Our incorporation mission:

· to research, explore, evaluate, pursue and create new resources, which are not dependent on federal and state budgets, for providing more financial support to nonprofit 501(c)(3) legal service organizations;

· to educate the public at local, state and national levels about the work being done by, and the purpose of legal service organizations; and

· to work with and encourage legal service organizations to reduce administrative costs and maximize use of their financial resources to ensure availability of more attorneys, paralegals and support staff needed to fulfill their mission of providing direct legal services to low income residents of their communities.

Why we formed:

The need to raise funds to support the work of legal service organizations became critically clear in 2010 and 2011 when funding was drastically cut for many such public interest organizations throughout the United States.

For example, a 33% cut in state funding in the State of New Jersey in 2010 resulted in layoffs of about 1/3 of the attorneys, paralegals and support staff statewide. In 2011, yet another deep cut was imposed with more layoffs being made.

Funding cuts have significantly reduced the ability of legal service organizations to serve the ever increasing numbers of low income residents in their communities who would be eligible for assistance, but cannot access them due to a lack of staff and resources to provide the needed representation.

Something different needs to be done about funding the important public interest work of legal service organizations and we hope to do it with your help!