Special Projects & Initiatives

Special Project Funding

The Illinois Immigration Funders Collaborative

The Illinois Bar Foundation is a proud member of the Illinois Immigration Funders Collaborative, joining the Chicago Community Trust and other grantmaking bodies to entrust grant funds will be used to best meet the growing needs of the immigrant and refugee communities in Illinois.

The Illinois Immigration Funders Collaborative (IFC) is a collaborative fund that provides grant dollars to organizations serving immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. IFC focuses its funding on three areas: urgent immediate needs, legal assistance for individuals, and advocacy and organizing to advance immigrant rights and justice.

M. Denny Hassakis Fund

Established by Mark and Janet Hassakis, the M. Denny Hassakis Fund focuses on improving the Illinois’ juvenile justice system, through public policy changes and support of programs helping vulnerable youth.

FY24 Project:

The Illinois Bar Foundation is proud to announce a $25,000 grant from the M. Denny Hassakis Fund to Northwestern University to support the Northwestern Prisoner Education Program (NPEP), which is committed to providing one of the nation’s best educations to incarcerated students in prisons, jails, and youth centers across the state of Illinois.

The work of NPEP is directly aligned with the purpose of the M. Denny Hassakis Fund. The fund seeks to improve the lives and opportunities of justice-involved youth and adults through advocacy and programs that promote a fair and equitable justice system and support the rehabilitation of those impacted by the justice system so they may receive access and re-emerge as successful members of society.

Jason E. Bellows Fund

In memory of her late husband, Hon. Carole K. Bellows created a scholarship fund to assist law school students at the University of Illinois College of Law. Since 2014, the Jason E. Bellows Fund has awarded a partial scholarship to a first year U of I law student in need.

Rural Practice Initiative

The ISBA’s Rural Practice Fellowship Program aims to establish new attorneys in legal practice in rural parts of the state lacking adequate access to attorneys. These “rural legal deserts” are growing and present a significant hurdle to access to justice in Illinois. In 2020, thirty-five Illinois counties had 10 or fewer attorneys in private practice, and 13 counties had 5 or fewer attorneys in private practice. As the few remaining rural attorneys retire or leave, residents of rural Illinois report increasing difficulty in securing legal services.

Since 2020, the Rural Practice Fellowship Program has helped address this problem by placing 18 associate fellows and 10 summer clerk fellows with firms in rural parts of the state. Each fellow receives a stipend to assist with relocation expenses and to augment rural salaries. The program also includes educational support for the supervising attorneys and the new lawyers, and provides resources and training to encourage the participants to increase access to justice through the provision of pro bono services.

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Children’s Assistance Fund

The Children’s Assistance Fund, overseen by the ISBA Young Lawyers Division, awards grants to organizations across the state related to children and law. Initially created to assist with the opening of children’s waiting rooms in courthouses across the state, the IBF/YLD Children’s Assistance Fund has since broadened its mission.

Today, the IBF/YLD Children’s Assistance Fund annually supports the ISBA YLD Intern at the Public Interest Law Initiative. The intern provides legal services to or on behalf of children, working 400 hours during a summer internship at a PILI-participant legal aid agency. Each year the interns yield immediate tangible results for their agencies and the clients they serve through direct legal aid, while also helping to create long-term sustainability of legal services through the relationships and skills they build and through the commitment to service fostered through their PILI Internship.

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