Race Equity Grants
LFW believes that creating fair access to civil justice requires undoing systemic racial oppression.
Our Race Equity Grants provide multiyear funding to advance racial justice in civil legal aid and build power in communities most impacted by structural racism and oppression. We use a community-driven grantmaking model designed to center the voices of communities most impacted by grantmaking decisions. An advisory panel of community leaders who have lived experience with the legal aid system, poverty, and racism review grant applications and prioritize the projects that will be most impactful. Since the Race Equity Grant program’s inception, 88% of awards went to BIPOC-led organizations and almost half were first-time grantees with LFW. The program also reflects LFW’s statewide reach: 38% percent of grantees work statewide; 33% focus on Central and Eastern WA; 17% percent serve the Puget Sound region; and 12% cover other areas in WA.
The goals of the Race Equity Grant Fund are to:
- Invest in communities most impacted by structural racism and oppression;
- Support community- and client-centered approaches to civil legal aid;
- Increase civil justice for communities of color;
- Build and support anti-racist organizations and leadership; and
- Center those most impacted in the decision making process.
Eligible civil justice projects include direct civil legal aid services, systemic advocacy, and policy reform. Grant proposals can be for new or existing projects, including operational expenses, and must be focused on civil legal aid work in Washington state. You can read about recently funded projects below and view all previous Race Equity Grantees here.
Civil legal aid providers or organizations in partnership with civil legal aid providers are eligible to apply. We welcome proposals from nonprofits, Tribal entities, and fiscally sponsored programs. If you have received a past Race Equity Grant, you are eligible to apply if your final report has been submitted or if your grant will conclude by June 30, 2026.
Fifteen $50,000 grants will be awarded, each with two-year terms.
Two year term from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2028.
Grant applications are due by 11:59pm on April 15, 2026. To apply, visit our How To Apply page. You can view the application here. If you prefer to submit your application in a language other than English, please email your request to LFW Grants Manager, Arielle Handforth, by end of day April 1, 2026.
2026 Race Equity Grantees
2025 Race Equity Grantees
Advisory Panel
Our current panel includes:
- Tosha Big Eagle, PRISM Collaborative at WSU’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
- Mayra Colazo, Central Washington Disability Resources & Chelan-Douglas County Volunteer Attorney Services
- Maya Manus, Lavender Rights Project
- Jarrelle Marshall, RECLAIM
- Shawa Miller (Chair), Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers
- La’Keisha “KeWee” Roselle, The Black Rose Collective & Liberation Scholars
- Rafael Velázquez, Voices and Visions
- Leandru Willie, Native American Reentry Services
- Jillisa Winkler, Carl Maxey Center
Q & A with Carmen Pacheco-Jones, former Advisory Panel Chair
Photo by Deborah Espinosa for Living with Conviction
When you bring multiple voices together, with multiple experiences and different dynamics and stories, you really get the individuals that are stepping up to serve their communities and who are the first responder-types who know what their communities need. So having their voices at the table is so important. They know how to build a program that is going to be meaningful and impactful, and allowing them to have the decision-making capacity gives great value to the programs.
As civil legal aid providers, they are really in the trenches. And through this grant expansion, we’re really interested in communities that have often been excluded to accessing legal aid and looking at what their needs are, and the complexities in communities of color that will help us serve a broader population.
We looked at all these different organizations that are doing such impactful work, and thought about how we could share information, learn from one another, partner with one another, through the movement toward equity. I’m most excited about seeing the work that’s going to be done and see the organizations that received these grants really dig in and look at barriers that have inhibited access for communities of color.