Leadership and Funding for Justice in Florida

Today in Florida, thousands of low-income individuals and families are trying to deal with difficult legal problems alone. For them, access to justice often is elusive, or worse, unattainable. The problems faced by the poor are very real:

• The disabled veteran who can't buy food if he doesn't get his disability check
• The elderly widow who is losing her home because she is a victim of mortgage fraud
• The abused child who needs a safe and loving home

Legal Aid helps by removing barriers to stable and productive lives -- and when the lives of poor people are improved, all Floridians benefit.

The Florida Bar Board of Governors brought The Florida Bar Foundation into existence in 1956 as a nonprofit corporation chartered to foster law-related public interest programs on behalf of Florida’s legal profession.

The Florida Bar Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) public charity, is the only statewide organization that provides funding for Legal Aid and promotes improvements in addressing the civil legal needs of the poor.

But we can't do it alone. We offer help, but we also count on yours.

While principal support for the Foundation’s charitable activities comes from the Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) Program implemented by the Florida Supreme Court in 1981, Foundation grants also are supported by gifts from Florida attorneys, law firms, corporations, foundations and other individuals.

Overview of The Florida Bar Foundation (PDF)