Draft, October 10, 2005

Strategic 

Directions

2006-2010 

Adopted by LSC Board of Directors 

January 28, 2006 

LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION 

America’s Partner for Equal Justice 
LSC STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS 2006-2010 

CONTENTS

 

Mission .............................................................................................................................1 

Goals.................................................................................................................................2 

1. Increase public awareness of and support for civil legal services to 

low-income persons in order to respond appropriately to more of their legal 

needs. 

2. Enhance the quality and compliance of legal services programs. 

3. Ensure that LSC operates efficiently and effectively. 

Goal 1 Objectives and Strategies...................................................................................3 

Objective 1: Increase access to and expand ways of providing assistance...............3 

Objective 2: As the principal leader in the legal services/access to justice

community, strengthen collaborations and strategic 

partnerships........................................................................................4 

Objective 3: More effectively inform the public of what LSC grantees do................6 

Objective 4: Seek additional funding for legal services work ...................................6

Goal 2 Objectives and Strategies...................................................................................8 

Objective 1: Effectively use LSC performance criteria and other indicia of highquality legal services..............................................................................8 

Objective 2: Increase training and technical assistance ...........................................9 

Objective 3: Develop and enhance innovative approaches.....................................10

Goal 3 Objectives and Strategies.................................................................................12 

Objective 1: Increase LSC’s productivity.................................................................12 

Objective 2: Use resources effectively......................................................................13 

Objective 3: Review administrative requirements for grantees................................13 

Strategic Directions Performance Measures..............................................................15
Mission

The Congress of the United States, in the declaration of purpose of the Legal Services 

Corporation Act, found that “there is a need to provide equal access to the system of 

justice in our Nation for individuals who seek redress of grievances;” that “there is a 

need to provide high quality legal assistance to those who would be otherwise unable to 

afford adequate legal counsel;” and that “providing legal assistance to those who face an 

economic barrier to adequate legal counsel will serve best the ends of justice and assist in 

improving opportunities for low-income persons.” In keeping with this mandate, the 

Legal Services Corporation (LSC) establishes as our mission: 

To promote equal access to justice in our Nation and to provide 

 high quality civil legal assistance to low-income persons. 

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Goals 

For the years 2006-2010, LSC establishes two strategic goals and one support goal for the 

organization. First, LSC grantees documented in 2005 that for every person served by 

their programs, one had to be turned away for lack of resources to serve them. To help

achieve equal access to justice in our nation, LSC must generate awareness of and 

support for the provision of civil legal services to those who need them. The provision of 

such services may be through an LSC-funded program, through other legal aid programs, 

through pro bono work by private attorneys, or through other means, but it is essential 

that support be generated so that more services can be delivered. Accordingly, LSC 

establishes as its first strategic goal for the next five years: 

Increase public awareness of and support for civil legal services 

to low-income persons in order to respond appropriately to more 

of their legal needs. 

In carrying out its mission, LSC funds legal aid programs across the nation to provide 

legal services. These grantees provide a broad range of civil legal assistance to eligible 

individuals in keeping with statutory and regulatory provisions. To fulfill the mandate of

Congress for high quality legal assistance, LSC establishes as its second strategic goal for 

the next five years:

Enhance the quality and compliance of legal services programs. 

LSC is committed to supporting and monitoring grantee operations in ways that enhance 

program delivery without placing undue burdens on the grantees. LSC also is committed 

to administering its funds in a sound and economical manner. Consistent with these 

commitments, LSC establishes as its support goal for the next five years: 

Ensure that LSC operates efficiently and effectively. 

To accomplish its goals, LSC establishes the following objectives and strategies to pursue 

over the next five years. LSC management will adopt an annual workplan for the 

organization that will assign to specific offices responsibility for yearly progress on each 

of the strategies. Each office will then assign responsibilities to specific individuals for 

strategic accomplishments. Progress toward achieving the goals will be measured using 

the performance measures that follow the strategy sections. 

