Since 1986, the Civil Justice Foundation has made grants to over 100 different grassroots consumer advocacy organizations throughout the United States. This page lists all of the Foundation's grants. As the Civil Justice Foundation's funding interests have evolved throughout its history, this list may not reflect the Foundation's current grant making priorities. Please contact the Foundation office for a copy of the updated grant guidelines.

Grant Categories

Vehicle and Highway Safety
Child Safety
Environmental Protection Issues
Workplace Health and Safety
Healthcare and Insurance
Gun Violence Protection
Consumer Advocacy and Education

A grant is a gift or endowment provided by charitable organizations like the Civil Justice Foundation that enables a person or group to accomplish meaningful work and promote an important cause. Carefully selected recipients are given a specific amount of funding that can go both for general operating expenses and specific projects.

Civil Justice Foundation is proud to award grants to grassroots organizations that are at the forefront of the consumer advocacy movement - particularly to groups who have difficulty securing traditional funding because they are newly organized and/or address a controversial issue. To date, the Foundation has awarded more than $1,000,000 to more than 100 of these groups.

These modest grants (ranging from $1,500 to $20,000) exemplify the commitment of both the ATLA and the Foundation to preventing consumer injury, protecting the rights of consumers, and preserving their access to justice. The Foundation is funded through contributions from individual ATLA members, state trial lawyer associations, and its Memorial Grant Program.

Grants are three years in duration and are provided both for general operating expenses and specific projects. To be eligible for a Foundation grant an organization must have, or have applied for, 501(c)(3) status from the IRS; and must have a current annual operating budget under $500,000. The Foundation does not provide grants to support direct social, medical or legal services; the writing or production of books; or litigation. Please feel free to call the Foundation office at 800/424-2725, ext. 381 to determine whether or not your organization or project meets our funding criteria.

Vehicle and Highway Safety

Center for Reliable and Safe Highways (Tiburon, CA, Washington, DC)
1994 - To create a resource library to collect, catalogue, and summarize critical reports, studies, and data addressing truck safety issues.
1997 - Support general operations
1999 - Support expansion of First Response Program, which assists victims of truck crashes.
2002 - Support moves to Washington, DC and operational merger of Parents Against Tired Truckers and CRASH

Motor Voters (McLean, VA)
1990 - Purchase of a fax machine
1992 - To improve crashworthiness information available to consumers in order to reduce death and vehicular trauma.

Parents Against Tired Truckers (Lisbon Falls, ME)
1997 - Support efforts to organize consumers and focus national attention on the fatigued trucker problem.
2000 - Support public education efforts.

Parents for Safer Airbags (Washington, DC)
1998 - Champion safer airbags.

Trunk Releases Urgently Needed Coalition (San Francisco, CA)
2000 - To form a new organization, Kids N' Cars.

Victim's Committee for Recall of Defective Vehicles Foundation
(Catoosa, OK)
2000 - Assist victims of GM's side saddle gas tank pickup trucks

Child Safety

American Foundation for Maternal & Child Health (New York, NY)
1987 - To reprint and distribute educational publications.

Alliance To End Childhood Lead Poisoning (Washington, D.C.)
1990 - To help support the first year of Washington, D.C. office operations.
1991 - To draft model state childhood lead poisoning prevention law.

California Public Interest Research Group (Los Angeles, CA)
1997 - To fund the Toy Safety Education Project.

Childhood Lead Action Project (Providence, RI)
1997 - To support a full time community organizer.
1999 - Expansion of the Lead-Safe Providence Campaign

Children's Advocacy Institute (San Diego, CA)
1997 - Advocate the adoption of playground safety standards.

Injury Prevention Works (Baltimore, MD)
1991 - To establish a national clearinghouse and resource center for playground injury prevention information.

Johns Hopkins Injury Prevention Center (Baltimore, MD)
1987 - To research efficacy of age labeling of toys.

Kids in Danger (Chicago, IL)
2000 - Support efforts to make recalls of children's products more effective.

National Coalition for School Bus Safety (Easton, KS)
1993 - To provide up-to-date information and resources to people and organizations working to reduce the number of school bus related injuries and deaths.

People Organizing to Demand Environmental Rights (PODER) (San Francisco, CA)
1994 - For the salary of a worker/organizer that will be charged with implementing PODER's Lead Hazard Reduction Campaign. The campaign will focus on conducting outreach and education in multi-cultural communities which are affected by the dangers of lead poisoning.

Southeast Child Safety Institute (Birmingham, AL)
1991 - To establish a monitoring system for childhood injuries at the Children's Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham.

