2024 GRANT APPLICANTS:  

The grant application package for the New Jersey IOLTA Discretionary Grant program for the calendar year 2024 will be posted to our website for download late June 2023.

AVAILABILITY OF FUNDING FOR DIRECT LEGAL AID

The IOLTA Fund of the Bar of New Jersey’s Discretionary Grant Program is announcing funding availability for 2024. Applicants must demonstrate that their grant request is for civil legal services for low income people in New Jersey. Legal services include either full or limited representation or referral to volunteer attorneys providing full or limited representation at no charge to the client.  For further guidance, please review the IOLTA Grant Policy: https://www.ioltanj.org/for-grantees/grant-policy

Successful applicants will demonstrate that they have procedures in place to ensure that IOLTA funds are used to provide services free of charge to low-income individuals, including policies that limit services provided with IOLTA funds to clients within IOLTA financial guidelines and intake procedures that establish financial eligibility for all such clients. These policies and procedures must be provided to IOLTA with the grant application.

The Basic Grant limit is $12,000 and the Major Grant limit is $150,000. All of the grant application forms will be available online June 23, 2023. The completed application must be submitted on paper. We will not accept applications via email or fax. The last page of the application provides detailed instructions for submission of the application package. The deadline for the application will be August 18, 2023.

The IOLTA Board of Trustees relies primarily upon the written application for information about your project and your organization. This is a competitive grant program. You may attach additional information necessary to present a complete picture of your organization and the project for which you seek funding. Omit information that is not specifically applicable to your organization and project.

Shortly after the application deadline, the Fund begins the process of evaluating all requests for grants.  Applicants and organizations must refrain from lobbying individual members of the Board of Trustees or IOLTA Fund staff during the evaluation process. You will be contacted by IOLTA Fund staff if there are questions about your application.  Final decisions for 2024 grants will be made in late November. All applicants, successful and unsuccessful, will be notified of the Board’s decision by December 1, 2023.

Please contact us with any questions regarding the discretionary grant program policy, application, or deadline at 732-247-8222. Questions from grant writers who seek more information about our grant program are welcomed.

All new attorney trust accounts should be opened as non-interest bearing checking accounts. Please instruct the attorney or law firm to call IOLTA to request registration forms.

New Jersey attorneys should be alert to scams involving attorney trust accounts.

On December 18, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Credit Union Share Insurance Fund Parity Act creating deposit insurance parity for credit unions by directing the National Credit Union Administration to extend share insurance coverage to trust accounts such as IOLTA and other similar accounts.

On December 18, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Credit Union Share Insurance Fund Parity Act creating deposit insurance parity for credit unions by directing the National Credit Union Administration to extend share insurance coverage to trust accounts such as IOLTA and other similar accounts. While new rules have not been published yet, the Act was effective immediately. Credit unions must first be approved by the Office of Attorney Ethics before offering attorney trust accounts to law firms.