Since the NSW Government stopped funding our work, we had no choice but to cut off certain services to NSW-based community organisations. We’re asking you to help us reinstate our funding by emailing a letter to the NSW Government in support of the Not-for-profit Law program, so we can continue to support a strong and vibrant NSW community sector.
Who we are
Justice Connect’s Not-for-profit Law program is the only nationally available source of free legal support for community organisations across Australia, focusing on legal help for small-medium sized organisations delivering frontline services. We build the capacity of volunteers and staff in community organisations to understand the law and achieve good governance. We prevent legal problems through self-help tools and education, and provide access to free lawyers when organisations need specialist legal advice.
Every day, community organisations grapple to navigate complex legal issues around employment obligations, workplace safety, privacy requirements, tax compliance, and more. By providing tailored legal support, we save organisations time, money, and resources so they can deliver more services to communities in need. Without this support, organisations risk getting bogged down in legal and governance issues that can impact their overall sustainability.
The impact of losing our funding in NSW
After funding us for a number of years, in October 2022 the NSW Government stopped funding our work. We were forced to scale back our free legal advice services in NSW. A year later, we had no choice but to cut off our NSW advice services completely and remove our tailored legal information resources for NSW-based community organisations from our website.
Since then, tens of thousands of small and medium sized, often volunteer-run, organisations that rely on us have had to go without critical legal and governance support, amidst growing demand for their services and significant pressure on finances due to cost of living increases.
We urgently need to provide relief to these organisations, so we’re grateful to have secured short-term philanthropic funding to get our NSW-specific resources back on our website for the time being. But it’s not enough - only adequate funding from the NSW Government will allow us to fully restart all our legal supports for the NSW community sector.
Without access to our full suite of legal supports, many organisations will struggle to navigate legal and governance issues, which in turn impacts their ability to deliver services to their communities efficiently, effectively, and sustainably.
How you can help
In November 2023, we asked our supporters to contact the NSW Government about the impact of our service cuts. We’re grateful for the hundreds of letters that have been sent.
We still need your help to ensure a sustainable NSW community sector where frontline organisations can access our free legal support to help them deliver services to the growing number of people in need across the state every day.
We’re asking you to email a letter now to the NSW Minister for Families and Communities in support of reinstating our funding so we can continue to support a strong and vibrant NSW community sector.
Our other services
Our Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) service will remain unaffected, so if you’re from one of the 120 LALCs across NSW find out more about how we can help your organisation.
Our webinar and training delivery will also remain unaffected. Take a look at our upcoming webinars, or browse our training sessions.
