End of Year Fundraising Campaign
Our End of the Year Fundraising campaign is underway! Once again, an anonymous donor has generously pledged to match all contributions between now and December 31, 2015 up to $40,000! Please help us meet this goal and collect the pledge.
Last year, our supporters responded to our annual fundraising drive with extraordinary generosity and allowed us to meet our anonymous match. We were immensely grateful for this strong show of support, which propelled the Collaboration to its most exciting year yet.
We are proud of the remarkable achievements we’ve racked up over the past year, which include:
- Graduating the first participants in the ACT (Access to Community Treatment) Court, an innovative, life-changing program that provides alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders with a history of substance abuse;
- Ensuring that the courts follow procedures enabling indigent defendants to exercise their right to legal representation under the Sixth Amendment;
- Helping enact a pilot program to field-test drugs, which will dramatically reduce the time defendants are incarcerated before determining probable cause; and
- Planning for a new consolidated Domestic Relations court that bolsters the rights of children to get the child support they need, regardless of the marital status of their parents.
These efforts represent the kinds of profound changes that transform human lives—and your support is what empowered us to carry out this essential work. With your help, in 2016 we can accomplish even more. Some of the vital projects we will take on include expanding the ACT court; launching the consolidated Domestic Relations court; enhancing access to justice by advocating for the installation of digital recording devices in courtrooms where no record of the proceedings are being made, and for reforms which would prevent the imposition of unfair court costs and fees.
Chicago Appleseed and the Chicago Council of Lawyers have long been at the forefront of making the kinds of lasting and powerful reforms that help our legal system work more fairly for everyone. Now we work together as partner organizations to improve our courts. If these are the kinds of changes you like to see, please give now, during the matched donation program that enables your contribution to go twice as far. You can mail a contribution to us at 750 N Lake Shore Drive, 4th Floor; Chicago IL 60611 using the reply form or you can donate securely online.
We rely on the dedication, hard work, and expertise of our pro bono partners to meet our goals, but we cannot survive without your generous financial contributions. Please accept our heartfelt thanks for your support in the past and our warm gratitude for helping us continue our work into the future.
If you’d like to read more about the work we did this year, please see the Annual Report. You can also call us–we’re always happy to talk about our work and how you can become involved.
Thank you.