Legal Information Institute (LII)

We’re experimenting with AI in lots of ways at LII. I promise you that none are nearly as frivolous as what you’re about to read.

I asked ChatGPT to write this email–what do you think? – LII – Legal Information Institute Prompt: Can you please write a fundraising email of about 300 words using as much ridiculous legal jargon as possible to express that we’ve fallen behind our goals so far but believe we can still turn it around and meet our target by the end of December?

You can help a lot of people — and today, twice as many. For Giving Tuesday, generous donors have agreed to multiply the impact of your gift by matching all donations dollar for dollar. We are deeply grateful for their support and hope it will inspire you and many others to join in. With the help of folks like you, LII continues more than three decades of providing free, reliable, unbiased legal information to anyone with an internet connection. Every dollar you donate brings the LII website to individuals, around the globe, from all walks of life, empowering them to address economic, personal, and civic information needs.

Multiply your Giving Tuesday gift – LII – Legal Information Institute We are deeply grateful for their support and hope it will inspire you and many others to join in. With the help of folks like you, LII continues more than three decades of providing free, reliable, unbiased legal information to anyone with an internet connection. Every dollar you donate brings the L...

When deciding what to say in the next fundraising email, I initially resisted mentioning this week’s Thanksgiving holiday. Your inbox is no doubt overflowing with holiday-themed solicitations, coupons, and use discount code TURKEY10 for 10% of site-wide! And, let’s be clear, we are in fundraising mode right now.

Happy Thanksgiving from LII – LII – Legal Information Institute But it’s also a chance to remind you that LII is not some giant machine with a department of employees tasked with crafting the perfect holiday email. We are just nine permanent staffers producing hundreds of thousands of web pages viewed by tens of millions of people each year. When we say, as we...

Frequently over the past few years we’ve become accustomed to answering questions about how artificial intelligence affects our work: what if everyone gets their answers from somewhere else that consumes our information — and no one ever uses the LII website any more?
This isn’t as new a question as you might think — LII has been answering it at least since Wikipedia started up in the early 2000s.

Learning from keeping the law free for all – LII – Legal Information Institute This isn’t as new a question as you might think — LII has been answering it at least since Wikipedia started up in the early 2000s. At least for now, our answer continues to be the same: our work serves the public regardless of how many intermediaries use and present it to them. What we learn fr...

We are accustomed to being asked why the Legal Information Institute solicits donations, which is usually paired with the observation that Cornell has a healthy endowment. It’s a fair question.

The truth is, there are some good reasons why we don’t want to get our funding from Cornell. Your support makes that possible.

Why does LII ask for donations? – LII – Legal Information Institute The truth is, there are some good reasons why we don’t want to get our funding from Cornell. Your support makes that possible.

As we gear up to launch our year-end fundraising campaign, we’ve been reflecting on the incredible work we’ve accomplished over the past year. One standout aspect has been our collaborations with students and recent graduates, both from Cornell and beyond. While we always engage with students in meaningful ways, this year has truly been exceptional. That’s why we’re highlighting these student-driven projects in our annual report—showcasing not only their remarkable contributions but also the ongoing support and guidance from our team. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved together, and we believe this focus on student work offers a fresh perspective on the breadth and impact of our cross-disciplinary efforts. We hope it resonates with you as much as it does with us.

FY 24 in Review – LII – Legal Information Institute As we prepared to launch our year-end fundraising campaign in the coming days, we considered what we wanted to share with our supporters about what we’ve been up to since the last time we did this. This year, we couldn’t help but be struck by all the novel and exciting work we did with students ...

The Legal Information Institute welcomed more than 47 million unique visitors to our website in 2022, that’s five million more than last year and an increase of over 12%. A lot of that increase can be attributed to the maturation of some of the projects we’ve been telling you about in recent years. So, we thought we’d give you an update on our progress on those fronts: https://blog.law.cornell.edu/blog/2023/01/31/liis-2022-in-review/

We have a lot to be thankful for. With the help of supporters like you, we have weathered difficult times of the pandemic and emerged with a sense of wonder and excitement, ready to use the dizzying array of new tools we can now bring to bear on the challenge of making the law accessible and understandable for the public. And for today, Giving Tuesday, a generous group of donors have agreed to multiply the impact of your gift by matching all donations up to $20,000.

Multiply your Giving Tuesday impact – LII News Multiply your Giving Tuesday impact We have a lot to be thankful for. With the help of supporters like you, we have weathered difficult times of the pandemic and emerged with a sense of wonder and excitement, ready to use the dizzying array of new tools we can now bring to bear on the challenge of m...

We know we look our age–and there’s nothing wrong with that. But everyone can use a little glow up on occasion. So, we got a little work done and freshened up for our 30th anniversary.

A Birthday Glow-Up – LII News A Birthday Glow-Up We know we look our age–and there’s nothing wrong with that.  But everyone can use a little glow up on occasion.  So, we’ve taken some time over the last year to think through what we want the LII “brand” to convey to everyone from those of you who are on our site almo...

The LII celebrated its 30th birthday recently, so we got some cake to mark 30 years of providing free access to legal information.

Over 30, but Still Trustworthy – LII News Over 30, but Still Trustworthy The phrase “Don’t trust anyone over 30” has its roots in the student activism of the 1960s. LII turned 30 years old last month but we very much hope that you’ll continue to trust us as an unbiased source for statutes, regulations, Supreme Court content, and eve...