Environmental Protection Issues

Birth Defect Research for Children (Orlando, FL)
1988 - Publication of a newsletter
1989 - Startup the Environmental Digest
1994 - To produce the "Toxic Legacy" video project, a seven minute mini-documentary on a variety of environmental exposures that may harm the unborn.
2001 - To produce and distribute a public service announcement on birth defects.

Calcasieu League for Environmental Action Now, Inc. (CLEAN) (Lake Charles, LA)
1991 - Support Community Exposure Health Conference, October 1991.

Center for Health, Environment and Justice (Falls Church, VA)
1988 - Support for administration and the toxic exposure conference.
1989 - To defend against harassment suits.

(The) Environmental Health Network (Chesapeake, VA)
1997 - Fund manual and training workshops for communities exposed to chemicals from industrial or transportation disasters.

Environmental Law Community Clinic (Berkeley, CA)
1997 - Fund the Early Intervention for Prevention program.

Florida League of Conservation Voters Education Fund (Tallahassee, FL)
2002 - Support workshops and meetings to strengthen the capacity of environmental groups to educate and register voters.

Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation (Tallahassee, FL)
1990 - Funding for environmental information kits to be distributed to 200 community leaders in rural low-income areas.

Louisiana Environmental Action Network (Baton Rouge, LA)
1997 - Fund legal challenges filed in support of St. James Citizens for
Jobs and the Environment.
2001 - Fund the Air Toxics Project.

Massachusetts Campaign to Clean Up Hazardous Waste (Boston, MA)
1994 - To coordinate the Don't Waste Massachusetts coalition working to promote safe and sensible radioactive waste management.

Midwest Environmental Law Center (Cedar Rapids, IA)
1991 - Funding for a review of industrial waste permit records in the office of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Organization for a Better Environment (Mason, MI)
1987 - To establish a lab for low cost tests for environmental pollutants.

Organization for the Advancement of Environmental Health (Santa Barbara, CA)
1992 - For publication of Environmental Health News, a bimonthly publication which focuses on the potential consequences of chemical exposures in the immediate environment and possible alternatives.

People Against Hazardous Landfill Sites (Valparaiso, IN)
1987 - To support a leadership conference.
1988 - Printing and development of its newsletter, PAHLS Journal.
1990 - To help in the training of other advocacy groups.
1992 - Support for the newsletter.

Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)
1998 - Support environmental justice work in Chester, PA.

Public Interest Research Group in Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)
1988 - For an educational van tour of Michigan toxic waste sites.

Texans United Education Fund (Houston, TX)
1990 - To support salary of coordinator for September 1990 environmental conference.

Toxics Action Center (Boston, MA)
2000 - Support Neighborhood Pesticide Outreach and Assistance Project

Workplace Health and Safety

Chicago Area Committee on Occupational Safety & Health (Chicago, IL)
1991 - Publish and distribute Spanish-language version of Injured on the Job - A Handbook for Illinois Workers.

Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (Merrimac, WI)
1998 - Production, research and distribution of informational packets on occupational illness.

Families Advocating Injury Reduction (Champaign, IL)
2000 - Support for the injured Worker Task Force

(The) FIGHT Project (Fairhope, AL)
1997 - Support, educate and mobilize families of workplace fatalities.

Government Accountability Project (Washington, DC)
1993 - To document food safety and working conditions in poultry processing plants from the perspective of North Carolina workers.

Helping Hands Center (Siler City, NC)
1997 -Educational presentations on preventing occupational injuries in poultry processing plants.

Injured Workers of Rhode Island (Pawtucket, RI)
1988 - To support the salary of a part-time assistant.
1991 - To publish and distribute a 16-page booklet entitled Getting Back in the Driver's Seat: A Guide for Injured Workers to Physical and Vocational Rehabilitation.

Massachusetts Coalition on New Office Technology (Somerville, MA)
1994 - To support the Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSIs) Action Campaign in which the coalition's staff organizes injured low-income women clerical workers into support groups.

Michigan Injured Workers, Inc. (Taylor, MI)
1987 - General support.
1988 - To help with printing and postage costs.

Mississippi Injured Workers Education Fund (Jackson, MS)
1998 - To organize a support network for injured workers.

Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights (Greenville, MS)
2001 - Support the Campaign for Workplace Environmental Justice.

Montana Injured Workers Resource Council (Helena, MT)
1999 - Education campaign on problems in the state Workers Compensation system.

National Safe Workplace Institute (Chicago, IL)
1987 - To support projects promoting workplace safety.
1990 - Printing and distribution costs of a state-by-state child labor injury report.

