Grant Criteria

What We Fund

The Impact Fund makes grants for cases in the areas of human and civil rights, environmental justice, and poverty.

Human and Civil Rights

We do not normally fund traditional civil liberties cases (i.e. 1st Amendment) but are interested in cases involving discrimination or other civil rights violations that affect the indigent. Examples of areas in which we are interested include: deprivations in the criminal justice system, racial profiling, denials of immigrant rights, Post 9/11 cases involving denial of rights under the guise of "Homeland Security," denial of educational access and equity, and voting rights violations.

Environmental Justice

We do not fund traditional environmental cases. Rather, we focus on environmental justice cases that seek to address the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on communities of color or low income communities.

Poverty/Economic Justice

We are interested in cases challenging denial of rights in governmental programs or private action that affects the indigent or near indigent such as low wage workers, including denial of essential governmental services or benefits, health care, housing, access to justice, predatory lending or unfair debt collection practices, or wage and hour violations. We do not fund consumer or general employment cases, unless they primarily affect lower income populations.

General eligibility criteria:

We fund cases with a potential for broad impact, such as cases seeking systemic relief and class actions. We rarely fund individual damages cases.
Cases include those litigated in a court or administrative agency. We fund both on-going cases and cases prior to filing where the claims are concrete and litigation is anticipated in the near future.
Grants are made to private attorneys, small legal firms or nonprofit legal entities that do not have sufficient access to funding sources.
Grants are awarded to cases that cannot be effectively prosecuted and/or in which financial hardship would occur to the applicant without our funding.
Grants are awarded to cover reasonable costs and out-of-pocket expenses (including non-recoverable costs), such as deposition expenses, expert fees, or investigation expenses.
Grantees are expected to explore alternative or supplementary sources of funds, including cost sharing with co-counsel. When a grantee is working with a substantial private law firm, grants may be made on a matching basis (i.e. the firm will be expected to match the grant in providing costs or other litigation expenses).
Grant applicants must be qualified to litigate the matter and be committed to the successful completion of the case. The Impact Fund may condition a grant upon retention of appropriate co-counsel or other steps that will ensure vigorous and effective litigation.
If a recovery of costs or fees is made, the grantee is required to reimburse the Impact Fund at the completion of the case, in addition to any accrued interest. In the event of a partial recovery of cost or fees, the Impact Fund has the discretion to waive interest and/or a portion of the reimbursement.
Grants are awarded quarterly, with an average grant of $10,000, and a maximum grant (rarely given) of $25,000.

What we do NOT fund:

Grants for general program costs, overhead or attorney fees.
In rare cases, grants may cover necessary short term staffing costs (including, as appropriate, stipend to cover attorney and paralegal salaries) that are directly attributable to the case. In these instances, the grant applicant must show that, without such coverage, the case could not be brought.
International claims, unless they involve the United States government or corporate conduct.

Grant Eligibility
All grant applicants must be either private attorneys or firms, duly licensed to practice in the appropriate jurisdiction, or non-profit entities that act as plaintiff or retain counsel in litigation.

Supplemental Grants

Supplemental grants are considered only if there has been a significant change of circumstance since the initial grant, such as unanticipated expenses or issues.

Grant Notification

Upon review of a Grant Proposal, the Impact Fund will notify each applicant of its decision regarding the grant outcome within one week following our quarterly scheduled Board meetings. All applicants will be notified via mail.

If your grant request has been approved, the Impact Fund will mail you two documents:

Grant Agreement;
W-9 Income Tax Form;

Please complete these forms and return them to us by mail. We will issue the grant check after receipt of these materials.

Grant Requirements:

Grantees are required to submit annual status reports, until the grant is closed. Once closed, the Grantee must submit a Final Report.

All Status/Final Reports should include the following information (please limit the Report to two pages, maximum) :

Case name, grant # and court or agency;
Citation of any published decision on the case;
Name of Firm/Organization;
Date grant was issued;
Grant Number;
Breakdown of expenditures made from grant funds;
If the case was concluded, include:
- Date and type of results achieved;
- Breakdown of recovery of fees and/or costs;
- Settlement documents (if applicable);
Any current press releases on the case. Originals or Xerox-quality reproductions are appreciated. Please do NOT send poor quality or faxed reproductions.

All Status Reports should be sent to:
Jocelyn D. Larkin
Executive Director
The Impact Fund
125 University Avenue, Suite 102
Berkeley, CA 94710
Email: jlarkin@impactfund.org
Fax: 510-845-3654

Grant Advertising
If you are awarded a grant, we encourage you to publicize it. You can do so on your website, in your newsletter, or Annual Report. Upon request (grants@impactfund.org), we will provide camera-ready art of our logo, tagline, and link to our website.

Closing a Grant
Upon closure of a case, Final Reports (see Status Reports above) will be required from all firms/organizations.