The National Legal Aid Resource Development Technical Assistance Project
Legal Aid organizations across the country now have a new tool to support their resource development efforts. The National Legal Aid Resource Development Technical Assistance Project is co-sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense (SCLAID) and its Resource Center for Access to Justice Initiatives, the Management Information Exchange (MIE), the National Association of IOLTA Programs (NAIP), and the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), who have come together to provide technical assistance regarding the data available through the ABArray Legal Aid Funding Report. Please join these project partners for a virtual introduction to the project, the ABArray, and the technical assistance available to data providers.
The ABArray collects data on funding available for civil legal aid in the U.S. through a survey of funders and providers of civil legal services in all 50 states. The ABArray website allows users to sort through a comprehensive database using interactive dashboards to access a wealth of national funding information. Further, for those organizations who have obtained a license, additional dashboards are available to display state-level information. Data collected between 2003 and 2021 is currently available.
Any organization that provides information to the data set, either directly or indirectly through a state reporter, is eligible to access the state-level data contained within the ABArray Legal Funding Report subject to the conditions outlined in the ABArray Data Privacy Policy. To help provide and enhance this access, free technical assistance is available through the National Legal Aid Resource Development Technical Assistance Project (TA Project). This project will assist organizations looking for fundraising information in the following ways:
ABArray Private Data Dashboard License Holders: For those state reporters of legal aid data or other organizations who have access to state-level data through the Tableau platform, assistance is available to help orient and answer questions about navigating the Tableau site and the data dashboards available. State Reporters are those organizations that collect legal aid funding data from the legal services organizations in their states and report that data to the ABArray, and are often a state’s IOLTA program.
Data Providers: For those organizations that directly or indirectly provide the ABA with data included in the ABArray data set, assistance is available to provide standalone information and resources that communicate state-level data, enabling comparisons such as state-level funding amounts by funding source, poverty population, attorney population, and legal aid attorney population.
Additionally, for legal aid organizations that provide data included in the ABArray data set, additional benchmarking metrics may be available based on similarly situated programs. While peer programs will not be identified, ranges of benchmarking information may be requested based on requested criteria such as budget size, LSC status, and geography.
Other Stakeholders: For organizations that do not provide data to the ABArray data set, assistance is available to answer general questions and help make connections informed by the Report around state legislative and private charitable funding efforts. Further, if approved by ABArray contacts in the respective state(s) in strict accordance with the ABArray Data Privacy Policy, additional information and resources may be shared directly.
For More Information and Assistance: More details about the ABArray Data and methodology are available on the ABArray website. Please direct any additional questions to the ABArray administrators at [email protected]. To request assistance through the TA Project from MIE in accessing or navigating state legislative or private fundraising data, please visit mielegalaid.org/ABArrayProject. To request assistance through the TA Project from NLADA in accessing or navigating national or federal funding data, please contact [email protected].
*Important Disclaimer About ABArray Legal Aid Funding Reports: These reports are intended to provide an estimate of resources available to guide and enhance resource development by funding advocates. The information provided within the ABArray data dashboards is approximate and voluntarily provided on a periodic basis by contributors across the country; therefore, SCLAID cannot guarantee that the data precisely or completely represent the actual amount of funding for civil legal aid available at the national level and/or within any given state for each collection year. Further, the information changes rapidly, and significant amounts of funding in each state are "unstable" and may not be available in subsequent years.
NLADA Mutual Insurance Co., RRG