New York Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (Albany, NY)
1993 - To launch the Injured Workers Acting Together (IWAT) project to meet the needs of injured workers suffering from chronic physical impairments, unfair treatment by employers and unresponsive government agencies.
New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health (NYCOSH) (New York, NY)
1994 - To launch a campaign about workers' compensation and the need for an alternative approach to its reform. The campaign will include two components: the production of a white paper on workers' compensation and the distribution of posters and fact sheets on key issues.
1997 - To develop an Injured Worker Computer Database.
1998 - Write and distribute report on use of Aindependent@ medical examiners in workers comp. cases.

North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Project (Durham, NC)
1997 - To fund an outreach and education program on worker's compensation rights.

Ohio Injured Workers Association (Columbus, OH)
1990 - Write, print, distribute and evaluate 70,000 injured worker surveys.

Healthcare and Insurance

Center for Patients' Rights (New York, NY)
1992 - To produce a manual and consumer guide for evaluating state health care regulatory agencies.

Center for Public Representation (Madison, WI)
1991- For a consumer guide to fighting insurance claim denials for birth defects and injuries.
1992 - To develop and publish a national consumer guide to fight health insurance denials related to injuries and birth defects.
1997 - Development of a consumer handbook of consumer rights and remedies in HMO's.

Champaign County Health Care Consumers (Champaign, IL)
1999 - Support the Medical Billing Task Force project.

Consumers for Quality Care (Santa Monica, CA)
1999 - Create a national computer clearinghouse of patient complaints of managed care and a patient resource guide.

Dalkon Shield Information Network, Inc. (Bethlehem, PA)
1987 - To support the costs of a newsletter.
1988 - To help run a media campaign.

DES Action (San Francisco, CA)
1987 - To distribute TV public service announcements.
1988 - To expand an MD referral list.
1990 - To support the Nurses Education Project.

Gray Panthers (Washington, DC)
2002 - Support the RePhorma Pharmaceutical Reform Program, which will expose the industry's influence on public officials and each state's cost from pharmaceutical corporate abuse.

Group B Strep Association (Chapel Hill, NC)
1993 - To print and distribute 25,000 educational pamphlets entitled Awareness of Group B Streptococcus Infection During Pregnancy - Help Protect Your Baby and Yourself.

Healthcare Advocacy Group (Hobart, IN)
2001 - Educate consumers on their right to receive quality healthcare.

(The) HERS Foundation (Bala Cynwyd, PA)
1999 - Data Bank Project on the personal, medical, social and economic aspects of hysterectomies.

International Dalkon Shield Victim's Education Association (IDEA) (Seattle, WA)
1987 - To seek compensation for Dalkon Shield victims.

Maine People's Resource Center (Portland, ME)
1998 - Support Medical Consumers Justice Project.

Michigan Citizens Against Incompetent Medicine (Linden, MI)
1986 - General operating costs.

National Pacemaker Information Center (Oviedo, FL)
1990 - To support an information coordinator.

People's Justice Alliance/People's Medical Society (Allentown, PA)
1986 - Start-up funds for the organization.
1999 - To pay partial salary of the Director of Projects.

Stop Hospital and Medical Errors (Brooklyn, NY)
1990 - To support a part-time coordinator.

Utah Citizens Alliance (Salt Lake City, UT)
1999 - Radio campaign to inform citizens on binding arbitration or medical waivers.

Victims of Medical Malpractice (Margate, FL)
1987 - To support a public education campaign.

Washington Citizen Action Education & Research Fund (Seattle, WA)
1999 - Support the Managed Care Consumer Advocacy Project.

Women's Law Center (Baltimore, MD)
1993 - To help support its one-day February 27, 1993 conference titled The Medical Gender Gap and the Crisis in Women's Health Care.

Gun Violence Prevention

Committee for the Silent March (Brooklyn, NY)
2000 - Educational displays at party conventions and in other major US cities.

Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence (Washington, DC)
1990 - Fund 8 issues of Firearms Litigation Reporter.
1993 - To computerize the Firearm's Litigation Library.
1995 - Computerization.
1997 - Support the Gun Violence Victims' Right to Know Campaign.

Marylanders Against Handgun Abuse Education Fund (Baltimore, MD)
1993 - To fund a major survey of people from across Maryland to explore key aspects of citizens' attitudes toward violence, gun ownership and gun control.

Violence Policy Center (Washington, D.C.)
1991 - To fund a study of the methods by which federal firearms licenses are granted.
1993 - To fund half of the Firearms Industry Resource Guide.

Consumer Advocacy and Education

Agent Orange Community Support, Inc. (Burbank, CA)
1990 - To support a toll-free outreach hotline.

Alamo Chapter - Texas Head Injury Association (San Antonio, TX)
1991 - To fund part-time staff.

Appalachian Research and Defense Fund (Lexington, KY)
1993 - To help support the salary of the Project's directing attorney.

