THE BANKS OF New Hampshire are playing a strong role in supporting the New Hampshire Bar Foundation’s Campaign for Legal Services.

The Campaign is celebrating attainment of reaching its initial goal of raising $750,000 in grants and pledges in its first year. An insert in this issue of Bar News lists all of the participants in the campaign to date. The Campaign is a joint fundraising effort to provide additional dedicated funding to the state’s main providers of civil legal services for the poor – New Hampshire Legal Assistance (NHLA), the Legal Advice & Referral Center (LARC) and the New Hampshire Bar Association’s Pro Bono Referral Program.

In addition to the ongoing cooperation of the state’s banks in providing favorable interest rates and waivers of some fees for the Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program (the Bar Foundation’s major source of income), the banking community has also provided major gifts to the Campaign.

A $90,000 contribution was made to the Campaign by the New Hampshire Community Reinvestment Corporation, an organization that was formed by a coalition of banks to provide funding for affordable housing initiatives. In the process of dissolution, the NHCRC donated the remainder of its assets, in a process similar to a cy pres award, to the Campaign. The funds are earmarked for NHLA’s Fair Housing Project, said John Funk, the Campaign’s co-chair and an attorney with the Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell law firm in Concord.

The Campaign also has been buoyed by a $10,000 gift from the Citizens Bank Foundation, targeted for affordable housing initiatives.

"The banking community and the New Hampshire legal services community have had a strong relationship of cooperation," said Funk. "Starting with the IOLTA program, the participation of NH Bankers’ Association president Gerry Little on the Bar Foundation board, and now with these major contributions to the Community Campaign, the banking community has showed its recognition for the importance of the Bar Foundation’s work in helping to obtain access to justice for all citizens in our state."

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