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Scaling Social Impact Litigation

We provide resources to expand social impact through litigation

Justice Catalyst Access Fund (JCAF) is a 501(c)(3) that provides flexible, no risk, recyclable, financial support to social impact litigators at scale.

JCAF uses a unique mechanism called the ‘Justice Note’ that allows social impact litigators at nonprofits and law firms to sustainably scale their practice - now. Functioning like a non-recourse line of credit, a Justice Note provides litigators with general operating funds to hire staff, investigate new cases, or otherwise expand cutting-edge charitable impact litigation caseloads.

JCAF Money is Evergreen

A Justice Note is designed to support a broad portfolio of cases, such as a nonprofit’s entire fee-generating litigation docket, or a firm’s contingency impact practice. Each Justice Note is customized based on individual borrower needs including maximum draw amount, interest rate, and repayment terms. Once approved, borrowers draw down funds as needed to sustain their litigation portfolio.

Structured as either a recoverable grant or promissory note, in all cases a Justice Note collects repayments only from successful case recoveries or fees. Absent recoveries, no money is owed. Once repaid, funds are recycled into new Justice Notes thereby creating an evergreen fund with the potential to dramatically scale social impact litigation.

JCAF is doing something really special – they are innovating but doing it thoughtfully and sustainably for their grantees.
— JCAF grantee

How it Works

Why We Do it

JCAF believes social impact litigation is a vital tool in the fight for a just society. However, it is often hard for social impact litigators to finance innovative, creative, and scalable litigation.

The inherent uncertainty of litigation timelines and costs makes it hard for donors to fund and hard for social impact litigators to finance. JCAF removes barriers for both donors and litigators by providing a streamlined 501(c)3 investment process for donors and flexible, sustainable, non-recourse funding for litigators.

accessfund@justicecatalyst.org

Justice Catalyst Access Fund is a registered 501(c)(3) organization
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