A: Unrestricted gifts to the Lawyers’ Impact Fund provide grants that support and enhance projects and organizations that help our neighbors in need as well as support the day-to-day operations of the Foundation. Many of our community’s at-risk populations – children, residents of low-income, immigrants, the unemployed and displaced – benefit greatly from the generosity of our legal profession. Click here to view the organizations we're supporting this year.
Q: What if I already give to other non-profits?
A: The Foundation respects and appreciates all contributions made that strengthen and support our community. The Foundation’s goal is to be the embodiment of legal philanthropy in Mecklenburg County as a fund created by attorneys for attorneys. The Bar Foundation Fund is our way to give back to the community as a Bar. Through the generosity of our individual Bar members, we are able to pool our resources to make the greatest impact and to meet the greatest needs. It is an opportunity to remind the community how much attorneys give back to those around them. And we want you to have the opportunity to be a part of this greater good.
Q: Do Bar dues support the Foundation?
A: No. The Foundation’s projects and initiatives are supported solely by the generosity of our Bar members.
Q: How does the Foundation utilize my gifts to the Lawyers' Impact Fund?
A: With your support of the 2019-20 Lawyers’ Impact Fund & the 2020-21 COVID-19 Relief Fund, the Foundation awarded 21 grants totaling $157,595 to the following projects/organizations:
Lawyers' Impact Fund Grant Recipients
• Assistance League of Charlotte: To support its Mecklenburg County Teen Court program, an alternative justice system that offers youthful offenders ages 12-17 with no previous convictions an opportunity to avoid a permanent criminal record and take responsibility for their actions before a jury of their peers. The program helps alleviate the large number of cases processed by the Department of Juvenile Justice.
• Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition: To support the Immigration Impact Lab, which provides legal representation to asylum seekers in the Fourth Circuit Court. The Immigration Impact Lab litigates appeals and class actions lawsuits on behalf of asylum seekers and other noncitizens in the states within the Fourth Circuit, including the Carolinas, and beyond.
• Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy: To support the pro bono program to provide legal services; to engage, train and support attorneys in pro bono opportunities; and to recognize the contributions of these attorneys. The program is dedicated to providing high-quality legal services to help underserved clients meet their most important needs for income, shelter, safety from violence, health care, education of children, fair treatment as consumers and equitable access to public and private benefits.
• Council for Children’s Rights: To provide support for CFCR’s legal representation and advocacy services for children in the areas of child welfare, custody, delinquency, mental health, and special education. CFCR defends and champions the rights children to be supported and treated with fairness, compassion, and respect, regardless of personal obstacles. Over 2,000 children in Mecklenburg County receive these specialized services each year.
• GenerationNation: To help support GenerationNation’s project offering teacher professional development, classroom curriculum and afterschool activities to educators and young people about the rule of law, legal issues and the legal system. GenerationNation utilizes hands-on activities and experiences to increase student knowledge and understanding of the law.
• International House: To help fund the needs of the Ginter Immigration Law Clinic. The Ginter Law Clinic provides affordable general consultation, family immigration, and naturalization services for low-income immigrants in Charlotte. In addition, the Clinic provides family reunification assistance to immigrants and refugees who recently arrived in the U.S. and have little to no income.
• Larry King's Clubhouse: To provide direct program-related consumables that are an integral part of a quality childcare program. The Clubhouse provides a safe, secure, and enriching place for children who must be at the courthouse because they are witnesses, they are the subject of child neglect or abuse or custody proceedings, or their parents or guardians have business at the courthouse. Children are removed from environments where they might hear inappropriate and psychologically damaging testimony, their families’ access to justice is improved by addressing child care barriers, the efficiency of court operations is increased by removing distracting and disruptive activity, and families are linked to needed community services.
• Latin American Coalition: To support the Latin American Coalition's Latino and African-American Tenant and Housing Rights Program. The program aims to address the legal needs of Charlotte residents who are facing housing challenges due to displacement and a lack of affordable housing. Funding will support the salary of the staff attorney who offers these legal services.
