Fundraising for Your Statewide Website in Tough Economic Times

2009 Statewide Website Training Series, Co-sponsored by NTAP and Pro Bono NetSeptember 11, 2009

PanelistsPanelistsLiz Keith, Pro Bono NetDavid Bonebrake, LSNTAPMark Marquardt, Lawyers Trust

Fund of Illinois

AgendaIntroduction: Best of Times and

Worst of Times for Statewide Websites

Ranting to the Choir – The Real Value of Internet Based Resources

Liz's SectionFundraising Roundtable

Discussion

““Wow, that's cliche...”Wow, that's cliche...”

Technologies Available for Technologies Available for New SWEB InitiatvesNew SWEB Initiatves

Document AssemblyCMS IntegrationOnline Intake (or Access)Content SyndicationInternet RepresentationLive HelpOnline Project Management

Ranting to the ChoirA Few Thoughts on the Real Value of Internet-based Legal Aid Resources

Mark MarquardtLawyers Trust Fund of Illinois

1

LTF Support for Illinois Legal Aid Online

•Part of planning group/steering committee from the beginning (1999);

•Pledged $150,000 start-up grant in FY 01•LTF has contributed $3.3 million total •$550,000 for ILAO in FY 10

Our 5th largest grant (out of 30+) 6.4% of total grant funds

10

Two Sides of an Unhelpful Intellectual Coin Bedeviling Web-based Legal Aid

Scarcity “What are some cheap solutions we can throw at the problem?”

The Gold Standard “What can we give people if we can’t give them what they really need?”

11

Other Perspectives…Legal Aid Attorney ILAO User

“By the way, many of the people that come to see us have already searched for information on your website and done very well on their own- in case you have not heard it enough - it gives people a good basis to start advocating for themselves, and they usually calls us because something unusual or complex is happening in their case. Keep up the good work.”

"This is a wonderful site! I went to Markham Courthouse and even though the people are very wonderful and helpful, they can only help so much. I was told that I had to re-type two packets of documents and between work, school and my children, this was just too much to get a divorce. Your site is a god-send and God bless you all for helping those of us who don't have a lot of income but will do whatever needs to be done for the safety of mychildren. God Bless You All!"

12

Web-based legal information is not a CONSOLATION PRIZE

13

MRM’s Formula for Printing Money

IdeasConvictionEmpirical Data

+ Self-awareness2 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

14

Convince Yourself First• Is the information your site provides accurate

and up to date?• Is the information your site provides easy to find

and easy to understand?• Is your site the most comprehensive source of

legal information in the state? • Is your site the most cost-effective source of

legal information in the state?• Can you make a strong, clear, affirmative case

about where your site fits into the legal aid delivery system in your state?

15

Know What You Can Know• Are you conducting usability testing?• Do you know where users are coming from?• Do you know anything about the income, age and

education levels of your users?• Are there systems in place to collect & analyze

user feedback?• What do you know about whether/how people

actually use your information (i.e., self-screening through self-representation).

16

Demonstrate Self-Awareness

• Can you articulate the distinct advantages of what you offer vis a vis other parts of the delivery system?

• Can you articulate the limitations of what you offer while recognizing that those limitations are a distinction rather than a flaw?

17

How Funders Think “The [ILAO] site receives almost 60,000 visits per

month. According to a survey of users, 96% of visitors live in Illinois, and over 70% were either low income or getting information for someone who was low income. If one makes a conservative estimate and assumes that the average visitor came to the site four times, this still means that 15,000 unique visitors are being helped each month. To serve the same number of people each year (180,000) using [an Illinois hotline program] would cost $6,840,000. By way of comparison, ILAO’s total budget last year was only $912,220. The number of visitors increased 34% last year, and the cost-per-case math will only get better as traffic increases.”

18

The real potential of web-based legal aid

resources will only be fully recognized when they are fully integrated into the current delivery system – a starting point, not a fallback.

What are you doing to make that a reality?

19

LawHelp.org/NYLawHelp.org/NY2007 - Office of the New York Attorney

General awarded LawHelp/NY a significant one-time Consumer Cyber-Awareness grant to launch an Internet Fraud topic area on the LawHelp/NY site, as a response to the growing trend of Internet fraud and crimes.

LawHelp.org/NY has also forged relationships with state legislators and their constituent services staff, leading to a new funding stream this year.

State AgenciesState Attorney General’s offices have

supported consumer-related content and outreach projects in several states

State Service Commissions have awarded Americorps*VISTA grants to several programs for statewide website support activities

Other examples?

Private FundersOutreach supportLawHelpCA - Van Löben Sels /RembeRock

Foundation support for LEAP (Language Expansion and Access Project) program

Content developmentColorado Legal Services - Rose

Community Foundation support for Citizens ID content

National Employment Law Project - Ira W. DeCamp Foundation grant to launch a new New York State unemployment insurance practice area for advocates.

Corporate FundersIowa Legal Aid - support from a local

financial institution to develop an online Used Car Buyer’s Toolkit

ABA Commission on Domestic Violence – support from the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program national DV pro bono opportunity guide

Law firms (cash and in-kind support)

Other examples?

National FundersABA mini-grants

Montana Legal Services Association (MSLA) received a $10,000 grant from the ABA Child Custody and Adoption Pro Bono Project project to develop information packets for Montana attorneys who volunteer to represent children in custody and parenting plan actions. These were distributed via MontanaProbono.net.

State Justice InstituteAmerican College of Trial LawyersTIGOther examples?

Federal funding streams for legal aidIf your program is considering applying for these streams, what role can your statewide website play in supporting the proposed services and activities?

Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

VOCA grants - DV victims/crime victimsVAWA / Stimulus grants

What are common themes in these examples?

Mission-centric, not SWEB in isolation

Focused, timely pitches Leveraging partnerships and

collaborationsLess emphasis on tech, more on

content, outreach and impact

How can you cultivate new funding opportunities?

Invest in stakeholders and partnerships

Get funders to talk to other funders on your behalf

Incorporate technology into your strategic and development planning

Boost your PR and outreach efforts

Research resources

Fundraising/Sustainability Resources in probono.net/statewebsites

The Foundation Center and Philanthropy Grant News e-newsletter

Chronicle of Philanthropy90 Foundations that Tweet

http://philanthropy411.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/foundations-that-tweet/

Thank You!

• Liz Keith - lkeith@probono.net• David Bonebrake -

David@lsntap.org• Mark Marquardt - mark@ltf.org