Meet Our California Wildfires Recovery Fund Grantee Partners

All Hands and Hearts was awarded $150,000 to help the people of Butte County and other fire-affected communities recover from past wildfires and mitigate risks from future fires. Through this funding, All Hands accelerated their work creating a fuel break around the town of Paradise by expanding the capacity of the Butte County Fire Safe Council. Additionally, they created defensible spaces around homes and made parks, campgrounds and other public areas safer and less susceptible to wildfires by performing forest management activities. Finally, they operated an ongoing sawyer (chainsaw) training program to supply skilled staff and volunteers for mitigation activities in Butte County.

Citizens Organized to Prepare for Emergencies (COPE) Northern Sonoma County received $100,000 to fund a project coordinator/grants administrator and outreach coordinator to help build organizational capacity for the recovery process. Funds also provide for defensible space clearing to prevent the spread of future fires.

COPE received an additional $80,000 grant in 2022 to support the organization’s growth and strengthen its capacity for continued response to California’s extended wildfire season and the effects of drought and climate change on its communities.

Corazon Healdsburg received $99,734 in 2022 to support “Estamos Listos” Family Wildfire Disaster Readiness Workshops to help prepare their community for future wildfires and provide culturally appropriate tools to help them cope with the lingering trauma caused by these events.

In 2024, Corazón Healdsburg* received $300,000 to allow their Family Resource Center to continue its essential operations, strengthening resilience among the most marginalized residents of Healdsburg, California. This community in Northern California is on the frontlines of climate change and is still recovering from a series of disasters between 2018 and 2023.

Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Northern California received a $50,000 grant to provide regular, culturally competent, contextually appropriate and trauma-informed post-disaster mental healthcare services to survivors of 2022’s Mill Fire who were residents of the historically Black Lincoln Heights settlement regardless of their ability to pay.

Equal Justice Works was awarded $250,000 to maintain its Disaster Fellows program, providing critical access to disaster-specific legal support for those marginalized populations who might not otherwise have access to these resources. By sharing learning from their experiences throughout the disaster community, EJW helps create a more equitable recovery from disaster even beyond California.

Humboldt Area Foundation was awarded $250,000 to subgrant to local organizations serving the most marginalized populations in their four-county service area significantly affected by last season’s fires. A portion of these funds will support local Indigenous communities most disproportionately affected by the fires and have limited access to resources. Some funding for this grant comes from the CDP COVID-19 Response Fund to support recovery from the layered effects of multiple disasters on these communities.

Through an additional $300,000 grant from the CDP California Wildfires Recovery Fund, the Humboldt Area Foundation and the Wild Rivers Community Foundation will provide direct response and recovery to historically marginalized communities affected by wildfire to help the region become more prepared and resilient in the face of future wildfires.

La Familia Sana received $150,000 to provide bilingual and bicultural mental health counseling to members of the Latinx community who have been devastated by the loss of income due to wildfires and the cascading impacts of stress, depression and anxiety arising from concerns over necessities such as food security, housing, health and the effects on family life. Unresolved mental health issues that arose from past fires are exacerbated by the current extreme drought and fears of fires.

La Familia Sana received an additional $250,000 to continue this program. Some funding for this grant comes from the Disaster Recovery Fund’s California Storms Recovery designation to address the layered effects of multiple disasters on these communities.

Latino Community Foundation (LCF) was awarded $200,000 to LCF’s Wildfire Relief and Love Not Fear funds. The Wildfire Relief Fund supports Latino-led grassroots organizations on the frontlines of relief and recovery efforts. Funding provides emergency assistance and builds resilience in Latino and undocumented communities across California. LCF’s Love Not Fear Fund provides direct relief to California’s most marginalized Latino and farmworker communities. The CDP COVID-19 Response Fund provided supplemental funding to support the layered traumatic effects of multiple disasters on these communities.

North Bay Jobs with Justice received $150,000 to build organizational capacity and support worker-led campaigns for a just recovery from fires. This funding will help North Bay Jobs with Justice deepen its work with farmworkers during wildfires; broaden outreach to affected workers, to assist with clean up and rebuilding; and develop a vision for creating good jobs doing climate adaptation and mitigation that is necessary to make its community and land more fire resilient.

North Bay Jobs with Justice* was awarded an additional $250,000 grant in 2023 to provide training and work opportunities for and by immigrant and Indigenous farmworkers that build resilience in the community while creating good jobs with family-sustaining wages and a deep respect for workers’ traditional ecological knowledge.

Northern California Grantmakers and Philanthropy California received $300,000 to help increase philanthropic investments in reducing the community’s risks and vulnerability to disasters and climate crises and to support equitable long-term disaster recovery efforts. Additionally, funding will help advance equitable disaster and climate change policies at the municipal, state and federal levels. The funded project also strengthens statewide coordination linking philanthropy across California with key government, private and statewide nonprofit partners to leverage resources to support recovery and resilience.

Northern California Indian Development Council was awarded $150,000 to assist two Native American tribes with developing pilot emergency response plans to better prepare for future disasters and other emergencies. This work creates a template for California tribes to create emergency response plans and provides technical assistance and consulting services to assist them with tailoring the projects to their needs as necessary.

Northern Valley Catholic Social Service was awarded $200,000 in 2023 to increase wildfire resilience levels while reducing associated risks among vulnerable populations. The Wildfire Resilience and Risk Reduction program will focus outreach and educational efforts on communities in high fire danger areas in Shasta, Siskiyou, Trinity, Butte, Tehama and Glenn counties.

Through a $250,000 grant from the CDP California Wildfires Recovery Fund, ToolBank USA is expanding its community organization tool lending program to California to support repair, rebuild, mitigation and recovery from wildfires and other disasters that affect the state.

United Way of Santa Cruz County received $289,986 to coordinate long-term recovery efforts and simplify access to support for people affected by fires who do not have adequate personal resources for unmet needs. This effort focuses on the four communities most affected by the CZU Lightning Fires: Boulder Creek, Bonny Doon, Swanton and Last Chance.

United Way of Northern California was awarded $98,978 to expand an existing housing subsidy program for people displaced by the Camp Fire in 2018 and survivors of the 2020 North Complex, Zogg and Slater Fires in Butte, Shasta and Siskiyou counties safe water projects that provide sustained access to a safe water supply for all people in the service area.

*Awarded in collaboration with the CDP Disaster Recovery Fund

New grantees will be posted as additional grant funds are awarded.