Program areas at The Impact Fund
Grants The Impact Fund makes recoverable grants to lawyers, small law firms, and nonprofit organizations involved in impact litigation. We fund civil rights, human rights, anti-poverty, and environmental justice cases that will affect a marginalized group. Most of our grants are for class actions, but we also fund multi-plaintiff and environmental justice cases that aim to significantly affect alarger system or lead to significant law reform. In the 2022/23 fiscal year, the Impact Fund disbursed a total of $627,750 in grant funding via 25 recoverable grants. The Impact Fund has committed around $9 million since the organizations inception.
Education and Training In September, we presented our three-day Class Action Training Institute, taking 40 students through all the phases of a mock class action. In February, we presented our annual Class Action Conference, which attracted 371 practitioners from around the nation, sharing current news, developments, and best practices for class action litigation. We also presented multiple training courses, seminars, and workshops on class action strategy, current issues, and practical skills for class action practitioners and legal services organizations.
Advocacy We advocate for economic, racial, and social justice as both lead and co-counsel in a small number of complex impact litigation cases. We also author several amicus briefs in important class action cases each year and participate in notice and comment rulemaking for administrative rules and regulations on relevant issues.