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Q: What is the Endowment for Equal Justice?
A: The Endowment for Equal Justice, or EEJ, is a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to ensure civil legal aid will be available for low-income and vulnerable families and individuals in perpetuity. To do so, the EEJ raises special and legacy (planned giving) contributions, which are invested over time generating interest income that will support civil legal aid in Washington state in perpetuity while maintaining the fund’s principal.

Q: Is the EEJ related to LAW Fund and its Campaign for Equal Justice?
A: Yes! The EEJ and LAW Fund are affiliated organizations. Where LAW Fund and its Campaign for Equal Justice raise annual charitable contributions to provide operating support to give Washington state’s legal aid programs the ability to serve low-income families and individuals with urgent legal problems each and every day, the EEJ raises special major gift and planned giving support to ensure legal aid will be available for low-income and vulnerable families and individuals in perpetuity.

Q: What is the purpose of civil legal aid?
A: Civil legal aid ensures that access to justice remains a basic civil right and not just a perquisite for the privileged few. Civil legal aid provides free legal assistance to the low-income and vulnerable that can mean the difference between shelter and homelessness, productive work and unemployment, food on the table and hunger or economic stability and bankruptcy for thousands of families and individuals.

Q: What kinds of services does legal aid provide?
A: Civil legal aid is crucial for:

• assisting people in our state facing foreclosure
• protecting elderly homeowners from fraudulent lending and other scams
• diverting juveniles from delinquency and other trouble
• protecting women and children from abuse
• helping returning Iraqi and Afghani War veterans receive their earned benefits, and
• preempting a downward spiral of costly social problems

Q: Why is the EEJ needed?
A: Even before the current economic downturn, legal aid organizations and pro bono efforts were unable to meet even 20% of the need for legal aid due to historically inadequate and restricted funding. The legal community has struggled collectively over the years about how to bridge the justice gap. The EEJ provides a solution. The EEJ can be the answer to the intractable issue of unpredictable and restricted funding for civil legal aid in Washington state by giving stability to the legal aid network and give the power to legal aid to serve every client population with every available legal tool.

Q: What is the EEJ’s fundraising goal?
A: The Endowment’s short term goal is to raise $10 million by the end of 2012, after which point $500,000 will be distributed annually. No funds will be disbursed until the threshold goal is reached. To ensure a stable financial base for legal aid providers, the Endowment has set an intermediate goal of $200 million, and an eventual goal of $500 million. As of August 2011, the Endowment stands at more than $5.6 million.

Q: What is the EEJ’s cost of doing business?
A: By using the same staff, office space and support services as the Legal Foundation of Washington and LAW Fund and its Campaign for Equal Justice, the EEJ operates quite efficiently. In 2010, LAW Fund and the EEJ devoted 90% of its total expenses to program services, with 4% going toward fund development and 6% to management costs. In 2009, LAW Fund and the EEJ devoted 96% of its total expenses to program services, only 2% of expenses were used for fund development and 2% were devoted to management costs. (Source: Peterson Sullivan LLP, Certified Public Accountants) The EEJ and LAW Fund’s consolidated audit report can be found here.

Q: What legal aid programs will the EEJ support?
A: Not a dime is being spent from the EEJ until it reaches the $10 million mark so that we can grow the fund as quickly as possible and be able to distribute a meaningful contribution each year to the legal aid providers in Washington State. Once the EEJ hits $10 million approximately $500,000 will be used to support legal aid programs statewide.

Q: Who contributes to the EEJ?
A: The EEJ is the grateful recipient of charitable support from individuals, family foundations, estate gifts and law firm cy pres support.

Q: How can I make a contribution to the EEJ?
A: What we choose to support philanthropically reflects our most deeply held values learned over the course of a lifetime. A commitment to the EEJ can be a means to further your vision for a more just world. Contributions to the EEJ can be structured in a variety of ways including combining commitments of outright gifts of liquid assets and planned gifts. All forms of revocable and irrevocable “deferred” gifts and also complex outright gifts such as gifts generally funded with non-cash assets such as real estate, non-publicly traded securities, business assets, etc. to best fit your financial needs.

The advantage of most planned gifts generally is that they afford you the ability to make a more substantial commitment than what ordinarily could be made and present special planning opportunities to enhance tax and income benefits for you and your family. In addition to bequests, some additional planned giving vehicles to consider that could be employed to structure a contribution to the EEJ include beneficiary designations such as IRA Charitable Rollovers (if you are 70½ or older), or gifts of insurance, charitable remainder trusts, charitable remainder unitrusts and charitable lead trusts.

Outright commitments to the EEJ can also be timed to accommodate your other philanthropic commitments both in terms of pledge commencement and length of the payment schedule.

Please contact EEJ staff for more information at 206.623.5261 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , and please consult with your financial and legal advisors to construct a gift vehicle that best fits your needs.

Q: Does the EEJ have a contributor recognition club?
A: Yes! The “Justice Society” is our way of recognizing those who have notified us in writing that they have included the EEJ in their Will or other estate planning document. Justice Society members enjoy benefits including priority seating at EEJ and LAW Fund events, access to special community news and invitations to exclusive events.