The Bigglesworth Family Foundation is seeking applications for its Legal Services Grant.
Donor Name: Bigglesworth Family Foundation
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/07/2026
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Types of Grant
- Grant Types: General Operating Support Grants
- Grants for general operations are generally made to legal services organizations who provide unique services within their communities. This includes funding to legal service providers who are based in “legal deserts”.
- I & R Grants
- The I & R Grants target projects and programs that are both innovative and replicable. They support these grants to allow legal services leaders to test models that have the potential to help their individual organizations and when replicated, to help their peer organizations.
- Sector Supporting Grants
- Hubs”: Organizations that do not generally provide direct legal services programs, but provide technical assistance and substantive back-up to the direct services programs.
- Recruitment & Retention Grants: In an effort to support the legal services sector and ensure a strong and consistent pipeline of new legal services staff, we support grants that focus on recruitment & retention of legal services professionals.
- Advocacy Grants: We fund advocacy work that supports to the legal service sector. However, do not fund lobbying efforts on new laws, legislation or for candidates.
Funding Information
Most of the legal services grants are in the $10,000-30,000 range.
Geographical Limitations
They primarily fund in California. National organizations may apply for grants for the following types of programs:
- Programs that support increased Access to Justice
- Leadership development programs
- Hubs and “think tank” programs for civil legal aid.
Eligibility Criteria
- All potential grantees must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or a public entity.
- BFF will not support organizations that discriminate against a person or group on the basis of age, political affiliation, race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation or religious belief.
- Type of Organization:
- Legal Services Organizations with Operating Budget Under $1M: LSOs with operating budgets less than $1M are welcome to request general operating support. In most cases they are not eligible to receive program/project support.
- Legal Services Organizations with Operating Budgets Between $1M-$5M: LSOs with operating budgets between $1M and $5M are encouraged to request general operating support. They may request programmatic support, provided they explain the rationale for doing so. For example, an organization may opt to request a program/project grant for initiatives they wish to pilot, for capital projects or as part of a funding initiative.
- Legal Services Organizations with Operating Budgets Over $5M: LSOs with operating budgets over $5M are welcome to request support for new/pilot programs or for existing programs with limited funding opportunities (e.g.: inter-sectional work, impact litigation, research). These organizations are not eligible to receive funding for general operating support.
- Legal Service Programs Within Social Service Organizations or Law Schools With $5M+ Operating Budgets: As an exception to the above, legal service programs embedded within organizations with $5M+ budgets, are eligible to request general operating support for the legal services program. Note, they do not fund CBOs that do not have a legal department and/or attorneys on staff.
For more information, visit BFF.
