ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The managers of Sarah Palin’s new legal defense fund are asking supporters to generate more donations to help the former Alaska governor pay off a “tremendous” load of legal debts.

E-mails sent out Thursday on behalf of the Sarah Palin Legal Defense Fund link to a page on the fund’s website featuring a U.S. map sprinkled with pink dots signifying friends.

The e-mail asks recipients to share the “campaign” with friends and family, adding, “we can cover the map with Sarah’s supporters across the country!”

Fund manager Tim Crawford, who signed the e-mails, and Palin’s attorney, Thomas Van Flein, did not immediately return requests for comment.

Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, cited the toll of multiple “frivolous” ethics complaints as one of the reasons for her resignation as governor last year. She has said she racked up at least $500,000 in legal fees.

The new defense fund was created on the same day in late June that an ethics investigator announced an earlier fund was illegal. Under a settlement agreement Palin made with the state Personnel Board, the nearly $390,000 collected through the Alaska Fund Trust before her July 27, 2009, resignation is being returned.

Van Flein has said Palin never received any money from the trust, which prompted an ethics complaint against her soon after it was created in April 2009.

No wrongdoing on Palin’s part was found by personnel board investigator Timothy Petumenos. He said Palin acted in good faith and relied on a team of attorneys.

Days after the new defense fund was set up, Crawford said the response from donors was good, but he declined to say how much had been raised at that point. He said many Palin supporters were saying they wanted donations made to the old fund transferred to the new one.

Crawford is the treasurer of Palin’s political action committee, but said the new fund is independent of SarahPAC. He said the fund only needs to file reports with the Internal Revenue Service because it involves a private citizen.

“Across the country, thousands of Americans have stepped forward to help relieve Sarah Palin from the burden of her legal fees,” he wrote in Thursday’s e-mail. “Will you help us spread the news?”

Most of the more than two dozen complaints filed against Palin have been dismissed outright.

One complaint — also investigated by Petumenos — focused on state-paid trips Palin took with her children as governor. That case found vague state regulations but no wrongdoing on Palin’s part. It concluded with a settlement agreement by Palin to reimburse the state about $8,000 for costs associated with nine trips taken by her children.

Another complaint that alleged Palin and some staff members used their influence to get a supporter a job in state government was dismissed with a recommendation of ethics training for a Palin staffer who made questionable comments in e-mails.

In the past year, Palin has reportedly made at least $12 million from her best-selling book and other media deals.