ELIGIBILITY

Applicants must meet the following criteria in order to be eligible to apply:

• Applicants must be 501(c)(3) nonprofits that provide civil legal aid, including (but not limited to) qualified legal services projects and support centers as defined in Business & Professions Code §§ 6213–6215.

• Applicants must provide civil legal services to indigent persons, defined in Business & Professions Code § 6213(d) as individuals living at or below 200% of the federal poverty threshold (FPT), seniors, or persons with certain developmental disabilities.

• Special focus shall be given to:

• projects that provide services to rural or underserved immigrant communities, regardless of citizenship status

• projects that involve meaningful partnership with community-based nonprofits

AWARD INFORMATION

•  Total Funding: $4,875,000

•  Expected Number of Grants: 35–50

• Grants Size: $25,000–$150,000 per project*

•  Anticipated Median Range: $75,000–$125,000

•  Grant Period: 12 months beginning April 1, 2026

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

Project funds must be used to support the (1) infrastructure and/or (2) innovation needs of legal services in civil matters for indigent persons, defined as individuals living at or below 200% FPT, seniors, or persons with certain developmental disabilities, pursuant to Business & Professions Code § 6213(d). Innovation and Infrastructure project examples are available on the CalATJ website.

Infrastructure: Similar to capacity building, infrastructure refers to foundational elements that help a nonprofit reach new levels of operational, programmatic, financial, or organizational maturity, so it may more effectively and efficiently advance its mission into the future. Infrastructure projects may include planning, governance, staffing, evaluation, financial management, legal accountability, communications, administrative functions, and technology. Infrastructure can also include leveraging relationships to access resources, exchange ideas, address shared issues, and collectively problem-solve in an effort to build capacity, both for a nonprofit and for the broader network, with the common goal of addressing pressing social concerns tied to legal issues.**

Innovation: Innovation is not necessarily a new project. It could be an expansion project, or improvements to a unique service delivery model. Innovations in legal aid change the affordability, accessibility, or effectiveness of practices or tools used to provide high-quality legal assistance to low-income persons. This can include approaches for using technology or partnerships in legal services delivery; enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of existing technologies or partnerships so that they may be better used to increase the quality and quantity of services to clients; or replicating, adapting, or providing added value to the work of prior technology projects or partnerships. Innovation efforts can be applied to programs, products or devices, partnerships, communications, or operating processes.

Innovation results in improvements to service delivery, quality of legal work, and managerial practices. Innovations often incorporate technology, but can also be reflected in partnerships, or service delivery models.***

(*Grant awards will generally range between $25,000–$150,000, but the Commission may consider grants above this amount if they incorporate exceptional innovation or partnerships, or infrastructure projects that serve the legal aid network broadly. Similarly, please note that in recent years we VERY rarely gave grants in excess of $150,000 due to the high demand.)

(**2 Adapted from the National Council of Nonprofits.)

(***Adapted from PATH per Boston Consulting Group and Legal Services Corporation Technology Initiative Grant Program.)

APPLICATION TIMELINE (TENTATIVE)

August 13, 2025: Applications released on SmartSimple

August 18, 2025: Informational webinar. Watch the recording and find the slides here.

September 19, 2025: Applications due

September 22, 2025 –December 13, 2025: Application review; follow-up conducted with grantees as needed; recommendations provided by Selection Committee to Executive Committee

Mid December, 2025: Conditional Grant Awards announced; supplemental information open on SmartSimple

January 31, 2026: Supplemental budget and other information due

February 27, 2026: Final Grant Awards announced

April 1, 2026: Grant period begins

SUBGRANTS

Subgrants to legal aid organizations or community partners are encouraged. Applicants that are applying for a grant and are also a subgrantee of another application must demonstrate that the separate grants will not fund the same activities.

EVALUATION

Grantees will be required to complete quarterly fiscal reports, quarterly evaluation and status reports, and a final evaluative report, and may be required to participate in site visits. Additional information may be requested based on individual circumstances.

KEY FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

• Q: Do organizations need to be IOLTA or LSC-eligible to apply?

• A: No. Organizations need to provide civil legal services to persons at or below 200% of the federal poverty threshold, or to seniors or to persons with certain developmental disabilities pursuant to Business & Professions Code § 6213(d).

• Q: Are nonprofit organizations that are not legal services organizations eligible to apply?

• A: Yes, if you have a dedicated legal services program that provides civil legal aid to indigent persons, and you can demonstrate funds would support that work.

• Q: Can law school legal clinics apply?

• A: Yes, provided the law school is a nonprofit, has a dedicated legal services program that provides civil legal aid to indigent persons, and can demonstrate funds would support that work.

• Q: Can applicants request more than $150,000?

• A: The Commission may consider grants above $150,000 if they incorporate exceptional innovation or partnerships, or would fund infrastructure projects that serve the legal aid network broadly.

• Q: Can an organization include multiple smaller projects within its application?

