The purpose of the Improvements in the Administration of Justice (AOJ) Grant Program is to fund programs that support the process of operating the courts in an effective and expeditious manner. FFLA considers the following five areas to be conducive to the administration of justice:
- Enhancing civil legal services through innovative and cost-effective means;
- Providing direct civil legal services either to groups of clients currently underserved by legal aid providers or in an area of representation (whether substantive or geographical) that cannot be or is not effectively served by individual qualified civil legal aid providers;
- Improving the operation and management of the court and justice systems;
- Public education and understanding about the law, including law-related education;
- Innovative and transformative pro bono projects; or
- Otherwise promote the improvement of the administration of justice.
Past projects supported by AOJ grants include a county bar association effort to build a special witness room for child victims and witnesses in the local courthouse and a statewide disability rights group’s efforts to train law enforcement to identify and deal effectively with the mentally disabled.
AOJ grants typically are awarded for demonstration projects with replication potential, as start-up funds or seed money for a one- or two-year period, or for studies, commissions and other types of research. Applicants are encouraged to seek matching funds.
Grant Details
Grant amounts vary based on available funding. Recent grants ranged from $60,000 to $250,000, with the median being $150,000.
Grant applications are available each January and due in February. Grant decisions are announced by April 1. The funding period is April 1 – March 31.
To be eligible to receive funds from FFLA an applicant must be an organization that qualifies as an exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 (or the corresponding provision of any future United States Internal Revenue Law) or otherwise demonstrate the charitable purposes of the proposed project.
Administration of Justice grants are not awarded to individuals. Please note that FFLA does not permit employees of grantees to be candidates for partisan elective public office nor hold a partisan elective public office without express written permission. Accordingly, applicants must advise FFLA in the grant application if any employee of the applicant is a candidate for partisan elective public office, holds partisan elective office, or to the knowledge of the applicant intends to be a candidate for partisan elective public office.
Any organization that wishes to apply for AOJ grant funding from FFLA must also register here.
If you are a new grant applicant, do not use the links on this page to apply. You must first be approved as an eligible applicant. Begin this process here.
This grant is funded by FFLA on an annual basis in accordance with FFLA’s grant allocation for the corresponding year which may be culled from all available sources including existing reserves, restricted donations, Endowment contributions, unspent or returned funds, past investment earnings and other funds which may become available.
