At Ajah, we are always happy when we are adding new funding sources into our system. Apart from the fact that it makes a big difference to our users, the whole process of adding new data into the system is a lot of fun for us. It involves data sprints and lots of dark chocolate. And then we hold review meetings to make sure the information is accurate and and that it’s categorized properly (which also gives us a chance to have mock fights with our boss).
On that note, we just finished adding the law foundations from all of the provinces across Canada. The set up of these foundations is fairly unique because of the source of their revenues. The money comes from the interest of mixed trust accounts held by lawyers or paralegals. These professionals hold money in trusts for their clients and though income from a single trust is small, combined income from all these trust accounts is significant.
Law foundations fund programs related to the law — such as legal aid, legal education, legal research and law libraries. A part of the funding is always dedicated to that province’s legal aid agency which helps low-income individuals to obtain legal aid.
Granting programs that we found interesting are the Ontario Law Foundation’s Access to Justice program and Quebec Law Foundation’s grants for research. The former is the only national program with a mandate to ensure everyone has equal access to justice under the law , while the latter is an annual award for researchers to focus on particular aspect of the law.
You can find the law foundations under government grants for each province. Bonne chance!
