The Boston Bar Foundation (BBF) has announced that the 2022 IOLTA Grants application is now available. In Massachusetts, the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Committee of the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) collects interest income from participating financial institutions and distributes that income to three charitable entities.
Donor Name: Boston Bar Foundation
State: Massachusetts
City: Boston
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/29/2022
Details:
Through the IOLTA grants process, the Boston Bar Foundation has gained unique expertise in the legal services community for how to address the unmet legal needs of underserved Massachusetts residents.
Core Funding Objectives
The BBF invites applications from eligible non-profit organizations in the Greater Boston area for projects that advance the following objectives:
- Provide civil legal services to low-income persons and/or underserved populations or historically marginalized populations, especially organizations and programs that respond to an identified and unmet legal need.
- Result in the development and strengthening of pro bonoprograms which generate substantial voluntary legal services by the private bar to low-income and underserved populations.
- Conduct activities that demonstrably contribute to the improvement of the administration of justice in Massachusetts, i.e., projects that directly improve the courts’ effectiveness, address systemic problems in the court system, or provide information to low-income, underserved, or special needs populations regarding their legal rights and/or accessibility to the courts.
Eligibility for a Boston Bar Foundation IOLTA Grant
- The BBF awards IOLTA grants to organizations. No funding is available for individuals. Priority is given to 501(c)(3) organizations, though under certain circumstances grants may be made to other 501(c) organizations with specific charitable programs that fit the BBF’s guidelines and funding priorities.
- The BBF’s grant making focuses on organizations and programs in the Greater Boston area, i.e., within Route 128. There are, however, limited exceptions: e.g., when a determination is made by the Grants Committee that a substantial percentage of an organization’s clients live within Greater Boston, even though the organization may technically be located beyond the boundary of Route 128.
- The following are excluded from consideration for BBF IOLTA grants:
- Political campaigns; capital campaigns; endowment campaigns; scholarship funds; organizations established primarily to lobby; mock trial programs; law enforcement or correctional agencies; independent conferences/events, research, and/or studies unrelated to a program that delivers legal services or improves access to justice for low-income or underserved populations; funds in support of travel, either by groups or individuals.
- BBF IOLTA funding can be used only for programs that involve civil legal issues; programs involving criminal or delinquency legal issues cannot be funded by the IOLTA Grants Program.
- IOLTA funds may not be used to support any social service or lobbying components of an applicant’s proposed program, or to fund programs that provide for the constitutional or statutory obligations of government.
For more information, visit Boston Bar Foundation.
