About Equal Justice Works
Equal Justice Works centers its grantmaking on funded legal fellowships that place lawyers and law students with host organizations to address unmet civil legal needs. Its programs are built around public-interest legal work rather than traditional operating grants, with two-year placements showing up across design-your-own, disaster resilience, opioid crisis response, financial empowerment, and crime victims advocacy. Recent awards show that model at scale: New Mexico Immigrant Law Center received $315,052 for fellowship support, while Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County received $278,288 for fellowship support. Other large fellowships have supported organizations such as Lawndale Christian Legal Center and Greater Boston Legal Services. The foundation’s stated purpose is to create opportunities for lawyers to turn a commitment to equal justice into a lifelong public-service career, and the grant record reflects that through restricted support tied to specific fellowship placements. The portfolio also includes summer service tracks and student fellowships, including a rural access-to-justice program. Across the listed grants, the support is directed to legal aid, civil rights, disaster recovery, housing, immigration, and related access-to-justice work.
What Equal Justice Works Funds
Immigrant legal services appear in the recent grants through fellowship support to New Mexico Immigrant Law Center for $315,052 and another award of $193,637 to the same organization. Housing and legal aid work also shows up in awards to Southeast Louisiana Legal Services for $215,932 and $153,550, both listed as fellowship support. In civil rights and public-interest litigation, the foundation gave $229,900 to the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and $172,917 to Texas Civil Rights Project. Youth and community legal services are present as well: National Center for Youth Law received $238,334, and Girls for Gender Equity received $157,000. The active program list adds disaster resilience, opioid crisis response, financial empowerment, crime victims advocacy, and a design-your-own fellowship structure, all focused on legal services delivered through fellows at host organizations.
How Equal Justice Works Gives
Typical grant size is tightly clustered: the p25 is $49,646, the median is $56,028, and the p75 is $64,259. That suggests a common fellowship-support range, even though the recent list also includes larger multi-year awards tied to host organizations. The grant file shows repeated support to the same recipients across multiple years, including New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, Texas Riogrande Legal Aid Inc, New York Legal Assistance Group, Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, Legal Aid Chicago, and Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. The foundation is a regular funder and does not make program-related investments. Several active programs accept unsolicited applications, including the Design-Your-Own Fellowship, Disaster Resilience Program, Opioid Crisis Response Program, Financial Empowerment Project, Crime Victims Advocacy Program, and Rural Summer Legal Corps.