����51

����51 is seeking comments on the Basic Field Grant Notice of Intent to Award for calendar year 2026. This notification identifies which applicants ����51 intends to award funding to serve the civil legal needs of low-income people in a given service area.

����51 published this Request for Comments on the Basic Field Grant Notice of Intent to Award on the ����51 website on Friday, October 31, 2025. The comment period is open for 30 days and will close at 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, December 1, 2025.

Interested parties can submit comments to Christine Williams, Program Manager for Basic Field Competition, at williamsc@lsc.gov or by postal mail to 1825 Eye Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006. In either instance, please include "Comments on Basic Field Grant Notice of Intent to Award" in the subject of your comments.

����51 is seeking comments on its proposed revisions to Performance Area 1 of the ����51 Performance Criteria. Performance Area 1 establishes criteria for examining an ����51 grant recipient's effectiveness in identifying the most pressing civil legal issues in its service area and directing resources toward addressing those needs. 

����51 published a Request for Comments on Performance Area 1 in the Federal Register on Thursday, October 2, 2025. The comment period is open for 60 days and will close at 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, December 1, 2025. 

Interested parties can submit comments to Stefanie K. Davis, Deputy General Counsel, by email at performancearea1@lsc.gov or by postal mail to 1825 Eye Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006. In either instance, please include "Comments on Performance Area 1" in the subject of your comments.

• ����51 has published the updated August 2023 , and is providing  on  Wednesday, August 2, at 4:00 pm EDT.

����51 sought comment on draft revisions to its Technology Baselines: Technologies that Should Be in Place in a Legal Office Today (Baselines).

����51 hosted a webinar regarding these draft revisions on March 29, 2023.  It provided attendees a brief review of the purpose and history of the Baselines, a summary of significant updates, and information on submitting comments to improve the revised Baselines document prior to its official release.

Please view the recording of the webinar via this Zoom link:

COMMENTS WERE DUE April 21, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. ����51 will not consider comments submitted after the deadline.

Comments must be submitted as follows:

• Acrobat PDF format.
• Emailed as an attachment to a transmittal message sent to: techgrants@lsc.gov.
• Emailed with the subject line: Comments on Technology Baselines.

Questions about the draft revisions to the Baselines should be sent to techgrants@lsc.gov with the subject line: Questions about Technology Baselines Comments. 

����51 first adopted the Baselines in 2008 and revised them in 2015. The Baselines address the use of technology in providing high-quality legal services to clients. They set out the technology capacities that ����51 grantees should have in place or have available to them through a vendor or a partner. They also serve as a resource for ����51 during reviews of grantees’ program quality.  They are not minimum requirements.

• For reference: 2015 Technology Baselines

The draft revisions reflect the significant changes in the way legal services are delivered because of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the growth in cybersecurity threats since 2015.  They include consideration of remote/hybrid work environments, cloud computing and policies, new security baselines for networks and data, document management strategies, social media policy, and the use of web and video conferencing systems. A summary of significant updates by section can be found in the draft document.

����51 conducted a comprehensive review and overhaul of the Accounting Guide for ����51 Recipients (2010) with input from ����51 grantees and ����51 fiscal compliance analysis staff. The new Financial Guide removes outdated or inapplicable materials, improves material directly related to ����51-specific issues, and adds clarity about required and recommended financial practices, among other innovations. ����51 announced the opportunity for public comment in the Federal Register. The comment period ended October 15, 2020.

• , 85 FR 40688 (June 7, 2020)
• (July 7, 2020)
• (July 7, 2020)
• (link to public folder in Box.com)

On December 15, 2021, ����51 published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comment on specific revised sections of the Financial Guide. ����51 previously conducted a complete overhaul of the Guide and sought comments on the overall document. In response to comments received on that draft, ����51 revised certain sections of the Guide and now seeks comment on those limited changes. The comment period closed on January 31, 2022.

• . 86 FR 71288 (Dec. 15, 2021)
• (December 15, 2021)
• (link to a public folder in Box.com)

����51 revised the Performance Criteria it uses to evaluate the quality of grantees’ legal assistance. ����51 sought comments on the proposed changes to Performance Area 4, “Effectiveness of Governance, Leadership, and Administration.” ����51 announced the opportunity for public comment in the . The comment period ended June 5, 2017.

����51 revised its process for developing the Grant Assurances for the Basic Field Grant program. ����51 renamed the Grant Assurances the Grant Terms and Conditions, and made them part of the Requests for Proposals to better notify Basic Field Grant applicants about the legal, regulatory, and contractual grant requirements. Finally, ����51 proposed adding several terms to the Grant Terms and Conditions. The comment period ended May 8, 2017.