• A: Strong applications will describe one cohesive project. If the organization can state a cogent explanation for how smaller components of a project fit together to create a cohesive whole, the Commission may fund all or part of that project. If the Commission determines that the project is not a cohesive whole, it may choose not to fund the project at all, or it may fund only a component of the project.

ELIGIBILITY

• Q: What data does an organization need to demonstrate that its clients are at 200% of the federal poverty threshold or otherwise meet eligibility requirements?

• A: Because the information available will depend on the nature of the project proposed, the Commission will rely on organizations to indicate how they are demonstrating that clients meet income eligibility guidelines.
  

• Q: What are “civil legal services”?

• A: In alignment with California State Bar Rule 3.672 B, “‘Legal services’ means work that uses legal knowledge and skills to create, advance, protect, or enforce the legal rights of clients or communities. This encompasses legal representation and non-representational services for individuals and groups. Examples of non-representational services include providing legal information, advice, trainings, and self-help resources. Non-representational services can also include studying legal needs and outcomes to inform legal aid delivery, investigating legal violations, and advocating directly to government bodies on issues of importance to the legal rights of clients or communities. Representation and non-representational services must be performed or supervised by an attorney. ‘Legal services’ may also include complementary services provided they advance a legal outcome and serve as an integral part of an attorney’s strategy in a legal matter or case, and the attorney directs the work in that matter or case. Complementary services and other services by non-attorneys must uphold the attorney-client relationship and avoid interfering with the attorney carrying out their obligations to the client.”

  Civil legal services can be direct services to clients or policy advocacy. The definition of ‘civil’ has been expanded to include legal services related to expungements and record sealing or clearance proceedings not requiring a finding of factual innocence, and to infractions. Business & Professions Code § 6213(l).

GENERAL

• Q: Can an organization submit multiple applications?

• A: An organization may submit only one application as the lead applicant. The organization may be an identified partner or subgrantee in additional applications from other applicants.

• Q: Is this grant renewable?

• A: No, this is a one-time, non-renewable grant. It is the Grant Committee’s expectation that all projects are one-year projects. That said, organizations are not prohibited from applying for funding the following year for a different project. Each new application will be considered as one-year funding only. Grants for the same project will not be funded unless there is significant additional innovation or added components to the original grant project.
  

• Q: What happens if a grantee doesn’t spend funds down within the 12- month grant period?

• A: The Grant Committee strongly encourages programs to plan in advance for the work to be completed before the grant year ends. Carryover of funds may be requested in extenuating circumstances; carryover must be expended before 9/30/2027.

• Q: Can an organization that submitted an application in previous years apply this year? What if the application in previous years was unsuccessful?

o A: An organization can always submit another application in a new grant year, whether or not an application in previous years was funded. If the organization’s application in previous years was successful, you will need to address how this is a unique project distinct from the project funded last year (since these are truly one-year grants). If the organization’s application was unsuccessful, you may wish to evaluate how your proposal measured up to the priorities and the scoring criteria.

The number of prior Infrastructure and Innovation (I&I) grants received by an organization is one factor that the Selection Committee considers, as we try to ensure that a variety of organizations receive funding for appropriate projects.

• Q: What does it mean that the projects must be “unique” or “different than previous projects”? Can applicants seek funding to address funding gaps due to loss of support from other grant sources?

• A: We recognize that these are difficult times for legal services providers, and that it may not feel like the right time to launch a new program. At the same time, the legislatively prescribed purpose of I&I grants is to fund work that either improves infrastructure or constitutes innovation. Please consider carefully the definitions of “infrastructure” and “innovation” contained in the RFP. For example, we consider improvements to existing hardware or software to be “infrastructure,” and have funded many variations on this work in the past. “Innovation” might include a pilot of a new project (though we always ask what the sustainability of a pilot project is in future years, since this is a one-year, non-renewable grant). But there are many other ways to be innovative, including:

• Expanding an existing project to reach a new geographical area, a new population, speakers of different languages, etc. For example:

• A grantee who previously received a grant to design AI-based intake forms in Spanish was funded a second year to do the same kind of work in indigenous languages.

• A grantee who had been providing services in the Bay Area was funded to expand those services to the Central Valley.

• Taking a project you used to run, but for which you have lost funding, and trying to address the need with a different approach. For illustrative purposes, here is a hypothetical example: Your project using staff attorneys to provide immigration services to X population recently lost all its funding, and you are considering closing it. You could apply for funding to try a different approach, such as primarily using pro bono attorneys rather than a staff-based model, even if that entails some use of existing or recently laid-off staff. We would consider such a project eligible to apply for funding. (This, of course, is not a guarantee that such a project would in fact be funded.)

  We recognize that there has been a significant loss of funding, particular from the federal sector, over the last year, and that this presents significant challenges for legal services organizations and our partners. Within the constraints of the Legislative specifications for this funding, we are working to recognize innovative approaches in light of these cuts.

• Q: How are applications scored?

• A: Grant applications are scored on a set of criteria that considers factors such as organizational vision and capacity, need, strength of proposed innovation or infrastructure project, and outcomes and impact. You may view the Application Scoring Guide for details.
  

