December 31, 2007
STEADY WON'T DO IT FOR LEGAL AID DONATIONS
Donations to the state's three legal services agencies have been fairly steady in recent years — and that's the problem.
While business news focuses on consumers spending less around the holidays because of high energy prices and credit problems, representatives of legal aid outlets that provide free counsel to underprivileged people say that they have not been hurt much by those market forces. Then again, they note, they're not exactly awash in cash.
"My sense is we've done at least as well" this year as in recent years, said Marcy Kossar, director of development for New Haven Legal Assistance Association (LAA). "Our donors contribute because they understand the need for the services and they understand the quality of the representation. We don't believe a softening economy is going to alter what they know is the right thing to do."
LAA raised in the neighborhood of $170,000 to $180,000 in the past two years with $148,000 raised as of late October. End-of-year donations will push that total higher.
Still, Kossar said, "we have to turn away three out of four eligible applicants" due to lack of resources, and "that's been the case for years."
Steve Eppler-Epstein, executive director of Connecticut Legal Services (CLS), said the financial problems consumers are encountering show up in the problems of legal aid clients, who often struggle to find full-time jobs and affordable housing in the state.
"Our donations have been flat for several years," said Eppler-Epstein, whose group is based in Middletown. "I'm not sure it's the economy as much as people fall into giving patterns."
CLS, through its Campaign for Justice, raised nearly $170,000 last year, $191,000 in 2006 and $157,000 in 2005. As of Dec. 21, CLS had raised slightly more than $113,000 for this year.
Eppler-Epstein hopes that a new campaign in conjunction with Stratton Faxon in New Haven will "recharge" the efforts to raise funds for legal aid.
Partner Michael Stratton, who sits on the LAA board, said overall legal aid gift-giving needed a boost, "and that was the impetus behind our Fresh Faces campaign."
His firm is matching any gifts, up to $1,000, given by new donors or those who have not contributed since December 2004.
The campaign, which started in September, runs for three years, and Stratton Faxon has offered to match up to $250,000 for that time period. Though still in its infancy, Fresh Faces had raised $10,000 as of mid-December for New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Connecticut Legal Services and Greater Hartford Legal Aid.
The amount of money available to each agency is relative to the number of impoverished people it serves, Stratton noted, making Hartford the chief recipient.
He expects donations will pick up in 2008 as the agencies roll out campaign and marketing plans to attract new donors. Eppler-Epstein said CLS will work to spread the word through bar associations, corporate counsel and people with whom his staff comes in contact. "We always find that our strongest support comes from people who actually see what a great job our staff is doing," he noted.
While nonlawyers certainly are encouraged to participate, and frequently do, the bar at large is the target of Stratton's appeal. His letters of appeal to potential donors speak to law school days when the law was seen as something to help poor and disadvantaged citizens.
"We want to institutionalize the concept of giving to legal aid," Stratton said. "As lawyers, we have a moral obligation to make sure [the underprivileged] are represented."
