Legal Services Corporation opens 2027 Pro Bono Innovation Fund application window

The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) has opened the application process for its 2027 Pro Bono Innovation Fund (PBIF) grants, with all submissions due to LSC by 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, January 13, 2027. The conditions are set out in a notice signed by Deputy General Counsel Stefanie Davis on November 2, 2026 and published in the Federal Register of November 5, 2026 (Vol. 91, No. 213, p. 69885), under document number FR Doc. 2026–22542. A second LSC notice in the same issue, FR Doc. 2026–22543, sets the rules for subgranting those federal funds to subrecipients under 45 CFR part 1627.

Since 2014, Congress has provided an annual appropriation to LSC “for a Pro Bono Innovation Fund”, as in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 (Public Law 115–31, 131 Stat. 135). The programme finances efforts that develop, test and scale innovative pro bono work, enabling grantees to use volunteers to serve more low-income clients and improve the quality of the services provided. Its stated goals are to address gaps in the delivery of legal services to low-income people, engage more lawyers and other volunteers in pro bono service, and develop, test and scale innovative pro bono efforts.

Eligibility is restricted to current recipients of LSC Basic Field-General, Basic Field-Migrant or Basic Field-Native American grants, and the LSC warns that the volume of funding is not yet settled: “The availability of funds for FY27 PBIF Grants depends on LSC’s appropriation. LSC’s FY27 funding level remains unknown”, with decisions on FY27 grants to be made in summer 2027.

Three funding categories with different terms

• Project Grants: 24-month term, aimed at leveraging volunteers to provide client-centred legal assistance in areas of critical need, through new ideas or effective models adapted to a new context.
• Sustainability Grants: 24-month term, reserved for current PBIF grantees that received a 2025 Project Grant and that propose an ambitious strategy to reduce reliance on PBIF funding.
• Grantee Engagement Scholarships: 12-month term, offering organisations professional and programmatic growth through peer learning and knowledge sharing with the PBIF Team and the community.

Applicants for a Grantee Engagement Scholarship cannot have an active PBIF grant between October 1, 2027 and September 30, 2028, and all grant activities must commence on October 1, 2027. Applicants may apply for more than one grant, within the same category or across categories, but must submit a separate pre-application or application for each funding request.

A calendar managed through GrantEase

The entire process runs through GrantEase, LSC’s grant management system, and follows a staggered calendar:

• Pre-Application for Project and Sustainability Grants: January 13, 2027.
• Notification of invitations to submit a Full Application: March 2027.
• Full Applications for Project and Sustainability Grants: May 6, 2027.
• Full Applications for Grantee Engagement Scholarships: January 13, 2027.
• Requests to submit after the deadline: email to probonoinnovation@lsc.gov by January 11, 2027, with LSC deciding admissibility case by case.

Applications are reviewed by LSC staff and other subject matter experts, and the LSC President makes the final funding decision for all PBIF grants. Queries are directed to Katherine Harris, Special Grant Program Coordinator, Office of Program Performance, 1825 I Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006, telephone (202) 295–1572.

Subgrants: 45 days of notice and four extra documents

The second notice recalls that 45 CFR 1627.4(b) requires LSC to publish annually the format and content requirements for applications, and that any grantee wishing to pass special grant funds — including PBIF money — to a subrecipient must apply at least 45 days before the proposed effective date (45 CFR 1627.4(b)(2)). Applicants must upload a draft subgrant agreement based on LSC’s Special Grant Subgrant Agreement Template and a subgrant budget. Where the subrecipient is not a current LSC grantee, four further documents are required:

• the subrecipient’s accounting manual;
• its most recent audited financial statements;
• its current cost allocation policy, if not included in the accounting manual;
• the recipient’s policy under 45 CFR part 1627.

LSC must communicate its decision to approve, disapprove or request modifications no later than the subgrant’s proposed effective date (45 CFR 1627.4(b)(3)). The contact for this procedure is Megan Lacchini, Office of Compliance and Enforcement, at lacchinim@lsc.gov or (202) 295–1506.

The notices matter to legal aid organisations, law school clinics and private firms that supply pro bono capacity: they fix the only route to 2027 federal money for pro bono innovation and convert the terms of any onward subaward into a documented, auditable condition of eligibility. With FY27 appropriations still undetermined, the calendar is firm even though the size of the envelope is not.

Source: Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 213, 5 November 2026, Notices, p. 69885 (official reference: FR Doc. 2026–22542).