• Q: What does the distribution look like across approved grant amounts?

• A: In Year 4, 49 grants were approved and range of grant amounts were as follows:

$50,000 and under: 7

$51,000-$99,000: 16

$100,000-$149,000: 14

$150,000: 12

Over $150,000: 0

• Q: What impact does the size of my organization have on my chances?

• A: The Selection Committee considers the size of the organization as one factor in reviewing I&I grant applications. On the one hand, large organizations may be seen as having the resources to pursue their project without the CalATJ grant. On the other hand, there could be concerns that an extremely small organization may have difficulty complying with the tracking and reporting requirements of this grant. But there is no absolute rule. In the past four years, the percent of I&I grants awarded to organizations from each budget category is:

• 10% (7) organizations funded had a budget under $1million

• 53% (27) organizations funded had a budget of between $1 and $2 million

• 28% (11) organizations funded had a budget of between $7 and $20 million

• 9% (4) organizations funded had a budget of over $20 million

  Stated differently 63% (34) of recommended grantees were organizations with an annual budget of under $7 million.

• Q: How will the grant be paid out?

• A: As in past years, the grant will be paid out quarterly over the grant period, starting at the beginning of April 2026. Organizations who have a particularly compelling need to receive the entire grant amount at the beginning of the grant period may make a request by email to CalATJ staff, explaining the need. Examples of where this might be appropriate would include the need to purchase technology equipment within the first quarter , or an urgent client community need which requires providing more services during an earlier portion of the grant. The Commission will consider each request on a case-by-case basis.

PARTNERS, SUBGRANTEES & CONTRACTORS

• Q: Can grant funding be “passed-through” to non-legal community partners?

• A: Yes, grant funds can be sub-granted to community-based organizations that are not legal aid providers, provided that it furthers the proposed project’s purpose. The sub-granted funds must help the grantee advance its proposed innovation or infrastructure project. Sub-granted funds that are passed through purely for the benefit of the subrecipient will not be funded.

• Q: Can two applicants apply separately for grants where there will be a partnership?

• A: Yes, two applicants may apply for separate grants to work together, if that partnership is reported in both applications, and if each project, if funded, would stand alone if the other grant were not funded.

• Q: What is the difference between a subcontractor (consultant or vendor) and a subgrantee?

• A: If the partner is not a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, report the partner as a subcontractor. If the partner is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit tax exempt organization, it is up to the applicant to identify the partner as either a subcontractor or a subgrantee. In addition to having legal and accounting ramifications for your organization, it will affect how you apply and report. If you structure the relationship as a subgrant, the subgrantee is agreeing to help you meet project deliverables. Therefore, you will need to state the subgrantee’s staff and budget in the application, and report on its progress toward deliverables during the grant year. The subgrantee will be bound by the terms and conditions of the grant agreement. By contrast, a subcontractor will provide goods or services, and generally is bound by contractual requirements. If you name the partner as a subcontractor (or consultant or vendor), you will need to demonstrate that before you selected the subcontractor, you met all your procurement policy requirements.
  

Additionally, the nature of the relationship is relevant. For example, in a collaborative partnership where one organization is serving as the applicant and will be working closely with partner organizations who will also receive a portion of the funds and will be partially responsible for grant deliverables, this would be considered a subgrantee relationship. Whereas an applicant that plans to hire an external company with a specific area of expertise to handle a discrete component of the project (e.g., website design) would likely be a contractor.

USE OF FUNDS

• Q: Can grant funds be used for fundraising purposes?

• A: No, the funds cannot be used to cover fundraising expenses, such as hiring a development director or hosting a fundraising event. Funds can be used to cover other infrastructure or programmatic needs, such as website development or a communication campaign that might also support fundraising efforts.

• Q: Can grant funds be used for an endowment, e.g., an endowment to retain fellows after the fellowship ends, and before another source of funding to maintain the position is identified?

• A: No, because these are State Funds, grant funds cannot be used to fund an endowment, which may or may not be spent down during the grant term. However, a grant proposal to build the workforce by creating a cohort of paid summer fellows (e.g., summer of 2022), including a training curriculum for that cohort that could be used in future years, could potentially be funded as either an innovation or infrastructure project.

• Q: Can grant funds be used for updating a website?

• A: Yes, updating a website could be an innovation or a project to enhance infrastructure, depending on the nature of the activity described.

• Q: Can grant funds be used to hire a consultant evaluator?

• A: Yes, grant funds could be used to hire a consultant for evaluation. For example, funds could be proposed to evaluate ways to improve an organization’s intake process, database management, or program delivery.

• Q: Can grant funds be used for general operating support?

• A: No, this is not a general operating grant. The Legislature created this funding specifically to fund the infrastructure and innovation efforts that often go unfunded in light of the ongoing need for operational support. We will be measuring the impact of this new funding.

• Q: Can grant funds be used to provide direct cash assistance to clients?

o A: No.