David Bershad Announces Matching Grant for the VLJ
Montclair, New Jersey resident David Bershad is the founder and principal of the Bershad Family Foundation. He is also a member of the board of trustees of Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, a Newark-based non-profit organization.
As a principal of the Bershard Family Foundation Bershad issued a “challenge grant” promising to donate $65,000 from the Foundation to the VLJ if that amount of money is matched by new donations from elsewhere. The challenge will end on July 15.
The VLJ is a unique group of lawyers that offer their services pro bono to financially challenged individuals in New Jersey, amounting to thousands of people they help every year.
Karen Sachs, also from Montclair like Bershad, is the Founding Executive Director. According to Sachs all other 25 members of the board of trustees have stepped forward with donations, but the community as a whole will need to chip in to meet the challenge.
“Our board is cognizant that we really need to diversify our funding sources,” Sacks said.
In the past David Bershad had given $50,000 to the ReLeSe program. This organization helpd people with criminal records to get back into the community. The help with things like renewing driver’s licenses, taking care of old municipal issues, adjusting child-support issues, and even expungement of criminal records.
