Access Fund FAQs

About JCAF

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

  • The ‘Justice Note’ is a unique mechanism created by JCAF to provide recyclable, long-term, flexible, no-risk money to social impact litigators (nonprofits and law firms) in order to sustainably scale their litigation portfolios - now.

  • The Justice Note functions like a non-recourse line of credit. Recipients are approved for a maximum disbursement amount, determined based on a portfolio of existing cases and expected fee recoveries.

    Recipients then draw down funds, and repay them, plus interest, when they receive case recoveries. Absent recoveries, no money is owed.

    Recipients may apply to renew, extend, or increase their borrowing capacity anytime based on litigation outcomes and repayment performance.

    A Justice Note is structured as a recoverable grant for nonprofits or as a non-recourse promissory note for law firms.

  • JCAF believes civil litigation is an important tool in the fight for a just society. However, it is often hard for social impact litigators at nonprofits and law firms to raise money to pursue litigation, and hard for donors to fund litigation because of the inherent uncertainty of litigation timelines and costs.

    JCAF removes these barriers, allowing donors to streamline their investments into a single 501(c)3 entity. JCAF then turns these grants into evergreen Justice Notes that create a truly scalable and sustainable model for impact litigation.

  • JCAF exclusively supports social impact litigation. Social impact litigators work at nonprofits and/or law firms pursuing social impact litigation. JCAF supports both established and new social impact litigators.

  • Donors, Foundations, and Impact Investors invest in the JCAF corpus via charitable grants and/or PRIs. JCAF uses its corpus to extend Justice Notes to social impact litigators across the country.

  • Coming soon!

  • Lodestar is the number of hours reasonably expended on a case multiplied by a reasonable hourly rate, and is used by courts to calculate attorney fees.

For Recipients

Application Process

Reporting

  • A Justice Note is non recourse, which means that borrowers are only obligated to repay from fee recoveries. If a recipient never wins another case, or never collects fees, the Justice Note will be fully forgiven, after a predetermined amount of time.

Legal Implications

  • Yes.

  • Disclosure requirements depend on the jurisdiction: please consult local ethics counsel.

  • Some jurisdictions do not allow litigation funding. Applicants operating in these jurisdictions may not be able to receive a Justice Note.

  • The agreement is solely between JCAF and your organization, so fee recoveries from co-counsel are not implicated, unless co-counsel is donating their fees to you.

  • None. JCAF cannot ethically or legally control litigation decisions, and does not do so.

Financial Terms

  • Justice Notes are repaid out of case recoveries - absent case recoveries, no money is owed. The maximum amount of any given case recovery that can go towards repayment is capped, and the overall repayment amount is capped at principal, plus interest running on outstanding balances.

  • 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.

  • Yes. JCAF and the recipient can mutually agree to exclude specific cases from the portfolio.

  • JCAF is a not-for-profit, evergreen loan fund. As such, charging a modest interest rate is necessary to cover expected losses and ensure the fund can operate in perpetuity. All interest payments are recycled back into the fund to support more social impact litigation across the country.

  • JCAF charges interest on amounts drawn down. Interest rates vary based on organization type and litigation portfolio.

  • JCAF recoveries are capped at a portion of any given case recovery, and at the outstanding principal and interest. Specific terms are customized for each recipient.

  • Repayments are made only if and when cases resolve. JCAF frequently renews Justice Notes and/or increases the maximum amount when borrowers show a successful track record. Outstanding balances are forgiven a fixed number of years after the last disbursement, as specified in the agreement.

  • Justice Note funds are unrestricted, provided that they are used for charitable purposes. Many organizations use them to hire staff or pay litigation expenses. Justice Notes may also be used as seed funding for new or innovative social impact litigation practices or organizations.

  • We do not encourage recipients to use a Justice Note as cash reserves, but rather as a pro-active source of financing to advance and expand active litigation. Funds that are not drawn down are funds that could be supporting another fellow recipient and other impactful cases. Nevertheless, many recipients discover the versatility of Justice Notes, which are unrestricted funds, to be a valuable tool for managing budgets limited by other already earmarked funds, or for smoothing out litigation budgets and fee recoveries that vary from year to year.

For FUNDERS

  • JCAF offers donors three ways to invest in JCAF:

    • Core Support: JCAF accepts 501(c)3 charitable grants

    • Impact Investments: JCAF also offers limited PRIs & Recoverable Grants to Foundations and Impact Investors

    • Advisory Services: On a case-by-case basis, JCAF guides donors and foundations to identify bespoke funding opportunities in specific sectors, organizations, or cases.

  • All of JCAF’s operational expenses are covered by preexisting donors. 100% of donations to JCAF are directly used to finance Justice Notes.

  • 501(c)3 donations to JCAF are fully tax deductible. For all other types of investments (PRIs and bespoke investments), please consult your tax advisor directly.

  • Yes, grants and PRIs to JCAF can be restricted. Please contact us to discuss.

  • PRIs are offered on a bespoke basis. Please contact us to discuss.

  • There is no minimum for unrestricted grant support. Restricted grants or investments will be evaluated on a case by case basis.

accessfund@justicecatalyst.org

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