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Objectives and Strategies for Achieving Goal 1: 

Increase public awareness of and support for civil legal services to 

low-income persons in order to respond appropriately to more of 

their legal needs. 

To achieve the goal of increasing public awareness of and support for civil legal services 

to low-income persons in order to respond appropriately to more of their legal needs, 

LSC establishes four objectives with specific strategies for achieving each of the 

objectives. The first objective is: 

Objective 1: Increase access to and expand ways of providing assistance. 

In order to serve more needs of low-income people, legal service programs should be 

better known among the potential client population, more accessible, and have more 

options available for delivery of services. To achieve this objective, LSC will pursue 

four strategies. 

Strategies 

 Encourage community outreach and education by grantees about legal rights 

and responsibilities and the types of assistance available from legal services 

programs. 

As indicated by several of the legal needs surveys conducted in nine states 

between 2000 and 2005, many low income people not only are unaware of 

when their problems have a legal dimension to them, but also are unaware of the 

availability of free legal services to assist them. In conformity with the 

Congressional restriction on soliciting for clients, grantees will be encouraged to 

provide more outreach to their communities to make low income individuals 

more aware of their legal rights and responsibilities and the types of assistance 

available from legal services programs. 

 Use technology to expand access and availability, including through the 

expansion of Technology Initiative Grants (TIG).

To assist with outreach and availability, LSC will continue to seek financial 

support for technology grants and will continue to work with grantees and 

vendors to sustain existing websites and in other innovative ways to provide 

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education and services through technological assistance. By expanding TIG, 

LSC will be able to help programs continue to improve their services and their 

electronic systems. 

 Encourage expanded pro bono activities and contributions. 

Private attorneys provide most of the pro bono services that are offered to lowincome people, and LSC will work with grantees and bar associations to expand 

the provision of pro bono services. 

 Participate in the continued development of systems that support more effective 

pro se access where appropriate. 

Given the mismatch between legal aid resources and the needs to be met, LSC 

will continue to work with the courts and others to improve pro se processes 

where appropriate. LSC will pursue further development of applications such 

as the web-based provision of pro se forms and will support grantees’ work with 

judicial systems on pro se access. 

The second objective under goal one is: 

Objective 2: As the principal leader in the legal services/access to 

justice community, strengthen collaborations and strategic 

partnerships. 

To achieve more public support for legal services and to provide more 

services to low-income persons, LSC will reach out to other groups who share 

an interest in equal access to justice. Collaborations will be emphasized in 

eight strategic areas. 

Strategies 

 With judicial organizations 

At the state and federal levels, judicial organizations can be effective advocates 

for ensuring equal access to justice. Through organizations such as the Center for 

State Courts, the Conference of Chief Justices of State Supreme Courts, the 

Judicial Conference of the United States, LSC can help raise awareness of the 

need for programs and funding to assist the poor in obtaining access to justice. 

Over the next five years, LSC will increase its engagement with judicial

organizations. 

 With IOLTA groups 

Every state in the United States, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands 

have rules governing lawyers’ trust accounts requiring that interest on lawyers’ 

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trust accounts (IOLTA funds) be dedicated to public interest activities such as 

legal aid. Over the next five years, LSC will work with grantees to help increase

the percentage of IOLTA funds that are dedicated to the provision of legal aid. 

 With law schools and clinics 

Law schools and clinics are significant sources of legal assistance in some areas. 

More can be done to encourage law professors and students to support the 

delivery of legal aid to the poor. 

 With private attorneys, bar associations, and corporate legal counsels 

Organizations representing attorneys are very effective advocates on equal justice 

issues. LSC will continue to work with such organizations to build support for 

more resources dedicated to legal assistance to low-income people. 

 With state equal justice communities

In many states, statewide organizations have been formed to promote equal access 

to justice. LSC will work over the next five years to assist in establishing equal 

access to justice commissions or other similar entities where they do not exist and 

to support the ongoing efforts of existing commissions. 

