THE STRATEGIC LEGAL FUND
Grants up to £30,000 are available to UK not-for-profit organisations for initiatives across the UK that make a significant contribution to law, practice, and procedures to uphold and promote the rights of people seeking asylum, refugees and migrants.
__________
o Application deadline: MONDAY 31st MARCH 2025 at 5pm.
o Main Funder: The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation (founded 1961. Charity number 200051. Total charitable expenditure for the year ended 31 December 2023: £66,525,000). The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Trust for London and Unbound Philanthropy have also contributed resources to the Fund.
o Who can apply: UK not-for-profit organisations that provide specialist level legal advice to people discriminated or disadvantaged by their migration status. Firms of solicitors that provide specialist-level legal advice to vulnerable young migrants may also apply. However, solicitors’ firms will need to demonstrate that the funded work does not include any element of profit and, as for all applicants, that there is a pro bono element included.
o Key words: Social Justice, Asylum Seekers, Community Care, Discrimination, Education, Housing, Human Rights, Welfare Benefits, Migrants, Poverty, United Kingdom.
__________
The Strategic Legal Fund (SLF) is designed to support legal work in the UK that goes beyond securing justice for an individual and makes a significant contribution to law, practice, and procedures to uphold and promote the rights of people seeking asylum, refugees and, more generally, migrants.
The SLF will fund strategic legal work in any area of law where asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants experience disadvantage or discrimination as a result of migration status. This includes (but is not restricted to) potential cases in the areas of:
o Access to justice.
o Asylum and asylum support.
o Community care.
o Discrimination.
o Education.
o Housing.
o Human rights, and
o Welfare benefits.
However, applications must be to fund one of the following two kinds of strategic legal work:
1. The research and development of cases pre-litigation including: gathering evidence to test a hypothesis or research to establish authorities’ policy and practice, identifying potential plaintiffs/applicants/
2. Third party “interventions” in existing cases, which allow a non-party intervener to assist the court in arriving in its decision in a case, acting as an amicus curiae, a friend of the court. Funds can be used for evidence-gathering, instructing counsel, preparing the application for permission to intervene.
Grants up to £30,000 are available. Please note that the Fund has a limited budget and therefore encourages applications for smaller amounts. The average grant size is likely to be around £12,000. Applicants will be expected to demonstrate how their proposal represents value for money. Grants may be approved for a lesser amount than requested.
The SLF aims to complement longer-term funding with short-term grants to respond to legal opportunities. The maximum grant length is 12 months, and most grants are for six months or less. The SLF will support strategic legal work in the UK which benefits asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants, such as (please note that this ,may not represent an exclusive list):
o Migrants or the children of migrants.
o Those who are living in poverty.
o Those who are under 25, and
o Those who face significant disadvantage or discrimination in connection with their (or their parents’) migration status.
Funding is not available for:
o Applicants based outside of the UK. Partnership applications where some applicants are based outside the UK but lead partner is based in the UK may be considered.
o Organisations in serious financial deficit.
o Organisations that have already received two grants from the SLF in the last 18 months, except in exceptional circumstances.
o Pre-litigation research on an issue where work is already in progress by other legal representatives.
o Where the funding will not produce any significant positive change to the rights of vulnerable asylum seekers, refugees or migrants in the UK.
o Where the goals of the application may be more successfully achieved through an alternative route (for example, through policy work), or
o Where there is an unreasonably low prospect of a positive outcome for migrant groups.
The Fund is being managed by the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) on behalf of the partners funding the programme, which include the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Trust for London and Unbound Philanthropy.
Further information, guidance and an application form is available on the ILPA website.
Regular application deadlines are scheduled throughout 2025. Please check the OLPA website for details. The next deadline for applications is 5pm on Monday 31st March 2025.
Contact details for the Fund are:
The Strategic Legal Fund
Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association
Lindsey House
40 – 42 Charterhouse Street
London
EC1M 6JN
Email: SLF@ilpa.org.uk