Fire Response Fund Grants

Photo credit: Shmuel Thaler

Learn more about how your gifts are making a difference at our Fire Response Online Event October 27th.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors – Fire Response Fund Grants

In response to the CZU Lightning Complex Fire, the Community Foundation has granted $541,000 to meet the urgent needs of our neighbors. In these early days of rebuilding, we are working with our nonprofit partners to directly assess emergent needs of the 911 residents who lost their homes, the 140 structures damaged, and the many residents displaced. We are coordinating with county leaders to ensure that we maximize public relief resources. Grants are addressing immediate needs, supporting insurance advocacy, and beginning to look at the long road of recovery.

We anticipate that the short and long term needs will be extensive as the fires have destroyed more homes than the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Leaders from communities that have experienced wildfires in recent years tell us that about 80% of funds raised in disaster need to be deployed in the months and years ahead. We have learned that local donations are often needed to bolster: basic and immediate needs, rebuilding homes and insurance advocacy, environmental restoration, preparing for future fires, floods, and protecting water, bringing people together, and starting new partnerships and teams to solve very local issues.

Together, we will rebuild and heal our beloved community.

100% of gifts go directly to our community.

• Amah Mutsun Land Trust: $25,000 to support housing for the Native Stewards of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust displaced due to the fires.
• Bonny Doon Community Preschool: $5,000 to purchase supplies and equipment necessary to safely reopen the preschool.

• Bonny Doon Community School Foundation: $20,000 to provide fire survivors with school supplies and technology for the youth’s distance learning.
• Boulder Creek Recreation and Parks District: $7,500 to support meals for fire survivors at the Boulder Creek Resource Function and to purchase gift cards from local Boulder Creek restaurants to distribute to fire survivors who live in Boulder Creek.
• Boulder Creek Volunteer Fire Department: $8,000 for their emergency services.
• Campesino Appreciation Caravan: $2,500 for N95 masks for farmworkers due to poor air quality.
• Catholic Charities Diocese of Monterey: $15,000 to support fire victims and evacuees with critical needs and direct emergency financial assistance.
• Davenport Resource Service Center (a program of Community Action Board): $70,000 to support fire victims and evacuees with critical needs, direct emergency financial assistance, and case management.
• Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks: $20,000 for fire damage assessment work in Big Basin State Park.
• Mountain Community Resources (a program of Community Bridges): $65,000 to support fire victims and evacuees with critical needs, direct emergency financial assistance, rental assistance, and case management.
• Office of Emergency Services Santa Cruz County: $21,000 for emergency gas cards for evacuees.
• Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County: $50,000 to support their post-fire recovery assistance and remediation. Providing on-site technical and planning help to asses post-fire land conditions and recommended actions. Offering free webinars on how to protect your land after a wildfire.
• San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District: $2,000 for gift cards to support basic supplies for families who have lost or damaged homes due to the fires.
• San Lorenzo Valley Youth Council/ Little People's Repertory Theatre: $2,000 to provide a safe space at the Annex for fire survivors to use for work and distance learning
• Santa Cruz Education Foundation: $3,000 to support fire victims and evacuees with direct financial assistance.
• Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter Foundation: $5,000 to care for evacuated animals.
• Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Foundation: $10,000 for onsite improvements to aid conditions for evacuees.
• Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County: $100,000 to purchase additional healthy shelf stable fruits, vegetables, and food for fire evacuees.
• United Policyholders: $100,000 for their Roadmap to Recovery Program for households impacted by the fires. To work with families in coordination with community partners to navigate the long term recovery. Providing guidance and free workshops on collecting available insurance benefits, making decisions, and getting back home after a catastrophic loss.
• Valley Churches United: $10,000 to support fire victims and evacuees with critical needs and direct emergency financial assistance.
• Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County: $10,000 to support coordination of shelter volunteers.

This page will be regularly updated.

Donor-Advised Philanthropy In Motion

In response to the CZU Lightning Complex Fires, donor advisors have granted $111,300 directly to support nonprofits in the relief and recovery efforts. Donor advisors are making a significant impact. Learn more about starting your own Donor-Advised Fund here.

Here are just a few examples of the unrestricted gifts given:

• $2,000 to the Amah Mutsun Land Trust
• $2,000 to the American Red Cross of the Central Coast
• $1,000 to the Boulder Creek Fire Department
• $17,500 to the Davenport Resource Center, Community Action Board
• $18,300 to the Mountain Community Resource Center, Community Bridges
• $500 to the Mountain Parks Foundation
• $500 to Native Animal Rescue of Santa Cruz County
• $20,000 Santa Cruz Animal Shelter Foundation
• $14,000 to Second Harvest Food Bank
  
• $1,000 to Sempervirens Fund
• $15,000 to Valley Churches United Missions

Want to Share Your Nonprofit's Fire Response Needs?

Grants from the Fire Response Fund are being made proactively, as we listen in to evolving needs identified by key partners, disaster response coordinators, and local leaders. While we are not offering an application process for Fire Response Fund grants, we want to stay in tune with needs as you see them from your nonprofit's perspective.

We won’t be able to provide funding to everyone who needs it. However, we hope this will give us a better understanding of the most urgent challenges affecting our most vulnerable people. This will help us prioritize deploying resources to where the need is greatest.

Please complete this short survey on behalf of your organization. It's a living document, so feel free to complete it again whenever responses need updating. Completion of the survey should not be considered a request for funding. If we see an opportunity to support the work you're doing from the Fire Response Fund, we will contact you directly to learn more.