 With federal agencies 

A number of federal agencies provide funding for legal services for specialized 

populations, such as older Americans, persons with disabilities, persons in lowincome housing, and victims of domestic violence. Over the next five years, LSC 

will increase its collaboration and coordination with such agencies. 

 With organizations that assist with disaster recoveries 

Learning from the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, LSC will develop relationships 

with organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Administration to 

plan for methods to assist grantees affected by disasters. 

 With other organizations interested in the delivery of legal services 

While LSC has been active with a number of organizations who share the mission 

of equal access to justice, more effort needs to be made with other national 

organizations interested in the provision of legal services. 

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The third objective under goal one is: 

Objective 3: More effectively inform the public of what LSC grantees do. 

If more support is to be generated for legal services for the poor, a much greater 

awareness of the importance and availability of legal services is needed. This will be

accomplished through two strategies.

Strategies 

 Collect and distribute stories about the meaningful differences made in clients’ 

lives

Legal assistance helps people to improve their lives, from securing habitable 

homes to resolving consumer problems to resolving domestic issues to attaining 

self-sufficiency. Success stories abound about people who moved forward with 

their lives when access to justice was provided. Some legal services cases result 

in reduced public expenditures, such as when housing issues with landlords are 

resolved and families remain in housing rather than becoming homeless, or when 

child support issues are resolved and financial support is provided by absent 

parents, or when obstacles preventing employment are resolved allowing a client 

to obtain work or to remain working. By working with grantees on how better to 

communicate their success stories to their local communities, LSC will achieve 

greater public awareness of civil legal services. 

 Continue to identify and publicize needs that are not being met 

National and statewide studies have documented that at least 80% of the legal 

needs of the poor are not being met through current provisions of service by legal 

services programs, pro bono assistance, or other forms of legal aid. Helping the 

public to understand this need is essential to increasing public support for legal 

services. 

The fourth objective under goal one is: 

Objective 4: Seek additional funding for legal services work. 

LSC will work to secure greater resources from two sources.

Strategies

 The federal government 

Based on the 2005 study of those that LSC grantees were unable to serve, LSC 

will seek each year to increase significantly the funding provided by Congress for 

the provision of civil legal services to the poor. Also, LSC will work to educate 

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federal agencies seeking to deliver services to poor people about the capacity and 

effectiveness of using legal aid providers when the service involves informing 

people of their rights or helping to resolve legal disputes. 

 The private sector for projects of national significance 

While sensitive to the need not to compete with legal services grantees for private 

contributions and the need not to impact negatively federal appropriations, LSC 

will seek to identify projects of national significance that could merit 

consideration for funding from private sources and will explore support for those 

projects. 

LSC Strategic Directions Page 7 
Objectives and Strategies for Achieving Goal 2: 

Enhance the quality and compliance of legal services programs.

To achieve the goal of enhancing the quality and compliance of legal services programs, 

LSC adopts three objectives with a set of strategies for each objective. The first objective 

is: 

Objective 1: Effectively use LSC performance criteria and other 

indicia of high-quality legal services. 

The revised LSC performance criteria, the ABA Standards for Providers of Civil Legal 

Services to the Poor, and data from program visits and grantee reports will be used to 

improve the quality and compliance of legal services programs. Five specific strategies 

will be pursued. 

Strategies 

 Encourage programs to use LSC performance criteria in program selfevaluations, planning, and program development. 

To encourage programs to improve quality, LSC will encourage grantees to use 

the LSC performance criteria in their planning and program development and 

among the measures that programs use to evaluate themselves. LSC will explore 

peer reviews and other evaluation and assessment options to assist grantees. 

 Use the competitive grant process to enhance program quality. 

LSC uses the competitive grant process to choose the best applicant where there 

are more than one and, where there is only one applicant, to make sure that the 

applicant is capable of effective and efficient service delivery. As a part of the 

competitive grant process, LSC applies the LSC Performance Criteria and gives 

applicants feedback on the quality of their application and any weaknesses 

perceived in the planned program. Over the next five years, LSC will use the 

findings in the competitive grant process to work with successful applicants to 

improve their programs. 

