About the DC Bar Foundation

The DC Bar Foundation is the leading funder of civil legal aid in the District of Columbia. We are committed to the vision that residents of the District have equal access to justice, regardless of income. Our mission is to fund, support, and improve legal representation of people who are financially disenfranchised or who are otherwise underserved in the District of Columbia.

The Bar Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, was established in 1977 to provide a vehicle for lawyers and law firms to contribute to legal services organizations in the District of Columbia. In 1985, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals established the District’s IOLTA program, which the Foundation administers. In 2006, the Council of the District of Columbia appropriated funds for civil legal services grants and a poverty lawyer loan repayment assistance program, designating the DC Bar Foundation as administrator.

The Bar Foundation awards grants to the District’s legal services organizations that provide free civil legal services to low-income and underserved people in the District. Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than $208 million in grants.

Our Strategic Vision

DCBF works hand-in-hand with DC’s legal aid community to understand the legal issues facing DC’s residents and how to solve these issues so that every individual, regardless of income, has access to justice. We invest in DC’s proven and emerging legal aid organizations that tackle these issues head-on using innovative means, such as court-based projects and medical-legal partnerships. We provide 360 degrees of support to these organizations by funding their staff attorneys and leadership, evaluating and improving their operations and finances, and creating opportunities for professional development. This support is funneled through three programs: grants, poverty lawyer loan repayment assistance, and training and technical assistance. In addition, the Foundation is honored each year to recognize an outstanding member of DC’s legal aid community with the Jerrold Scoutt Prize.

Our work is guided by the following Core Values:

Equitable Justice.

The impact of race, class, and gender on systemic injustice is interconnected. We seek equitable justice, which is concerned with transforming systems and must be inclusive and accessible to everyone regardless of race, wealth, gender, or power. It extends beyond the law into other systems and resources.

Community-Centric.

We are guided by the voices of those most impacted by our decisions. We are working to ensure the civil legal aid system is accountable and responsive to DC's communities most affected by systemic injustice.

Collaboration and Partnership.

Our work is most effective when we collaborate with all stakeholders. We will always ask the questions: Who else should be at this table? Are all voices at the table being heard?

Mutual Trust and Respect.

Respecting others' capacities and contributions will foster a community where ideas are heard and problems are solved. We seek and offer mutual trust and respect so that greater progress is made toward our mission of equitable justice.

We Stand Against Anti-Black Racism.

We must work within ourselves, our networks, and our institutions to challenge anti-Black racism with each decision we make. We must actively change behaviors, policies, and procedures that perpetuate anti-Black racism. Understanding and addressing anti-Black racism will help reveal solutions to eradicate the manifestation of all forms of bias, racism, and hate.

GOAL

In September 2019, the DC Bar Foundation committed to this visionary goal:

To transform the civil legal aid network, working closely with all stakeholders,
so District residents have a fair and equal legal experience.

The Foundation seeks to realize this goal using the following five strategies.

STRATEGIES

Engage all stakeholders in the work

The DC Bar Foundation will work with existing and identify new partners to support the civil legal aid network by providing data, identifying needs, sharing observations, serving as a sounding board, and developing solutions to meet the community civil legal aid needs.

Recent activity:

Last year, when faced with a 67% cut to the Access to Justice Initiative budget, DCBF and the civil legal aid community worked collaboratively to secure level funding for FY25. Together, we implemented an advocacy campaign that included amplifying community members’ voices, developing messaging to the DC Council, and sharing stories of impact on social platforms.

In the same spirit of collaboration, the DC Social Justice Transformations Network (DCSJTN), which was formerly the DC Legal Aid Transformations Network, continued to work with stakeholders across all sectors, including legal aid, social services, health services, education, advocacy, and the DC Government, to discuss ways to transform the delivery of civil legal aid in the District. Through quarterly Convenings, which average approximately 80 attendees per meeting, participants
built new and deepened previous relationships. One Network member said: “Participating in DCSJTN has been my greatest reward because I feel excited when meeting new people outside my usual legal and social services circles.”

Finally, the DC Bar Foundation continued to manage two Loan Repayment Assistance Programs, which provide student loan assistance for legal aid attorneys who work in DC. In FY24, 35 legal aid organizations participated in the program, and more than 100 attorneys—combined between both programs—received the LRAP benefit. LRAP enables organizations to retain more staff, increase their client capacity, and reach more residents in need.

Identify the unmet civil legal needs

The civil legal aid needs of District residents are vast. DCBF will identify barriers to accessing services by those who need them most and support the development and launch of a coordinated intake and referral system to improve access to civil legal aid services. DCBF will also work with its stakeholders to use data generated by this system and engage the larger community to identify community priorities.

Recent activity:

DCBF hit significant milestones with Coordinated Intake and Referral (CIR)—a single phone line system and website that will connect residents to a legal aid provider. In FY24, we remained committed to collaboration and community engagement. This included:

(1) working with the CIR pilot working group—comprised of individuals from the legal aid community—to make decisions and prepare for the CIR pilot launch;

(2) hosting an Intake Town Hall with the Intake Network to discuss plans for the CIR System; and

(3) hiring a new marketing firm to help with branding and ongoing community engagement.

