The Fiscal Year 2025 Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, provides funding to increase the availability of legal assistance to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The program supports comprehensive legal services projects for victims, including collaborations between legal service providers and victim service organizations. Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations, tribal governments and organizations, publicly funded organizations not acting in a governmental capacity, and law schools. Faith-based and community organizations that meet eligibility requirements are also encouraged to apply.

The program focuses on providing legal representation and advocacy for victims in matters related to protection orders, family law, housing, immigration, and other critical legal issues stemming from domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, or stalking. Applications must address statutory priorities, such as improving the availability of legal services for sexual assault survivors or serving victims on tribal lands. Projects may include direct legal services, supervised pro bono legal assistance, and partnerships that enhance legal access for underserved communities. Proposals that focus at least 50 percent of activities on legal services for sexual assault victims, particularly non-intimate partner survivors, will receive priority consideration.

The program anticipates awarding up to 46 grants with a total funding allocation of 33 million dollars. Awards will range up to 900,000 dollars for projects focused entirely or primarily on sexual assault and up to 750,000 dollars for other projects. Noncompetitive continuation awards may be available for certain existing grantees, with funding limits of 600,000 dollars. The award period is 36 months, with grants expected to begin on October 1, 2025.

Applicants must include required partnerships in their proposals. At a minimum, applications must include a nonprofit, nongovernmental, or tribal organization with the mission or purpose of providing services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Applications must also include an organization with experience providing legal representation to victims, except when proposing services exclusively in tribal courts where lay legal advocates are authorized to represent clients. A Memorandum of Understanding or Memorandum of Exemption must demonstrate these partnerships.

The application process involves submitting required components through Grants.gov and JustGrants. The deadline to submit the SF-424 form in Grants.gov is January 28, 2025, by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. The full application must then be submitted in JustGrants by January 30, 2025, at 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Applications must include a 20-page proposal narrative, a detailed budget and budget narrative, a summary data sheet, and other supporting documents. Formatting requirements, such as double spacing, one-inch margins, and 11-point Arial font, must be followed.

Proposals will be evaluated based on project design, clarity of goals and objectives, organizational capacity, partnerships, and budget. Special considerations will be given to applications addressing statutory priorities, such as projects that provide legal services to underserved sexual assault survivors or victims on tribal lands. OVW will conduct peer and programmatic reviews to assess compliance, past performance, and the ability to meet program goals.

Applicants are encouraged to submit a letter of intent by January 3, 2025, to assist OVW in planning for the review process. Technical assistance is available through pre-application webinars, and additional resources can be accessed via the OVW website. For questions, applicants may contact OVW at OVW.LAV@usdoj.gov.