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 Use program visits to emphasize quality and compliance. 

LSC will increase the number of visits to grantees and will use the reports 

following visits to identify suggestions for quality and compliance improvements. 

LSC will develop a strategy for program visits that assures appropriate reviews of

LSC grant funds. 

 Make better use of data to identify and analyze recurring issues and focus on 

addressing those issues. 

LSC will analyze the data collected during program visits by Office of

Compliance and Enforcement (OCE) and the Office of Program Performance 

(OPP) and other data that LSC collects to identify issues that appear to be

problems in more than one program. Appropriate training and guidance materials 

then will be developed and distributed on those issues. 

 Contribute to the development of the ABA Standards for Providers of Civil Legal 

Services to the Poor. 

LSC will continue to work with the American Bar Association (ABA) on the 

development of the ABA Standards for Providers of Civil Legal Services to the 

Poor. References to the ABA Standards when they are final will be incorporated 

where appropriate into the LSC performance criteria. 

The second objective for enhancing the quality and compliance of legal services 

programs is: 

Objective 2: Increase training and technical assistance. 

By providing training and technical assistance to grantees and their staffs, LSC will help 

to spread the adoption of best practices, will help grantee staff to become more effective 

service deliverers, and will enhance the quality and compliance of LSC programs. LSC 

will implement four strategies to achieve this objective. 

Strategies 

 Enhance the collection and distribution of best practices information. 

Through program visits and the competitive grants process, LSC collects 

information on best practices among legal services programs. Through the LSC 

Resource Initiative (LRI), LSC disseminates this information. LSC will expand 

this effort and promote the adoption of best practices among LSC grantees. 

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 Provide training for grantee staff on effective program operations and achieving 

full compliance with regulations. 

LSC, during its technical assistance and training offerings, will emphasize good 

management practices and achieving full compliance with LSC regulations. LSC 

will analyze comments received during program visits to determine in what areas 

LSC guidance needs to be clearer. LSC will then clarify its policies and 

documentation needs where necessary. In offering training, LSC will consider 

regional training programs for grantees and will evaluate whether such regional 

programs can reach more people more quickly, thus enhancing program quality 

and compliance. LSC will also develop computer- and web-based training on 

common issues for LSC grantees and will develop other training aids such as 

video presentations and distance learning opportunities through remote 

broadcasts. By offering training in a variety of formats, LSC expects to reach 

more people at lower cost than through traditional on-site training programs. 

 Continue to promote the diversity of legal services providers’ boards, staff and 

leadership. 

 LSC will continue to emphasize the importance of maintaining diversity on the 

boards, in the leadership, and in the staffs of the grantees. 

The third objective for enhancing the quality and compliance of legal services programs 

is: 

Objective 3: Develop and enhance innovative approaches. 

As evidenced by LSC’s initiation of programs like TIG, LSC promotes innovative means 

for providing legal assistance to low-income people. Over the next five years, LSC will 

continue this promotion in three ways. 

Strategies 

 Design, implement, and evaluate innovative means for supporting grantee 

program development. 

In order to assist grantees in recruiting and retaining staff, LSC has implemented a 

program to assist a limited number of grantee attorneys to pay off educational 

loans. The LRAP program will be evaluated and, if it has assisted in the 

recruitment and retention of legal services staff, LSC will seek to expand it. Also, 

in order to develop a diverse corps of future leaders for legal services grantees, 

LSC began planning in 2005 for a model program for mentoring emerging leaders 

among LSC grantees. If the programs are successful, LSC expects to assist 

grantees and other organizations to establish more such programs. LSC will 

continue to identify new potential areas for innovative programs to support 

grantee development. 

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 Continue emphasis on technology initiatives and develop a strategic vision for 

LSC’s technology investments. 

Since 2000, Technology Initiative Grants have supported the development of new 

ideas such as statewide websites, kiosks for public access, and web-based pro se 

forms. LSC will continue to encourage grantees to use technology in innovative 

ways to increase access, to improve service delivery, and to enhance their 

management and administration. LSC will work with grantees to evaluate 

technology investments and to develop a strategic vision for technology 

development that will support future funding requests and guide future investment 

decisions. 

