The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund [CELDF] was launched in 1995 to provide free and affordable legal services to grassroots, community-based environmental groups, and rural municipal governments. The Legal Defense Fund currently hosts four Program Areas:

Grassroots Litigation Support Program: Through this Program, the Legal Defense Fund assists groups and individuals to litigate without a lawyer in County, State, and Federal Courts on selected issues. In addition, the Legal Defense Fund agrees to represent groups and individuals directly on issues of public importance, and maintains a legal referral directory of low cost legal assistance.

Grassroots Administrative and Technical Support Program: Through this Program, the Legal Defense Fund provides incorporation and IRS 501[c][3] processing services for groups, provides general legal research, responds to general legal inquiries, and assists organizations with fundraising.

Corporations and Democracy Program: Through this Program, the Legal Defense Fund drafts Ordinances for local governments and assists organizations to assert direct, local, and democratic control over corporations.

Sustainable Communities Program: Through this Program, the Legal Defense Fund has created the Franklin County Coalition - an association of diverse community-based organizations in Franklin County, Pennsylvania seeking to build a sustainable County in South-Central Pennsylvania. The Legal Defense Fund is working to replicate that County-based model in other areas of Pennsylvania.

Since 1995, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund [CELDF] has provided legal assistance to over three hundred organizations in seventeen states, and has assisted over seventy rural, local governments in four states.