• Pat’s Place: To support a portion of the salary expense for a second forensic interviewer and the expansion of the forensic interview program. Pat’s Place Child Advocacy Center coordinates the investigation of reports to law enforcement or the Department of Social Services that a child may have experienced sexual abuse, serious physical abuse or neglect, or when a child may have witnessed serious violence or a homicide. The forensics interview is the foundation of child protection and criminal investigations. The interview is a developmentally-sensitive, non-leading conversation with a child that is intended to elicit detailed information about events that the child may have experienced or witnessed, and is conducted by masters-level, clinically licensed social workers who have received advanced training on the forensics interviewing of child victims/witnesses.
• Safe Alliance: To help fund the salary for a full-time staff attorney working for their Legal Representation Project (LRP). The LRP provides free legal representation in hearings to obtain Domestic Violence Protective Orders as well as acting as a conduit to allow local attorneys to donate their time to victims. With a staff lawyer, Safe Alliance will be able to continue to represent more victims as well as assist in the training and mentoring of more pro bono attorneys.
• Trial Court Administrator's Office: To fund the development of a media room, which will provide educational materials to the community regarding legal issues and the local legal system. The media room will benefit the local, state and federal judiciary handling cases in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and the constituents who use the local court system. Funding will assist the Courthouse in communication with the public through media.
• MBF’s Professional Assistance Financial Fund: To support five public interest agencies in Mecklenburg County (District Attorney's Office, Public Defender's Office, Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, Legal Aid of North Carolina, and Council for Children's Rights) to help offset the financial hardship associated with rising professional development costs for qualifying attorneys.
• MCB & MBF Bar Leadership Institute Committee: To cultivate future leaders, with an emphasis on contributing time and talent to the Bar and to the community through involvement with the Mecklenburg County Bar and Mecklenburg Bar Foundation leadership projects.
• MCB Diversity & Inclusion Committee: To support Increasing Diversity in the Legal Profession, the annual one-day conference engaging minority students in a discussion about the legal profession and law-related careers. Students hear about the role individuals with legal training play in everyday society, meet with attorneys, judges, law school admissions officers, and law students, and have an opportunity to share their views of the law and lawyers.
COVID-19 Relief Fund Grant Recipients
• Angels & Sparrows Soup Kitchen: To support the organization's hot lunch program, which provides meals to the food insecure in North Mecklenburg County. Funding supported the programs that have seen an increased need due to COVID-19.
• Classroom Central: To support the organization's school supply collection and distribution efforts in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District. Classroom Central maintains a list of the school supplies needed by local teachers and local students in need. Supplies are collected and distributed based on those needs. During the pandemic funding supported a curbside-pickup for local teachers to receive backpacks full of supplies.
• Matthews HELP Center: To support the Matthews HELP Center's curbside food panty pick-up service and the eviction and utility disconnection assistance program as both of these services experienced an increased need during the pandemic.
• Psychology for All: To support Psychology for All's Breaking Down Barriers program, which provides low-cost mental health services to qualified persons in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. This grant provided access to services for up to 28 adults in need of mental health counseling in the community.
• B* Helpful Love: To support the organization's efforts to provide $300 in meals for the homeless in our community over 12 months in 2021 and 2022.
• Still Hope Enrichment Agency: To support the organization's Promise Program, which provides support to local at-risk youth and adults through tutoring, food, utility and housing support. The grant award funded consultant services, which will help the organization identify clients in need.
• Metrolina Association for the Blind: To support the Association's Virtual Care for Individuals with Vision Loss program, including one-on-one virtual training in technology to help adults to work in a virtual environment and help children effectively adapt to remote learning. Services also help alleviate isolation for visually impaired individuals brought on by both the pandemic and their condition.
Q: May I give my gift in honor or memory of someone?
A: Yes, please indicate what type of gift you would like to make. The individual or family will receive a special letter informing them of your generosity. The amount will not be listed. Your name and the name of the person being honored will be listed in various Mecklenburg County Bar and Mecklenburg Bar Foundation publications.
Q: Are there planned giving options?
A: Yes, the Mecklenburg Bar Foundation can provide information pertaining to planned giving options. Contact Leah Campbell at lcampbell@meckbar.org
Q: How will my gift be recognized?
A: BFF donors will be recognized throughout the year:
• In the Mecklenburg Bar News and on the MCB website and linked in the weekly Bar Blast
• Listing on the event materials throughout the year, including the Law & Society Luncheon & Annual Meeting
• Firms with 100% participation rates will receive additional Bar-wide recognition