December 2007

In This Issue

• Fiscal Year 2008 Federal Budget
• Federal Funding Opportunities
• Private Foundation Funding
• Funding Tip

Fiscal Year 2008 Federal Budget

The federal government is currently operating under a continuing resolution that expires December 14. Congress will likely pass another continuing resolution to last one week, since Democratic leadership says Congress will remain in session until December 21 to finalize fiscal year 2008 appropriations.

Despite being in the third month of FY 2008, Congress and the White House have been at a stalemate on funding. Overall, the Democrats’ budget plan called for $23 billion more in discretionary spending than the $933 million President Bush requested. Faced with certain vetoes, they proposed splitting that difference in half. That plan was abandoned after White House Budget Director Jim Nussle said it also would be vetoed.

Under the proposal currently being formulated by Democratic leaders in the House, the appropriations subcommittees would decide how to trim their individual bills from the Democrats’ proposed levels to meet Bush’s demands, rather than cutting spending by a fixed percentage across the board. Each subcommittee’s final proposal would be rolled into an omnibus measure that would include the 11 remaining FY 2008 spending bills.

Democrats have conceded that their spending bill will have to adhere to the president’s funding level in order to finish the FY 2008 budget by the end of the month. However, the plan for how to meet Bush’s level remains fluid, and it isn’t clear whether Senate Democrats will agree with what the House passes.

Federal Funding Opportunities

There has been a delay in the release of solicitations for FY 2008 applications from the Office on Violence Against Women in the Department of Justice. These soliciations, including for the Legal Assistance for Victims (LAV) Grant Program and the Rural Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, Stalking, and Child Abuse Enforcement Assistance Program, are normally posted in early December. However, this year the grant solicitations will reportedly be posted later in December, with deadlines that will correspondingly be later.

When the solicitations are posted, you will be able to find them here:
http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/currentsolicitations.htm

If you are interested in receiving the list of successful LAV grant applications for FY 2007, please contact Kate Lang.

Private Foundation Funding

• Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance
  http://www.naca.net/News-Events/News.aspx?item=46914
  Deadline: January 7, 2008
  

  The Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance (IFLA), a project of the Center for Responsible Lending and managed by the National Association of Consumer Advocates, has announced that it is soliciting proposals to fund local legal programs assisting borrowers in danger of having their homes foreclosed.

  IFLA is funded through a $15 million grant from the investment firm Paulson and Co., Inc. NACA will be awarding 10 to 15 grants of about $100,000 for the first year of what will be multi-year grants.

  The goal of the funding is to increase the legal capacity of organizations dedicated to representing individual homeowners faced with foreclosure, to provide training and resources to non-profit organizations performing this important work and to build a national network of attorneys who work collaboratively to develop legal, legislative and community-based solutions to our nation’s foreclosure crisis.

  Grant programming under IFLA will operate over a minimum three year period. Initially IFLA will provide grants to non-profit legal organizations that are currently running successful foreclosure defense projects. Funding will be earmarked to hire additional attorneys to represent homeowners faced with foreclosure. During this first year, in addition to these cash grants, IFLA plans to provide in-kind resources to our grantees as well as to other organizations that will include trainings and training materials, back-up and support services, and other legal resources needed to carry out project objectives.

  In subsequent years, IFLA plans to substantially increase the cash grant awards and expand the grantees to include non-profit organizations that do not currently have a foreclosure legal defense project but have demonstrated the willingness, ability and leadership to expand their work and create this type of project.

• Justice Assistance Fund
  http://www.abanet.org/litigation/committees/probono/legalservices.html
  Deadline: February 1, 2008
  

  The Section of Litigation of the American Bar Association has announced another round of Justice Assistance Fund (JAF) grants to help legal services programs build their private bar fundraising capacity.

  The Grant Application Form can be found <Document 1196961395.19 not found>.

  The Fund will underwrite a state or local legal aid program’s consulting and startup costs, up to a maximum of $10,000. The funds can be used to:

  • help establish successful private bar, capital or endowment fundraising initiatives in states or communities across the country in the next one to three years.
  • provide on-call consulting assistance to existing campaigns that need limited help with particular problems or issues they are encountering with their campaigns.
  • help create and assist in initiating state or regional forums that facilitate the exchange of information and fundraising resources.
  • other activities and initiatives that help expand the base of private bar support for legal services for the poor.

  To be eligible for a grant under this effort, legal services programs are required to involve members of the Section of Litigation in developing their campaign, as well as provide matching funds. The total match that will be provided by the Justice Assistance Fund is a maximum of 50% for consultant fees and associated travel and other expenses. Recipients are required to provide a progress and final report on the outcome of the campaign and the involvement of Section leadership in the implementation of their campaigns.

  Previous grants have been awarded to six programs in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland and Tennessee. These legal services programs have used Fund support to create new private bar campaigns, revitalize or upgrade existing campaigns, establish endowment campaigns and develop strategic statewide access to justice funding plans.

  Inquiries should be directed to Lillian Johnson.

• Initiative for Public Interest Law at Yale
  http://www.law.yale.edu/stuorgs/initiative.htm
  Deadline: February 1, 2008
  

  The Initiative for Public Interest Law at Yale is now accepting applications for one-year grants of up to $30,000 to be awarded in the summer of 2008. The Initiative is a non-profit organization that provides start-up money for projects that protect the legal rights or interests of inadequately represented groups. They fund individuals who are launching new projects, not to provide funding for ongoing work. They fund cutting-edge projects whose successful execution might be a model for other organizations seeking new and better ways to represent clients. While the Initiative may choose to fund one project for the full $30,000 grant amount, in recent years, the Board has often chosen instead to award partial grants ranging from $9,000 to $21,000.

  More information about selection criteria, the selection process, application materials, and contacts can be found at the Initiative's Web site above.

• Partnerships in Law and Aging Program
  http://www.abanet.org/aging/partnershipandgrants/home.shtml
  Deadline: March 3, 2008
  

  The American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging and the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging have announced the availability of grants to encourage development of new and collaborative community-based projects to enhance the legal awareness of older persons and to improve their access to the legal system.

  The Partnerships in Law and Aging Program, with funding from the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging and the Marie Walsh Sharpe Endowment of the ABA Fund for Justice and Education, will award up to eight grants of $10,000 each to legal services providers, bar associations, elder rights advocates, and other local non-profit organizations.

  The Partnerships program has supported development of such projects as:

  • outreach and services to culturally or linguistically isolated elders
  • senior attorney and other volunteer legal assistance
  • elder mediation
  • handbooks and educational programs for lawyers and non-lawyer professionals
  • senior hotlines
  • state specific editions of national materials
  • law related Web sites and other technology-based efforts
  • self-help and community legal education
  • holistic and other innovative delivery systems

  There is now a new electronic format for submitting applications. Applications must be electronically submitted by March 3, 2008, and must include all items to be considered, including letters of commitment. Awards will be announced in early June 2008. Grants will run from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009.

Funding Tip

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has opened a new Web site, Homelessness Resource Exchange (HRS). HRS is designed to be a "one-stop shop" for information and resources on assisting people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Program guidance and regulations, technical assistance (TA) and training resources, research and publications, and more are available for use by federal agencies, state and local government agencies, Continuum of Care organizations, homeless service providers, TA providers, persons experiencing homelessness, and other stakeholders.