Lawyer Donations Keep Legal Clinic Afloat

As conference rooms go, the basement of Western Presbyterian Church isn't particularly plush -- a table wedged into the dimly lit back hall next to a soup kitchen. But once a week, it becomes one of several outposts where the District's homeless can meet with volunteer lawyers from some of the city's most prestigious firms to get legal help.

It's not glamorous work, but important nonetheless. So when the economy dried up funding for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, a small army of prominent partners quietly orchestrated an intense fundraising campaign among the legal community.

In the space of six weeks, the group cut the nonprofit organization's looming budget gap in half with donations from more than 330 individual lawyers.

"There's so many nonprofits out there going through devastating times," said Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy U.S. attorney general and a board member for the legal clinic. "What made this unique was the coming together of this town's legal community to see this one organization through the hard times."

The problems in the nonprofit world have grown exponentially since summer. Individual and corporate donations have tanked along with the economy. Foundation grants have declined, and those remaining are more sought-after than ever.

The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless was facing all those troubles, but in a particularly acute way. One of its largest funders, the D.C. Bar Foundation, generates all its revenue from interest on investments. So when interest rates dipped as low as zero on top of several other funding shortages, the legal clinic suddenly found itself facing the new year with a 40 percent gap in its $1.1 million budget.

"All this was happening around the time of the presidential election," said Patricia Mullahy Fugere, the clinic's executive director. "And we noticed how generous the legal community was in donating to the campaigns. What it said to us is that people were seeing a vision of the world being a better place. Let's tap into that spirit and sense of community."

Her board envisioned a low-key campaign reaching out to lawyers individually. "Most of the time with fundraisers, you have to hold a dinner or honor someone," Gorelick said. "By the time you pay for food and entertainment, half the money's already gone."

Instead, Gorelick and other board members chose to compile a list of partners from 25 of the District's largest law firms and invited them in January to a breakfast of bagels and coffee where they were recruited as fundraisers at their firms.

If each could raise $10,000 to $20,000, they could nudge the clinic back into the black. Some had given to the clinic in the past; others had never been involved before.

Jim Rocap, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson, crafted a template for the group to use. In it, he quoted from President Obama's speech at the Lincoln Memorial a few days before his inauguration: "Never forget that the true character of our nation is revealed not during times of comfort and ease, but by the right we do when the moment is hard."

In talking to colleagues, Rocap and the others emphasized the legal clinic's purpose: filing housing appeals for people on the streets, filing disability claims for those struggling with mental illness, and advocating for policy change. They talked about how the small $1.1 million budget could be used to support a volunteer corps of about 200 pro bono lawyers across the city. And they explained how the ranks of the homeless would probably grow in the coming year, and with that growth the need for legal advocacy.