 Work to improve support for hard to serve areas and populations, e.g., rural 

areas, migrants, Native Americans, limited English proficiency clients. 

Programs serving hard-to-serve populations face difficult challenges in reaching 

potential clients, in building trust with potential clients, and in being able to 

follow through on identified problems. To improve quality and compliance in 

these programs, LSC will focus attention on innovative ways to serve such

populations and will examine the special needs of programs serving such 

populations. 

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Objectives and Strategies to Achieve Goal 3: 

Ensure that LSC operates efficiently and effectively.

To achieve the support goal of ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of LSC 

operations, LSC adopts three objectives each with its own strategies: 

Objective 1: Increase LSC’s productivity. 

Strategies 

 Develop closer collaboration between operating units of LSC. 

In order to assure that the various units of LSC communicate the same message, 

LSC will insure that policy and procedure communications within each office get 

shared with other offices. LSC will evaluate whether to conduct more joint visits 

with OCE and OPP to further this collaboration. 

 Make LSC a model of diversity and inclusiveness. 

As will be done with grantees, LSC will examine its own staffing and, through 

appropriate development and hiring, will strive to make LSC a model for diversity 

in staffing. 

 Add to the capacity of LSC staff by enhancing skills through training and career 

development. 

LSC will institute a formal plan for assessing the training and career development 

needs of its employees and will develop a system for assuring that such needs are 

addressed. 

 Enhance database capacities and knowledge management capabilities. 

LSC will keep its information technology (IT) operations up to date and will 

implement a knowledge management system as a part of its IT system. 

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 Ensure timeliness of LSC written products. 

LSC will reduce the time necessary to complete its written products. Goals will 

be set for average times for field reports to be prepared for management, delivered 

to the field, and closed appropriately. Goals will also be set for posting and filling 

vacancies and for closing financial statements. 

Objective 2: Use resources effectively. 

 Conduct bottom-up reviews of LSC operations focusing on efficient practices and 

fiscal responsibility. 

LSC Management will examine each of the LSC operating units to review 

appropriate staffing and budgeting for each unit. Within the administrative units, 

benchmarking of LSC operations against other similar organizations will be used. 

 Encourage initiatives for cost savings. 

LSC will encourage staff to identify areas for cost savings, such as the internet 

travel initiative begun in 2004. Opportunities will be identified, modifications 

implemented, and appropriate recognition extended to the staff involved. 

 Review space requirements and modify as appropriate. 

LSC will periodically review its office space requirements and will modify its 

space requirements as appropriate. 

Objective 3: Review administrative requirements for grantees. 

 Examine and, where appropriate, amend regulations. 

Every year, the LSC board will review the need for regulatory changes. 

Recommendations for appropriate amendments for FY 2006 have already been 

identified. 

 Examine and, if appropriate, simplify and streamline data collection from 

grantees. 

LSC will review the data that it collects from grantees and will review data which 

grantees must submit to state and federal agencies. Where it is possible, LSC will 

revise its data collection needs to conform to data already being produced and 

collected for another purpose. Where appropriate, LSC will seek to get other 

funders to accept an LSC format. LSC will work with IOLTA representatives to 

determine to what extent common applications for funding can be developed so as 

to reduce the administrative burden on grantees of preparing different 

applications.

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 Explore the development of nationwide contracts for service, e.g., technology, 

health care. 

LSC has been successful with one vendor in establishing a nationwide contract for 

services that lowered the costs to grantees for those services. LSC will seek other 

areas in which the economies of a national market or national pricing policies will 

be of advantage to grantees and will pursue such contracts. 

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STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS 2006-2010 

PERFORMANCE MEASURES

Measuring LSC’s progress in attaining the goals set forth in this Strategic Directions 

document will be a challenge. Most of the measurements identified here are at best 

indirect measures of the impact of LSC activity. For many measures, baselines have yet 

to be established. Some of the measures need further refinement before being useful as 

performance measures, and in some areas performance measures have yet to be 

developed. During 2006, LSC will further develop performance measures in order to 

monitor better the organization’s progress between 2006 and 2010. 

