The Massachusetts Bar Foundation recently awarded $2.5 million
in grants through its annual Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts
Grants Program. This year's grants will fund 99 programs conducted
by 70 nonprofit organizations throughout Massachusetts.
These grants support projects that either offer civil legal
services to people who cannot otherwise afford them or improve the
administration of justice in the commonwealth. Grants providing
direct legal services include support to domestic violence
programs, special education advocacy, consumer debt counseling,
homelessness prevention, and more. Grants to improve the
administration of justice include such efforts as court-linked
mediation and lawyer-of-the-day programs.
Funds for these grants are provided by the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court's Interest on Lawyer's Trust Accounts (IOLTA)
Program. The Massachusetts Bar Foundation is one of three
charitable entities in Massachusetts that distributes IOLTA
funds.
As a result of the economic downtown, available funds for IOLTA
grants have declined by more than 75 percent over the last several
years. Trustees of the foundation voted, as they have for the past
four years, to draw money from MBF reserve funds to help to fund
the awards.
"The organizations we fund provide critical assistance to the
most vulnerable citizens of the commonwealth," said MBF President
Jerry Cohen. "In spite of drastically reduced resources to serve
these clients, MBF grantees work tirelessly to make legal
assistance accessible to those in need. We are proud to support
them."
Additional information about the Massachusetts Bar Foundation
and its IOLTA Grants Program, as well as a complete listing of the
2012/2013 IOLTA grant recipients is available on the MBF website here.