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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

LegalZoom, Nonprofit in Partnership

LegalZoom decided to partner with Bay Area nonprofit Accion Opportunity Fund at the beginning of March to increase legal services and capital for clients across both organizations.The partnership marks LegalZoom’s first significant nonprofit partnership, the Glendale company said. Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed.“Accion has a product, they have a loan product; they’re a nonprofit bank, for the lack of a better term. A lot of their clients are LegalZoom customers as well, and vice versa,” said Catherine Davie, head of social impact at LegalZoom. Davie’s position, and the team she is growing, is new within the company.LegalZoom will provide philanthropic support to Accion’s Small Business Relief Fund, sending financial aid and creating educational resources for qualifying businesses. Accion focuses its efforts on small businesses owned by people of color, women and immigrants.“We really tell a nice story together; it’s all about increasing access. They provide access to capital, to their entrepreneurs, small business owners – we do the same, but for legal services,” explained Davie.The Opportunity Fund and Accion U.S. Network, the U.S. affiliate of global nonprofit Accion, announced they were combining organizations in March 2020.“We approached the Opportunity Fund knowing that they are now part of the Accion network,” added Davie. The initial focus of the partnership is on pandemic relief, but in the future the company seeks to deepen its relationship with Accion.“We’re starting this now and we’re looking at it very much in the long term because this isn’t a new issue, the pandemic has made it worse and it certainly will still exist once the pandemic is over,” added Davie. “I’d love to see this go for multiple years.”LegalZoom is in talks with other nonprofits to do similar partnerships, Davie said, with a focus on helping small businesses.Added Davie: “People come to us who can’t afford or don’t want to pay expensive legal fees, but what about people who can’t afford LegalZoom? We are looking at truly democratizing LegalZoom by entering into nonprofit relationships, like the one with the Opportunity Fund, so we can expand our mission and have other partners on board.”“The inequities facing diverse small business owners existed long before the pandemic, have been made worse because of it, and are at risk of continuing after the pandemic is over,” Dan Wernikoff, chief executive of LegalZoom, said in a statement. “Small businesses seeking legal services are the largest group relying on LegalZoom. The tremendous synergies between our organizations make our partnership a natural fit to make a difference now and in the long-term.”

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