PA IOLTA Board's Specialized Legal Services Grant

About PA IOLTA
The core mission of the Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Board is to support the provision of civil legal services to the Commonwealth’s poor and disadvantaged. The IOLTA Board is a not-for-profit organization operating under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
How Does the IOLTA Program Work?
The IOLTA program is simple. Clients and others frequently transfer moneys to attorneys to hold. When the amount is large or if the funds will be held for an extended period of time, attorneys invest them for the benefit of the client. But when the funds are small or expected to be held for a short time, they cannot practically be invested to benefit the client. Pennsylvania Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15 requires attorneys to deposit nominal and short-term fiduciary funds in interest-bearing IOLTA accounts. The attorneys’ banks transfer the interest earned on IOLTA accounts to the Pennsylvania IOLTA Board.
How is the Money Used?
Upon approval of the Supreme Court of PA, the Board makes grants annually to non-profit organizations, law school clinical programs, and administration of justice projects that provide civil legal services free of charge to the poor and disadvantaged.
Grants
The Pennsylvania IOLTA Board carries out its mission to financially support the delivery of civil legal aid to low-income and disadvantaged Pennsylvanians through the careful administration of various revenue sources, both court-directed and legislatively-directed. Upon approval of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the IOLTA Board makes grants annually to qualified legal aid organizations across the state, Pennsylvania’s nine law school clinical and externship programs, and administration of justice projects, all of which provide legal assistance to low-income individuals and families facing a civil legal crisis where basic human needs, such as shelter, food, medicine and safety, are at stake.
Specialized Legal Services Grant Program
These discretionary grants – often referred to as “zone grants” – support the delivery of specialized legal services to targeted groups of people such as the disabled, non-English speaking communities, and victims of domestic violence. Funding is allocated to geographic zones based on the proportion of people living in poverty throughout the state. Applicants compete with one another in the zone where the proposed services would be delivered. Learn more about the geographic boundaries of our funding zones by viewing the IOLTA Funding Zone Map.

Eligibility

A Qualified Recipient must:Be a not-for-profit Pennsylvania Corporation.Be tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.Operate primarily within Pennsylvania.Have as its primary purpose the provision of civil legal services without charge.An organization meets the primary purpose test if it expends at least 50% of its total audited resources (including the audited value of pro bono legal services) on the delivery of free civil legal representation to Pennsylvanians living at or below 187.5% of the Federal Poverty Level.