PILnet and Justice Connect: Building systems to support a thriving pro bono ecosystem

--IMPORTANT: please note this survey is for clearinghouses and NGO pro bono initiatives only--

Overview

PILnet and the Australian charity Justice Connect are working together to support the global pro bono ecosystem so that more individuals and NGOs can access legal assistance.

 

We will work side-by-side with clearinghouses, NGOs and law firms to design a pro bono brokering solution that meets a wide variety of technology, process and coordination needs. By making the ecosystem more efficient, we can save time and resources for NGOs and clearinghouses, and more strategically direct pro bono effort. 

 

We are currently seeking input from clearinghouses and NGOs to better understand their needs and their interest in participating in this initiative.

The initiative will be entirely not-for-profit led, ensuring impact-focussed drivers, appropriate data stewardship, and cost-minimisation for all parties. We aim for the solution to be available at no cost to the participating NGOs and clearinghouses.

 

We will share the results of this survey at the 2019 PILnet Global Forum, and will undertake further collaborative workshopping at the Forum.

 

 

PILnet has identified that the technology and system needs of NGOs and clearinghouses are generally not well met. This has flow-on implications for efficiency, the number of people matched with pro bono, the ability to gather system-level insights and the strategic allocation of pro bono resources.

 

Justice Connect has created a system in Australia, co-designed with NGOs, firms and individuals, that enables pro bono opportunities to be promoted to firms using sophisticated matching and distribution systems. The aim of this system is to increase the efficiency for NGOs seeking pro bono support for their work and for clients and to tap into latent pro bono capacity at firms so that more people receive assistance. There are 49 firms using this system in Australia, and it is now being made available, for free, to other NGOs to use around Australia. You can read more about this work here.

 

 

Your participation in the survey is voluntary. Your personal data, in case you decide to disclose it (name and email address), will only be used to contact you and your organisation to share survey results and progress the collaboration outlined above. Before you continue, you can read the PILnet privacy policy for this survey here and Justice Connect's privacy policy here.