Atlantis/ADAPT of Texas (Austin, TX)
1991 - To organize disabled consumers to support the Americans with Disabilities Act in Texas.

Aviation Consumer Action Project (Washington, DC)
2001 - To publish a credible study of the safety and security of the top 20 airlines.
2001 - Hire more staff to respond to media and Congressional information requests in the wake of September 11, 2001.

The Burn Foundation (Philadelphia, PA)
1991 - Development of Agenda for Action.
1994 - To prepare and distribute a source book on the fire-safe cigarette.

Center for Economic Justice (Austin, TX)
1998 - Publication of an insurance data handbook for consumer advocates nationwide.

Consumer Justice Alliance (Portland, OR)
1998 - Establish pro bono program to represent consumers.

Consumers for Civil Justice (Trenton, NJ)
1997 - Establish one hotline number for consumer complaints in New Jersey.

Danville Area Community Services Council (Danville, IL)
1987 - To replace computer peripherals lost in a fire.

Disabilities Rights Center, Inc. (Concord, NH)
1988 - To provide stipends.
1989 - To support law students assisting with Federal District Court cases.

Drowning Prevention Foundation (Alamo, CA)
1991 - To support citizen education regarding pool fencing ordinances in California counties.

Families Advocating Injury Reduction (Champaign, IL)
1997 - To organize and empower injury survivors and their families in
Illinois. (See also IL Center for Citizen Involvement)

Families of Pan Am 103/Lockerbie (Albany, NY)
1990 and 1991 - To support monitoring of the Aviation Security Improvement Act of 1990.

Government Accountability Project (Washington, DC)
1997 - To establish its Scientific Integrity Pilot Program which provides public interest guidance to institutions and
potential whistleblowers.

Great Plains Guide Dogs (Jud, ND)
1990 - To build dog runs at a dog training center.

Head Injury Services Partnership (Fairfax, VA)
1990 - To purchase laptop computers to allow caseworkers to conduct field work with clients.

Illinois Center for Citizen Involvement (Chicago, IL)
1995 - To establish FAIR - Families Advocating Injury Reduction.

Injury Prevention Works (Baltimore, MD)
1993 - A report on managing the risk of liability to injury prevention organizations

Iowa Head Injury Association (Waterloo, IA)
1990 - To fund the Head Injury Guide to Legal and Financial Resources.

Kentucky Disabilities Coalition (Frankfort, KY)
1992 - Co-sponsor August 20, 1992 consumer conference on the rights of the disabled.

Kentucky Family Safety Foundation (Louisville, KY)
2001 - Develop a website with information on product safety and filing of consumer complaints.

Massachusetts Head Injury Association (Worcester, MA)
1991 - Support salary of coordinator.

Missouri Consumer Education Foundation (Kansas City, MO)
1991 - To develop a victim's network and speakers bureau of injured consumers to educate the public about the insurance industry.

New England Assistance Dog Service (W. Boylston, MA)
1990 - To train a service dog for a diving accident victim.

New York Public Interest Research Center, Inc. (New York, NY)
1992 - To organize The Campaign For A Safe New York, a grassroots injury prevention network.

Partners in Protection (Tallahassee, FL)
2002 - Support informational seminars featuring safety advice from firefighters, EMT, police, and lawyers.

The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors (Levittown, PA)
1994 - To maintain the Icarus File newsletter which provides an essential link helping burn victims become burn survivors.

Project Safeguard (Denver, CO)
1992 - To fund an Advocate position in Denver's newly established Protective Orders Court dealing with battered women.

Safe Tables Our Priority (Chicago, IL)
2000 - General support of efforts to ensure a safe food supply.

Sunflower Community Action (Wichita, KS)
2001 - Fight predatory lending through the Campaign for Responsible Lending.

Texas Citizen Action (Austin, TX)
1997 - Startup Courtwatch.

Texas Citizen Fund
1995 - To support a public education campaign on the civil justice system.

Texas Watch (The Consumer Fund of Texas, Austin, TX)
1999 - Fund the Insurance Company Accountability Network.

Trial Lawyers Care (New York, NY)
2001 - Support efforts of ATLA volunteers in assisting 9/11 victims and families with filing for compensation from the Federal fund.

Western Law Center for the Handicapped at Loyola Law School (Los Angeles, CA)
1987 - To support paralegal salary.
1989 - To support staff attorney salary.

World Institute on Disability (Berkeley, CA)
1987 - Support for a program ensuring disabled can choose attendant services.

West Virginia Citizen Research Group (Charleston, WV)
1993 - To launch the Mountain State Grassroots Victim's Organizing and Education Project.
1999 - Support for the Mountain State Victims' Rights Information and Education Project.