Deadline: 10-Jan-23
Applications for Impact Fund are now open to award recoverable grants to legal services nonprofits, private attorneys, and small law firms who seek to advance justice in the areas of civil and human rights, environmental justice, and poverty law.
Sectors
- Social Justice: The impact fund provides grants and legal support to assist in human and civil rights cases. They have helped to change dozens of laws and win cases to improve the rights of thousands.
- The cases they are funding allege that:
- In Orange County, California there are currently 13 gang injunctions under effect, which disproportionately affect young men of color.
- In Chicago, Illinois, the city’s homeless shelter program is inaccessible to people with disabilities.
- In Springfield, Oregon, the city and its police department used excessive force during a Black Lives Matter protest.
- In Maine, the state fails to safely monitor the prescription and administration of powerful psychotropic medications to foster youth.
- In Missouri, a Medicaid agency fails to arrange for in-home nursing services for children with medically complex conditions.
- In Montana, voter suppression laws disadvantage young adults and give priority to gun owners.
- In Vancouver, British Columbia, the police perpetuate systemic discrimination against Indigenous people through bureaucratic measures.
- In West Virginia, incarcerated individuals do not receive adequate medical and mental health care, and jails do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- Environmental Justice: The impact fund provides grants to support impact litigation for environmental justice, with a focus on marginalized communities. These are often cases no one else will support.
- The cases they are funding allege that:
- In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin the proposed expansion of a highway will divide the region’s Black, Asian, and Latine neighborhoods and bring pollution and ill health.
- In North Dakota, the five-month closure of a highway in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests disproportionately affected the livelihoods and health of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members.
- In Ontario, Canada, mercury contamination of the English-Wabigoon river system causes catastrophic environmental and health impacts for the Grassy Narrows First Nation.
- In Sacramento, California, the county government and Sacramento Area Sewer District violate the Clean Water Act by discharging raw sewage into the Delta, the Sacramento River, and the American River.
- In Fresno, California, the city’s efforts to streamline industrial development fail to protect vulnerable neighborhoods from adverse environmental and public health impacts.
- In the Eastern Coachella Valley in California, 1,900 residents of the Oasis Mobile Home Park suffer from arsenic-laced drinking water, wastewater contamination, and overcharging for utilities.
- Economic Justice: The impact fund provides financial and other forms of support to cases fighting for economic justice. From workers’ rights to consumer protection for vulnerable populations, impact litigation is a powerful tool to hold corporations accountable.
- The cases they are funding allege that:
- In San Diego, California, vehicle ordinances target homeless vehicle owners even when no adequate housing alternative exists.
- In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the city and county destroy the property of homeless individuals and employ forced evictions from public spaces.
- In Miami, Florida, insurance companies discriminate against a nonprofit community development corporation renting to tenants with Section 8 rental subsidies.
Funding Information
- The maximum grant request is $50,000.
Eligibility Questions
- Are you eligible to apply for an Impact Fund Grant?
- Are you a lawyer, or do you work for a law firm or a nonprofit Legal organization?
- Are you looking for funding for a specific case?
- Does your case target a social, economic, or environmental injustice?
- Is your case a class action, or will it have a systemic impact in another way?
- Are you seeking funding for out-of-pocket litigation expenses? (They don’t fund attorney or staff time.)
- Are you willing to repay your grant if you recover fees/costs at the end of your case?
For more information, visit Impact Fund.