Funding the Education of the Next Generation of African American Leaders in Dallas Supporting Pro Bono Legal Service Organizations Working in Our Community


​​​ The J.L. Turner Legal Association Foundation 

Grant Committee Policy Statement

Interested Director Excess Benefit Form

Contact persons


Either the Foundation Chair or the Grant Committee chair is a proper person to whom you may submit your application or with who you may have preliminary discussions about an application. Click here for the board roster.

Reimbursement

Form


Some Foundation grants, including all of those to non-501(c)(3) organizations, will be administered on the basis of reimbursement of receipted expenses to document for the Foundation's auditors, that the Foundation's restricted funds were spent on only the activities permitted by the IRS. The Foundation has also previously acted as fiscal agent and written checks directly from its accounts to 3rd party vendors in support of a grant instead of to the grantee on a reimbursement basis.  The Foundation reserves the right in its discretion to continue with this practice

Grant Procedures


The Grant Committee has the authority to and has in fact established certain procedures for its intake and disposition of grant requests. See below and download the policy to the right.


  • A completed application (including all attachments) is required for non-501(c)(3) organizations. Public charities like the Foundation are restricted by law from transferring funds to non-charities. There is an exception if non-charity uses the funds for a charitable purpose. To assist the Foundation in documenting  the charitable or educational purpose of the restricted funds, we are requiring the application.
  • Individuals who are fiduciaries or directors in other non-profits and who are seeking grants from the Foundation to cover fundraising requests made to such directors on personal financial basis (including donate if you don't raise policies) by those non-profits must submit an application in their own name as the applicant, provide the required information (including financial information) for such individual, explain any such individual's financial relationship with the non-profit and address the concern of why such individual cannot fund the request from personal or non-Foundation resources.  Note that the individual's status with the Foundation, the other non-profit and the nature of any financial interest in the other non-profit may lead to IRS fines in the event a grant is erroneously approved.  Due to the complicated nature of this type of grant, please note that this procedural statement is offered to provide awareness of the risks and a standard process for the disposition of these requests, not to encourage the applications or suggest a policy that such applications will be granted.Please complete the Interested Director Excess Benefit form to the right, if applicable
  • A solicitation letter may be accepted from tax exempt 501(c)(3) public charity or private foundation(including law schools and bar association foundations) whose status can be verified.  However, an application is advised since it includes questions which the Grant Committee and the Foundation will take under consideration in determining whether the goals of the request are in line with those of the Foundation. You are advised to review the application to make sure our concerns are addressed. If you have existing disclosure on your program that you wish to attach to your solicitation letter, then please make sure your package addresses our concerns. The Grant Committee may, in its discretion, further request supporting documents relating to a request or evidence of use of grant funds in accordance with an approved grant.
  • The burden is on the applicant to include information in its request which is sufficient and relevant to the Foundation's funding decision, without the Foundation needing to do extensive outside research to determine alignment of the request with the Foundation's goals. You must only included future activities in your request for a grant as grants are intended to encourage future charitable activity, not reward past activities that were undertaken without our help.
  • After submission of your application, our Grant Committee chair may contact you if your application has raised questions for which follow-up answers are needed. The Grant Committee will decide whether to move your application in whole, in part or not at all to the full Board and make a recommendation in connection with those applications moved forward on amounts and conditions, if any.
  • The Foundation Board meets only a few times each year to fund grants. Click here for more detail. Thus the Grant Committee will evaluate applications on a rolling basis and present multiple recommendations at once. Please plan to submit your request to as soon as possible prior to the Board's meeting schedule and not immediately prior to a meeting or with an expectation of expedited treatment for a single application.
  • The Foundation has previously decided to fund a maximum of $15,000 in grants (outside of Foundation scholarships) annually, which amount is a cap and not a target. The Foundation may exceed that cap on a case by case basis. The Grant Committee will take that cap into consideration when making its recommendations.

FINANCIAL RESOURCES

The application asks questions about the financial resources of the applicant and whether the project will be financially supported by the applicant and/or other sources.  It is positive factor to have non-Foundation financial support for the project in addition to the applicant's time.


MERIT TO BE CONSIDERED

The Committee prefers to be in direct communication with the applicant who will receive the funding and not have a liaison or JLTLA member as an intermediary or advocate on behalf of an applicant. The Committee may opt to deal directly with the applicant rather than such intermediaries who may be less knowledgeable about the merits of the program which is the subject of the request and who may have less experience in dealing with charitable compliance procedures, which ultimately may not be helpful in advancing the application.


NO CONFLICT POLICY.

Please be respectful of the volunteer Grant Committee and full Board of Directors throughout the application process. Funding is discretionary and applicants are not entitled to be funded. If you choose to submit an application, you should be prepared to graciously accept a decision by the Grant Committee not to advance your application or the full Board of Directors not to fund your request in whole or in part. Observation of this policy is required.  


COMPLY TO APPLY

Please be prepared to comply with the Foundation's procedures if you apply for funding. If you are not in compliance on prior granThe Foundation requests certain documentation and information in order to meet its own IRS compliance requirements. Please express your gratitude with being considered for and/or receiving a grant by complying and helping the Foundation to properly administer its activities.