Goal 1: Increase public awareness of and support for civil legal 

services to low-income persons in order to respond 

appropriately to more of their legal needs 

To measure LSC’s success in achieving the first strategic goal, the goal has been divided 

into its three elements: raising public awareness, increasing support, and serving more 

needs. Two measures have been adopted for measuring public awareness. 

Performance Measures 

 Count of media articles. 

This count will include articles from every media outlet tracked by LSC’s 

clipping service. An increase in articles published will be considered as an 

indirect indication of an increase in public awareness. 

 Collective visits to legal services websites. 

As a measure of public awareness of the availability of legal services, LSC will 

count the number of page loads of LSC and grantee websites. Page loads 

require more time than mere “hits” on websites and are a more appropriate 

measure of interest by the viewer. An increase in the number of page loads will 

be considered an indication of increased public awareness of legal services. 

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To measure increasing support for legal services, one performance measure has been 

adopted: 

 Total funding nationwide to support equal access work. 

The total funding measure will include total dollars appropriated by Congress 

for the year, the collective amount of other federal grants reported by grantees 

on an annual basis, the collective amount of private funding reported by 

grantees and LSC on an annual basis, the annual amount and percentage of 

IOLTA dollars nationwide that are appropriated for legal services work, and 

the collective amount of state funding, including appropriations and fees. 

Funding will be reported collectively for LSC grantees, and collectively for 

non-grantees to the extent that non-grantee information is available. 

To measure the element of responding to more needs, LSC will use three performance 

measures: 

 Periodic nationwide counts of potential clients whom grantees are unable to 

serve. 

In 2005, LSC asked grantees to count the number of potential clients that they 

were unable to serve because of a lack of resources. While LSC will not pursue 

such counts on an annual basis, a count at least every five years will be used to 

measure success in serving more of the people who ask for the help of legal 

services programs. 

 Analysis of Case Service Report data and types of cases. 

Grantees report to LSC on an annual basis the number and types of cases which 

they handle. LSC will provide an annual report of this data and indicate yearto-year changes which measure the level of services provided. 

 Number of downloads of forms from grantee websites.

As grantees provide more support for pro se filings, potential clients will be 

using more of the pro se forms made available on grantee websites. LSC will 

consider the total number of pro se forms downloaded annually as a measure of 

providing assistance to pro se litigants. 

LSC Strategic Directions Page 16 
Goal 2: Enhance the quality and compliance of legal services 

programs

Outcome measures

In considering outcome measures, LSC recognizes that the ultimate measure is whether 

grantees obtain successful outcomes for their clients. The definition of success, however, 

is not simple. Even where a case goes to trial, the outcome may be viewed as successful 

by some but not by others. In simpler matters where an attorney provides brief advice, 

the attorney has no way of knowing if the client followed the advice or if the outcome

was successful. 

LSC has been discussing outcome measures with grantees and will continue to encourage 

grantees to identify methods for measuring outcomes for their clients. LSC will collect 

and share the outcome measures developed by grantees to promote their use by legal 

services programs. Since priorities and state laws (and therefore the desired outcomes) 

vary from grantee to grantee, national outcome measures are difficult to establish. While 

grantees generally conduct some form of client follow-up such as client satisfaction 

surveys, surveys provide limited information by which to assess the quality of legal 

assistance provided. 

LSC will continue over the next five years to work on appropriate means to measure 

successful outcomes for LSC programs. Until such time as appropriate outcome 

measures are developed, LSC will track the following performance measures for quality 

and compliance: 

Performance measures 

Goal two is divided into two areas for performance measures, quality and compliance. 

LSC has adopted five indicators of quality in the delivery of legal services. 

 LSC performance criteria measures. 

