Advising Nonprofits to Defend and Support their Racial Justice Missions – 2025 Access to Justice Conference in Yakima

The 2025 Washington Access to Justice Conference will take place from Thursday, September 18 to Friday, September 19 at the Yakima Convention & Event Center. The Access to Justice Conference is a gathering of community members, legal professionals, advocates, judges, and policymakers who are working to make our legal systems more equitable by increasing access to legal services to those who cannot afford them.

Communities Rise will present a session at the conference called “Advising Nonprofits to Defend and Support their Racial Justice Missions.” The session will be presented by Livio De La Cruz, Interim Co-Executive Director of Communities Rise, and David Lawson, board member of Communities Rise and partner at Perkins Coie. The session will discuss a wide variety of legal theories being used to challenge nonprofits’ racial justice work and discuss ways that nonprofits can make their work more defensible. The presentation will also discuss approaches to fiscal sponsorship arrangements that can help nonprofits better support this type of work.

To learn more, visit the conference website. Attendees can register for in-person or virtual attendance.