Leadership and Funding for Justice in Florida

Today in Florida, thousands of low-income individuals and families are trying to deal with difficult legal problems alone. For them, access to justice often is elusive, or worse, unattainable. The problems faced by the poor are very real. Those who the Foundation help include:

• Disaster survivors who are struggling to put their lives back together

• Children who are lost in the foster care system

• Veterans at risk of homelessness when their VA benefits are wrongfully denied

• Elderly and disabled Floridians who need help securing their rightful benefits

Civil legal aid removes barriers to stable and productive lives — and when the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors are improved, all Floridians benefit.

The Florida Bar Board of Governors brought The Florida Bar Foundation into existence in 1956 as a nonprofit corporation chartered to foster law-related public interest programs on behalf of Florida’s legal profession.

The Florida Bar Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide greater access to justice. Through strategic grantmaking, the Foundation funds local and statewide civil legal aid organizations and projects to improve the administration of justice and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the legal aid delivery system. The Foundation engages in catalytic philanthropy by investing in training, technology, technical assistance, assessment and capacity-building for legal aid and works to develop and expand innovative pro bono initiatives.

While principal support for the Foundation’s charitable activities comes from the Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) Program implemented by the Florida Supreme Court in 1981, Foundation grants also are supported by gifts from Florida attorneys, law firms, corporations, foundations and other individuals.

We offer help, but we also count on yours.

Membership and Governance

Membership

Membership is open to all persons interested in supporting the charitable purposes of the Foundation. Members are eligible to hold office and serve as directors of the Foundation. Participants in Florida ‘s Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) program, administered by the Foundation, automatically are entitled to membership. Membership also is available through annual Foundation dues, including reduced-rate dues for law students, and through the Foundation’s Fellows program.

Governance

The Florida Bar Foundation is a not-for-profit Florida corporation established in 1956 by the Board of Governors of The Florida Bar to foster law-related public interest programs on behalf of Florida’s legal profession.

The Foundation is governed by a 33-member board of directors, which meets quarterly. The board conducts its work through standing and ad hoc committees. The board comprises the officers of the Foundation, six directors by designation (two judicial officers appointed by the Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, the president, president-elect, and immediate past president of The Florida Bar, and the president of Florida Legal Services which provides coordination, training and other support services to legal aid programs across the state), at least two but not more than four public members and 18 at-large directors. At-large directors serve a maximum of two, three-year terms, with one-third selected by the board of governors of The Florida Bar, one-third by the board of directors of the Foundation, and one-third by the Florida Supreme Court. Committees are appointed annually by the board of directors at the request of the president, and include Foundation directors, members of the bar generally, and the lay public. An executive committee appointed annually by the board meets between meetings of the board.

Bylaws

Articles of Incorporation