The Massachusetts Bar Foundation recently awarded nearly $3.6 million in grants through its annual Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Grants Program. Exceeding last year's grant awards by over $300,000, this year's grants will fund 131 programs conducted by 94 nonprofit organizations throughout Massachusetts.
"We are thrilled to report that this year's award total is the highest in the history of our IOLTA Grants Program," said MBF President Francis A. Ford, Esq.
The grants provide critical financial support to law-related projects that either provide civil legal services to the state's low-income population, or improve the administration of justice in the commonwealth. Grants to improve the administration of justice include such efforts as court-linked alternative dispute resolution projects and lawyer-of-the-day programs.
Award amounts ranged from $4,541 to $175,000, and will run for one year, from Sept. 1, 2006 to Aug. 31, 2007.
"I offer my sincere gratitude to the 143 MBF Trustees and Fellows who donated their time on grant review committees to ensure a thorough and fair review of each application," continued Ford. "We are all so proud of the fact that, through the heroic efforts of our grantees, this record year will result in a direct increase in the number of citizens helped across the commonwealth."
Funds for these grants are provided by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's Interest on Lawyer's Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Program. The MBF is one of three charitable entities in Massachusetts that distributes IOLTA funds.
Additional information about the MBF and its IOLTA Grants Program, as well as a complete listing of the 2006/2007 IOLTA grant recipients is available on the MBF Web site at www.MassBarFoundation.org.