These efforts helped us launch the CIR System pilot in June 2024. The pilot, which was hosted by Neighborhood Legal Services Program, included nine legal aid organizations and focused solely on family law. The pilot tested the CIR System’s workflows and technology, with the aim of supporting the full-scale launch in 2025. Finally, we worked with our marketing partner to survey over 400 DC residents to get their perspectives on potential names for the CIR System, ensuring the final choice reflects the needs and perspectives of those most likely to benefit from the System.

Infuse racial justice and equity in our work

DCBF will evolve its practices and culture to learn, reflect, unlearn, and change its practices to pursue justice. Initially, DCBF will study best practices to learn about racial justice and equity initiatives. DCBF will also explore local partnerships where there are opportunities to align efforts to develop a plan to integrate racial justice and equity initiatives.

Recent activity:

In FY24, DCBF surveyed grantee partners to learn what would be most beneficial for them in their efforts to advance racial equity to better work with and respond to the communities they serve. Findings showed they are seeking practical tools and individualized approaches. In response, and with the help of a consultant, we will launch a Community of Practice, which will include 1-on-1 coaching for participants and larger group discussions. The Foundation is also working on developing a resource bank of racial equity tools, trainings, and resources to support the broader community.

Internally, DCBF continued to prioritize anti-racism. This year, the DC Bar Foundation sponsored and attended Leadership Greater Washington’s Anti-Racist Leadership Series. The six-month training program allowed nearly 100 individuals from different industries to learn more about race, conscious and unconscious biases, advocacy, allyship, and what it takes to be an anti-racist leader. We also continued to use racial equity recruiting efforts to hire staff and recruit board and committee members to ensure diverse representation across the organization.

Fund with Intention

DCBF will identify and articulate what it wants to achieve through its grantmaking. By working with its stakeholders and piloting a few interventions that address the most significant needs, DCBF will better understand effective strategies and make more strategic grantmaking decisions. DCBF will adapt its investments as additional data and feedback is gathered, and experience dictates what can and should be scaled.

Recent activity:

The Foundation continues to prioritize our investments in the availability and reach of legal services for DC residents in Wards 5, 7, and 8. The latest semiannual grantee reports show that for FY24, over 8,300 DC residents in these Wards received free legal aid. Additionally, expanding on our existing work to support our legal services provider community beyond grantmaking, the Foundation developed a roadmap for a capacity-building program to address organizational sustainability and resilience. The roadmap resulted from an extensive outreach process to our grantee partners to understand the challenges and goals a capacity-building program should address. The roadmap centers around supporting leaders, investing in the talent pipeline, understanding and promoting nonprofit best practices, and fostering trust and connections within the community. As the program evolves, we will continue to listen to the needs and priorities expressed by the legal services community.

Demonstrate that people who
need services are getting them

By integrating evaluation into every aspect of its work, DCBF will position itself to describe how it is changing and improving the lives of District residents and identify areas in need of improvement. DCBF will generate data on program delivery, measure the effectiveness of services, study outcomes, determine the level of impact, and share those findings with our partners and stakeholders.

Recent activity:

This year, in partnership with our grantee partners, we embarked on a project to standardize the metrics (outcomes data) for our largest grant program, Access to Justice. Through an evaluation process with select grantee partners, we learned about key challenges and their willingness to engage in this process. This multi-phase project will continue to work with grantee partners in each area of law to refine metrics and better understand the capacity of their existing systems to collect and submit new data. This ambitious project will ultimately provide the Foundation and our grantee partners with an important tool that will reflect and demonstrate the impact of their work. We also continued to evaluate our programs to gauge their impact
and effectiveness. As part of that, we released the biannual Civil Legal Counsel Projects Program evaluation report, which compiles data about the work on housing and eviction cases. Remarkably, from January through June 2024, partners closed 30% (2,241) more cases than the same period in 2023.

Core Values

QUICK LINKS

Who We Serve

The need for civil legal aid, and how the DC Bar Foundation helps.

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DC Social Justice Transformations Network

Who we are, how to register, when our next convening is, and more!

Learn More

Coordinated Intake and Referral

Our effort to build a CIR sytstem for all areas of civil legal aid in DC.

Learn More

Reports

Evaluation reports, annual reports, financials, all in one location.

Learn More

STAFF

About the DC Bar Foundation

Our Strategic Vision

Read more about our 360-degree approach.

Our work is guided by the following Core Values:

Equitable Justice.

Community-Centric.

Collaboration and Partnership.

Mutual Trust and Respect.

We Stand Against Anti-Black Racism.

GOAL

STRATEGIES

Engage all stakeholders in the work

Identify the unmet civil legal needs

Infuse racial justice and equity in our work

Fund with Intention

Demonstrate that people who
need services are getting them

QUICK LINKS

Who We Serve

DC Social Justice Transformations Network

Coordinated Intake and Referral

Reports