LSC performance criteria are the means LSC is using to emphasize quality in 

LSC programs. LSC will develop methods of measuring and reporting on these 

criteria, and then use those methods to produce performance measures for Goal 

2. 

 Scores on competitive grant evaluations. 

LSC uses its performance criteria to score applications for competitive grant 

awards. Over a three-year period, every grant will be open to competition.

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While year-to-year scores may vary depending upon which grants are being 

competed, the trend in scores over time will be considered an indication of the 

level of program quality of grantees competing for awards. 

 Diversity numbers for grantee boards, leadership, and staff. 

Grantees annually report to LSC on the diversity characteristics of their staff, 

leadership, and boards. This information will be aggregated and reported as a 

quality indicator for LSC programs. 

 Grantee attorney retention. 

Retention of experienced attorneys will be considered a measure of quality in 

staffing. LSC will report annually on the average length of service for all 

grantee attorney staff nationwide. 

 Amount of training provided for grantee staff. 

LSC will collect from grantees during the competitive award process the training 

provided to grantee staff. A well-trained staff being an indicator of a quality 

program, LSC will consider the amount of training provided as an indicator of

program quality. 

As indicators of compliance, LSC has adopted three performance measures: 

 Number of technical assistance and training sessions conducted by LSC. 

In order to assist grantees to achieve and remain in compliance with laws and 

regulations governing legal services operations, LSC conducts training sessions 

for grantee staff. LSC will count and report on these sessions on an annual 

basis. The number of training sessions provided will be considered an indicator

of LSC’s compliance efforts. 

 Percent of in-compliance findings from OCE visits. 

During program visits by OCE staff, grantees are evaluated on whether they are 

in compliance with a list of regulatory items. The aggregate percentage of 

findings that are in compliance will be reported annually by LSC and considered 

as an indicator of the level of compliance by legal services programs with laws 

and regulations. 

 Timeliness and degree of resolution of OCE corrective action notices.

When items are found during program visits that are not in compliance, 

corrective action items are made part of the draft and final reports sent to 

programs. The average length of time for a program to resolve a corrective 

LSC Strategic Directions Page 18 
action notice will be considered an indicator of commitment to compliance by 

LSC grantees. In addition, the extent to which a program has implemented 

necessary change, as well as the level of proof obtained by LSC to support full 

compliance, will be considered indicators of the success in improving noted

compliance issues. 

Goal 3: Ensure that LSC operates efficiently and effectively

Support goal three is divided into two parts for measurement purposes: efficiency and 

effectiveness. To measure efficiency, LSC has adopted three performance measures. 

Performance Measures

 Average lapsed time for LSC report production. 

LSC will measure the average time from program visits to issuing reports from

OCE, OPP, or from joint visits as a measure of efficiency. 

 Achieve conformance with benchmark staffing levels for administrative staff. 

LSC will measure efficiency in its administrative units by reporting on 

benchmark levels of staffing for LSC vis-a-vis other similar organizations on a 

periodic basis. 

 Achieve conformance with benchmark office space requirements. 

LSC will benchmark its space needs against other similar organizations and 

report on its conclusions on a periodic basis. 

To measure effectiveness, LSC has adopted four performance measures: 

 Diversity of LSC staff and leadership. 

As with grantees, LSC will report annually on the diversity of its staff and 

leadership. 

 Amount of training provided for LSC staff where needs have been assessed. 

LSC will report annually on the amount of training, including technology 

training, provided for its staff. The number of training opportunities will be 

considered an indicator of the effectiveness of LSC staff in performing their 

jobs. 

LSC Strategic Directions Page 19 
 Administrative costs as a percentage of the total LSC appropriation. 

In keeping with how some other non-profit organizations measure administrative 

effectiveness, LSC will report annually on its administrative costs as a 

percentage of the total LSC appropriation. 

 Achieve conformance with benchmark IT sophistication levels. 

Effective organizations must maintain a modern information technology 

infrastructure. LSC will benchmark itself against other similar organizations and 

periodically report on its conclusions as an indicator of effectiveness. 

LSC Strategic Directions Page 20