13, 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 given to civil rights, human rights, anti-poverty, and environmental justice cases that affect a marginalized group. Most of the fund’s grants are awarded for class actions, but the fund also supports 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 may not be used for attorney’s fees, staff, or other overhead costs.

Grants will be awarded to private attorneys, small legal firms, and nonprofit legal entities with limited 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 2018 spring grant cycle, the deadline for Letters of Interest is January 9, 2018. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application by February 6, 2018.

See the fund’s website for complete program guidelines.

Deadline: January 9, 2018 (Letters of Interest)

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