The Stewardship Committee was established by the SFBA Chapter in 2007 to support local legal services organizations that provide much needed assistance to the disadvantaged in our Bay Area community. Once established, the Committee was asked by the Chapter’s Board to evaluate opportunities to support local pro bono service providers and to make its recommendations to the Board regarding its findings.

The Committee considered factors such as geographic area of services provided, sector of need addressed; ability to provide training and guidance to lawyer volunteers; potential impact of any contribution from us; and the proposed use of any grant that might be awarded.  They wanted to find service providers located in our Members' primary work and home locations. The Committee decided upon service providers which offered services to children, the elderly, people living with AIDS, and those in our communities who are most financially disadvantaged.

The Committee sought to recommend organizations which ranged in size from small to large.  They wanted to find one or two organizations where our support would have the most impact (small organizations) and they wanted to find one or two organizations where our Members could feel they were part of a team (medium sized organizations) and, they wanted to find one or two larger organizations which provided a path for our Members interested in volunteer legal work.

The Stewardship Committee reviewed a number of candidates for the Chapter's support.  Ultimately, the Committee settled on six local organizations and the Chapter has been supporting them with donations each year (totaling over $200,000 thus far). These organizations are:

1.    Volunteer Legal Services Program (San Francisco)
2.    Legal Services for Children (San Francisco)
3.    Legal Assistance to the Elderly (San Francisco)
4.    Legal Advocates for Children & Youth (Silicon Valley)
5.    Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic (San Francisco)
6.    AIDS Legal Referral Panel (Bay Area)
7.    Legal Aid of San Mateo County