COLTAF was established in 1982 by the Colorado Supreme Court, in response to dramatic cuts in federal funding for civil legal aid. Since then, COLTAF has used the interest earned on COLTAF accounts to make grants of over $55 million dollars.
Approximately 80 percent of these funds have gone to Colorado’s federally funded legal aid programs. The other 20 percent is distributed through COLTAF’s Pro Bono and Discretionary Grant Programs to advance one or more of the following purposes:
- Assist in providing legal services to the disadvantaged;
- Improve the delivery of legal services;
- Promote knowledge and awareness of the law in the community; and/or
- Improve the administration of justice.
COLTAF’s only regular source of revenue is the interest earned on COLTAF accounts, thus the funds available for grants vary, sometimes dramatically, from year to year. For that reason, COLTAF’s Discretionary Grant Program is suspended from time to time, in order to preserve resources for COLTAF’s core grantees.
Click here for information about COLTAF’s Pro Bono Grant Criteria.
Click here for information about COLTAF’s Discretionary Grant Criteria.
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2024 COLTAF Grant Awards
Legal Services Program Grant
$7.54 million was distributed to Colorado Legal Services (CLS), Colorado’s statewide staffed legal aid program. CLS provides services with few exceptions to those living at or below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines, which is currently $31,200 for a family of four. CLS operates as a legal emergency room, giving priority to the poor and elderly in greatest social and economic need, and focusing on legal issues that have an impact on basic needs, including at least minimally-adequate income, food, shelter, utilities, necessary medical care, and freedom from domestic violence and abuse. Colorado Legal Services opened 5,709 cases to provide legal aid to low-income Coloradans in the first half of 2024.
Discretionary Grants
$1.155 million was distributed to legal aid organizations in Colorado providing programs which align with one or more of COLTAF’s purposes: To assist in providing legal service to people with low incomes and people facing barriers; to improve the delivery of legal services; to improve knowledge and awareness of the law in the community; and to improve the administration of justice.
• Alpine Legal Services $60,000
• Colorado Access to Justice Commission $150,000
• Colorado Center on Law and Policy $300,000
• Colorado Poverty Law Project $110,000
• Justice & Mercy Legal Aid Center $120,000
• Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network $143,860
• Spero Justice Center $140,000
• TESSA $76,167
• Transformative Justice Project $55,000
Pro Bono Program Grants
$989,921 was distributed to pro bono programs around the state, to support their work in developing and mobilizing pro bono resources to help meet the civil legal needs of low-income Coloradans. This total includes funds from the Colorado Bar Foundation*, which for the eleventh consecutive year made a grant to COLTAF to supplement the funds available for pro bono grants.
• Colorado Access to Justice Commission $300,000
• CLS Statewide Private Attorney Involvement Coordinator $150,661
• Alpine Legal Services (serving Pitkin, Garfield & Eagle counties) $30,000
• CLS of Boulder (serving Boulder County) $5,500
• Larimer County Bar Association (serving Larimer County) $18,000*
• The Justice Center (serving El Paso and Teller counties) $100,000*
• Metro Volunteer Lawyers (serving Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver,
Douglas, Elbert & Jefferson counties) $174,700*
• NW Colorado Legal Services (serving Clear Creek, Eagle, Grand, Gunnison,
Jackson, Lake, Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt, Summit, Pitkin & Garfield counties) $27,500
• Pro Bono Project of Mesa County (serving Mesa County) $30,000*
• CLS Pueblo County Pro Bono Project (serving Baca, Bent, Cheyenne, Crowley, Huerfano, Kiowa, Las Animas, Otero, Prowers and Pueblo counties) $33,590
• San Luis Valley Bar Association Pro Bono Project (serving the San Luis Valley) $10,350*
• Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network $30,000
• Volunteer Attorney Program (serving Archuleta, La Plata & San Juan counties and Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Reservations) $8,620*
• Uncompahgre Volunteer Legal Aid (serving Montrose, Ouray & San Miguel counties) $50,000
• Weld County Legal Services (serving Weld County) $21,000
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2025 COLTAF Grant Cycle
Application and instructions to apply for a 2025 COLTAF grant will be published in February 2025. For more information, please contact Jessica Clark-Daugherty, Associate Director, at Jessica@legalaidfoundation.org.