ABA Giving Day doubles in size, boosting programs that help others

ABA Giving Day, set for Thursday, October 28, during the week of the National Celebration of Pro Bono, is focusing on raising attention and support for 16 different areas of the American Bar Association that help others through public service, policy and education programs.

Spearheaded by the ABA Fund for Justice and Education (FJE), ABA Giving Day is an effort to have an immediate and long-term impact on individuals and communities by supporting delivery of legal services and increased access to justice. The effort marks the second consecutive year the ABA has designated a stand-alone day for giving and comes amid the week that the legal profession celebrates its pro bono work.

“This second ABA Giving Day promotes even more different ways to help ensure a just society by giving lawyers an opportunity to donate charitable dollars to address the urgent social issues of today,” ABA President Reginald Turner said. “A gift of money will greatly support these efforts. We also call upon lawyers across the United States to give 10 hours or more of pro bono work before the end of the year to ABA or other worthy causes.”

With donor support, ABA programs have tackled social, economic and racial justice issues through community-based legal assistance. Some of the initiatives covered in this year’s ABA Giving Day have:

• Broadened access to justice opportunities for many lower-income U.S. residents by registering nearly 10,000 pro bono attorneys to answer more than 182,000 civil legal questions since 2016.

• Provided remote webinars and trainings on children’s law topics to more than 22,000 attorneys, judges, social workers and other advocates for children and families.

• Offered a holistic approach to addressing the needs of homeless misdemeanor defendants with legal, health and social services through development of nearly 70 homeless courts across the country.

• Responded to unmet legal needs of low-income disaster survivors in 47 states and four U.S. territories, helping people rebuild their lives.

Last year, eight ABA programs were highlighted in the inaugural ABA Giving Day. The 16 programs highlighted this year include the ABA/FJE Annual Fund; Center on Children and the Law; ABA Homeless Court Program; ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence; Immigration Justice Project; South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR); Children’s Immigration Law Academy (CILA); and the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project.

Others are Free Legal Answers; ABA Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund; ABA Military Pro Bono Project; ABA National Civics and Law Academy; ABA Disaster Legal Services Program; ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice; ABA Judicial Intern Opportunity Program; and ABA Tax Assistance Public Service Program.

The FJE, which is the 501(c)3 tax-deductible arm of the ABA, also raises money for an array of other programs.

For additional information on ABA Giving Day, visit https://givingday.americanbar.org.