ABE Opportunity Grants

The American Bar Endowment's Opportunity Grant Program provides funding for innovative, boots-on-the-ground initiatives that address urgent legal needs of the public. This grant focuses on increasing access to justice for underserved populations, improving the justice system, and enhancing public understanding of legal rights. Eligible applicants include public charities and organizations directly impacting local communities, with a strong emphasis on projects that leverage technology and address immediate legal challenges.

Funding Urgent Boots-on-the-Ground Initiatives
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.
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; andIncreasing public understanding of legal rights and responsibilities so people can recognize legal problems and know how to address them.

Eligibility

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.Internal Revenue Service designated 501(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; andother non-profits or civic organizations with law-related programming.Eligible organizations must be incorporated in the United States or a U.S. Territory.

Ineligibility

ABE Opportunity Grants do not support efforts to influence legislation, elect candidates or conduct impact litigation.An ABE Opportunity Grant cannot be used to fund projects/programs that the organization is already doing or services it is already providing. The ABE does not fund international work.This grant program does not support governmental regulatory agencies or individuals.