Funding criteria
We want to create new connections between the law and communities facing injustice. To do this effectively, we want to fund organisations that are accountable to their communities and committed to using the law to influence wider change.
We are only able to fund organisations that are doing charitable work in the UK, but you do not have to be a charity.
Accountability
The extent to which your organisation is led, shaped and informed by the communities it serves.
1. Emerging Justice fund
This fund is for organisations that are ‘by and for’ the communities they serve. This means lived experience among your trustees or committees and senior staff as well as wider ways of building power among the people affected by the issue(s) you work on.
2. Strengthening Justice fund
This fund is for organisations that prioritise accountability to their communities. At minimum, these are organisations that regularly consult with their communities about their priorities and share their power to help communities.
This could mean being a ‘by-and-for’ organisation, having some lived and learned experience among trustees and staff, or operating as a membership organisation where strategy is developed and delivered with members.
Learning is also an important part of accountability, so we want to work with organisations who are building power across their communities by identifying those who are not usually heard and adapting their work to address this. We are also keen to work with those who share their legal knowledge with sector partners.
For organisations who are on a journey towards accountability, we are more likely to fund you if we have previously supported you.
Use of the law
The extent to which your organisation is using and shaping the law to drive wider change in society.
We are focused on using the law to promote human rights and tackle inequality in the UK.
1. Emerging Justice fund
This fund supports organisations that are campaigning for change on human rights or equality issues but are not yet using or shaping the law to do this. You may already provide advice to individuals and/or share legal information. This fund can support you to explore how the law could help you to influence change.
2. Strengthening Justice fund
We are looking for organisations that use the law to address systemic injustice and drive transparency and accountability in public bodies and decision makers. This could include, but is not limited to, judicial review, influencing legislation, strategic litigation, and supporting legal inquiries.
We are particularly interested in organisations which take a longer-term strategic approach, working with communities, networks and policymakers to help to shape the law in local, regional, devolved or national government.
Other factors that will influence our decision
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We prioritise funding small and medium-sized organisations (usually under £2m annual income) which may struggle to find funding elsewhere, as we believe this is where our grants are most needed. We support organisations that have some structure – such as a constitution that sets out how decisions are made – and have access to a bank account with two signatories (this may be through a partner organisation). LEF would not normally be your first funder. We do not require a minimum level of reserves but we are unlikely to fund organisations that are insolvent.
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We take your wider context into consideration, which will include opportunities for influencing, number and/or geographical spread of people impacted by the issue you want to address, and who else may be already working or leading on an issue. Issues that are clearly under-addressed by current work across the sector will also be prioritised.
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We favour approaches that promote solidarity between different groups of people facing injustice, rather than division. We do not want to advance the rights of one group of people at the expense of another, or fund work which may deepen existing divides or harm.
Exclusions
We are unlikely to fund organisations that:
- Are based outside the UK
- Have fewer than three trustees, company directors or partners
- Have more general reserves than set out in their reserves policy
- Are in serious financial deficit
If any of these apply to you but you believe you meet our other criteria, please contact us.
What we won’t fund
- Projects to develop or manage pro bono legal advice
- Individuals or groups of individuals
- Organisations without access to a bank account with two signatories
- Projects related to commercial law
- Work on criminal or environmental law except where this is alongside other areas of civil law, such as work which focuses on discrimination in the criminal legal system.
- Work purely on immigration law. We channel our support for improving immigration advice and policy through our contribution to Justice Together
- Work on specific pieces of litigation
- Awards, prizes or one-off events that are not part of a broader programme of support
- Projects where our grant would directly replace or subsidise government, legal profession or university funding, including the costs of law clinics
- Statutory organisations
- Capital expenditure on buildings and vehicles
- Work that does not have a direct benefit in the UK
- Work that has already taken place
- Work that falls outside the Charity Commission guidance on campaigning and political activity
- Organisations or approaches which are not aligned with our values
Webinar for applicants
You can watch our July 2025 webinar for potential applicants below. This video includes BSL interpretation. You can also access the presentation slides and the presentation script.