How To Apply

The Bar Foundation considers grants once a year. Submissions for the 2023-2024 grant cycle opens January 8, 2024, and closes February 12, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. Applications received after this date will not be considered. 

Grant requests must be submitted through our online form.  

Please read the mission statement to determine if your project falls within its scope. The Minnesota Common Grant Application Form is not accepted. 

We suggest taking a look at the form in advance and copying your answers from a Word document. If you have any questions or difficulties using the form, please contact Erikka Ryan at eryan@mnbars.org or 612-278-6321. If you've received a grant from the Minnesota State Bar Foundation before, please submit your evaluation using the MSBF Evaluation Form.

If your agency application does not meet the guidelines listed above, the application will be rejected for technical reasons. Applications rejected for technical reasons may be re-submitted for the next grant cycle as long as the submission errors are corrected.

In awarding grants in response to written applications, the Foundation believes that it can carry out this broad objective by generally adhering to the guidelines stated as follows:

1. The Foundation has been interested in the past and continues to be interested in programs of law-related education for students and adults, including, where appropriate, publications, workshops, and related programs.
2. The Foundation seeks to encourage and promote legal assistance to the poor and disadvantaged groups.
3. The Foundation seeks to support and to promote programs and projects having as their purpose the improvement of the administration of justice. Providing information to the public so that it might better understand the Courts and legal processes is included within this purpose.
4. The Foundation will give consideration to projects and programs supporting or promoting public interest legal work.
5. The Foundation will, in allocating its funds, attempt to maintain a proper balance between:
   1. those new and innovative programs which may be of an experimental nature and that need assistance in the form of "seed money"; and
   2. those projects of special concern to lawyers that are of a continuing nature and need periodic contributions to their operating budgets.
6. The Foundation does not preclude itself from awarding grants for scholarships and fellowships, but it will strive to make such grants primarily under such circumstances that will promote the general public welfare rather than the personal benefit of the individual donees.
7. Since Continuing Legal Education Programs for lawyers are, in general, well supported by tuition charges, the Foundation feels obligated to consider support only for such Continuing Legal Education Programs that may be of an experimental nature or of general interest to the entire membership of the Bar and are not self-supporting.
8. The Foundation does not provide funds to be used for propaganda or lobbying activities.

Typical grant amounts range from $500 to $3,000.