Communities Rise

Communities Rise fosters movements to build power in communities impacted by systemic oppression. To create an equitable system, we pursue cross-sector collaboration, and provide capacity building and legal services for community organizations and microenterprises. Communities Rise (formerly Wayfind and the Nonprofit Assistance Center) has been providing pro bono legal services to nonprofits since 2004. In 2009, we opened our first Microenteprise Legal Clinic in Seattle in partnership with Ventures. In 2013, we opened our second and third legal clinics in Seattle and Edmonds in partnership with the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship NW. Communities Rise has over 300 Washington volunteer attorneys on our volunteer roster. We have provided free legal services on over 500 nonprofit legal matters and consulted with over 500 micro-businesses on their legal issues.

Communities Rise provides pro bono legal services to community organizations in three ways: 1. Provides business transactional pro bono opportunities to Washington attorneys and pro bono services to nonprofit organizations. Communities Rise accepts and screens applications from nonprofits for pro bono legal services and offers volunteer lawyers discreet, business transactional pro bono opportunities. Once an attorney volunteers for a particular matter, Communities Rise connects the nonprofit organization and the volunteer attorney. 2. Provides legal training and pro bono legal consultation to low-income microenterprise business owners in a clinical setting. We provides free trainings on common issues that microenterprises face (Choice of entity, Contracts, Intellectual Property and Employment Law). Communities Rise partners with microenterprise support organizations Ventures, Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship NW, City of Seattle Office of Economic Development and MercyCorps NW, to provide microenterprise legal clinic services to their clients. 3. Provide high quality legal training opportunities to lawyers and nonprofits on topics relevant to nonprofits and microenterprise businesses. Our legal trainings for attorneys are approved for CLE credits. Training topics include: ? Nuts & Bolts of Representing Nonprofits ? Employment Law ? Intellectual Property ? Social Media ? Fiscal Sponsorship