The ABE Opportunity Grant Program provides funding for new and innovative law-related projects and programs of importance to the public and the legal profession.
Donor Name: American Bar Endowment
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/23/2022
Size of the Grant: $25,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year or less
Details:
The American Bar Endowment’s Opportunity Grant Program supports new, boots-on-the-ground, innovative programs and projects that serve the immediate and critical legal needs of the public and are of importance to the legal profession and its concerns for access to justice.
The ABE Opportunity Grant Program funding focus areas include:
- Increasing access to justice, especially for vulnerable and underserved populations using innovations to legal services delivery, capacity-building, or pro bono service.
- Improvement of the justice system, including ensuring equal justice and elimination of bias; and
- Increasing public understanding of legal rights and responsibilities so people can recognize legal problems and know how to address them.
The Opportunity Grant Program favors programs and projects that:
- serve those who are traditionally underserved or marginalized;
- address immediate and urgent law-related needs in innovative ways;
- are not replicated by other organizations in the proposed service area;
- take advantage of existing and emerging technologies; or
- might not otherwise be able to obtain timely funding from other sources.
The ABE will consider projects that, for example:
- build organizational capacity to serve clients better;
- develop tools, technology, or approaches that the broader legal community could use;
- launch a new law-related program; or
- document/prove a best practice.
Funding Information
- Grant awards of $25,000 or less are typical. Organizations can request larger amounts; however, the ABE may contact the applicant during the review process to ask if the project or program can be completed with less funding or by finding additional funding.
- The ABE occasionally makes more significant awards when the proposed project addresses immediate and critical needs in a uniquely innovative way, with tools or resources that can be used or replicated by other service providers.
- An ABE Opportunity Grant is generally a one-time award with a grant period of one year or less.
Eligibility Information
Internal Revenue Service designated 501(c)(3) organizations that are classified as a public charity under section 509 (a) of the Internal Revenue Code can apply. Organizations with a written fiscal agency agreement with such an entity can also apply. The fiscal agent must meet this eligibility criterion.
Potential grantees include (but are not limited to):
- Bar associations and bar foundations;
- Law schools, law school legal clinics;
- Academic institutions;
- Legal Services Corporation (LSC) funded organizations;
- Legal service delivery organizations;
- Human service organizations with legal service or law related programming; and
- Other non-profits or civic organizations with law-related programming.
Eligible organizations must be incorporated in the United States or a U.S. Territory. The ABE does not fund international work. This grant program does not support governmental regulatory agencies or individuals.
For more information, visit ABE.
