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.
Donor Name: American Bar Endowment
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/01/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
The ABE Opportunity Grant Program supports new AND innovative projects/programs that directly affect individual and community law-related needs. Grant funds are project-specific and not for general operating or existing expenses. National organizations can apply but need to carefully draw the connection between their proposed work and its impact on local communities.
Focus Areas
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.
Funding Information
- The ABE awards up to a total of $300,000 each year.
- Grant awards of $25,000 or less are typical.
Grant Period
The grant period for an Opportunity Grant is generally one year.
Eligibility Criteria
- Internal Revenue Service designated 50l(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
- other non-profits or civic organizations with law-related programming.
- Eligible organizations must be incorporated in the United States or a U.S. Territory.
For more information, visit ABE.
