We are a complementary funding mechanism to established funding pathways for public interest law. Our only requirement is that the campaign must be owned by an Australian-admitted lawyer.
You can crowdfund for anything a lawyer would do, not just litigation. We accept donations from 45 countries, and your campaign can be for anywhere in the world. The campaign owner must be an Australian-admitted lawyer, but we encourage partnerships.
Unlike grants programs, you won’t need to wait for third party approval or develop your application around the grant criteria. You do not need to be a community lawyer. Your work will always fit the needs of your client or the community you serve–and we define “public interest law” broadly beyond classical human rights.
If you are DGR-registered, you can issue receipts to your donors. You can mix and match your funding sources–we’re not possessive.
Need help with marketing? We’ll meet you where you are.
Our Compliance & Precedents Guide and Draft Your Campaign Guide will help you navigate crowdfunding confidently. We prevent misconduct, misrepresentations, and missing donations by only permitting lawyers to list campaigns.
If you have a client, we don’t interfere in the client-lawyer confidentiality and costs agreement. Our only reporting requirement is regular updates on your campaign page, which will explain your work to donors and attract more donations. Of course, you can work pro bono or low bono and only crowdfund disbursements.
Donations go straight to your trust account or bank account through Stripe, so there’s no risk the money will get lost. You keep what you raise, less processing fees and a 5 per cent fee to us.
Our theory of change is more access to justice by connecting donors to crowdfunding campaigns run by lawyers who work to improve life for a client or community. Our role is to provide the trustworthy platform.
We hope Article Two will enable lawyers to do more public interest law in their expert practice areas. We hope Article Two will reduce pay inequity, improve sustainability, and increase opportunities for lawyers to do public interest law.
Article Two campaigns are not a replacement for proper legal aid and community law funding. We will use our data to support advocacy for increasing institutional funding.