Leadership and Funding for Justice in Florida

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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.