Announcing $2.12 million to support recovery from hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and more

As of Nov. 8, the U.S. has seen a record 25 “billion-dollar disasters” (events with losses exceeding $1 billion) in 2023. With disasters becoming more intense, more frequent and more expensive, it’s no surprise that our domestic funds team has been busy assessing needs and meeting with long-term recovery groups and organizations on the ground in impacted communities.

We’ve been working with these organizations to address unmet needs in ways that adhere to our values of boldness and innovation, humility, and empathy and that demonstrate our commitment to leveraging philanthropy to ensure empowered, equitable recovery from disaster for the people who have historically been the least likely to recover fully. Our over-arching funding vision also includes support for organizations assisting refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers, who have all faced an increasingly hostile political climate over the last decade.

We’d love to tell you about what we’ve been up to. Here are our latest grants, broken down by fund:

CDP Atlantic Hurricane Season Recovery Fund

• In September, we made a $200,000 grant from the CDP Disaster Recovery Fund and the CDP Atlantic Hurricane Season Recovery Fund to Good360, continuing a partnership that expands access to the most needed products for disaster preparation, relief and response. Good360’s disaster warehouse project allows CDP to connect local grantee partners to much-needed national resources.
• VIA LINK received a $57,500 grant to replicate and improve upon their Hurricane Ida data tool dashboard for the Florida Alliance of Information and Referral Systems, Florida’s 211 network, to support social services agencies and other community resources in effecting equitable recoveries from Hurricanes Ian and Idalia across Florida.
• Casa Juana Colón received a $250,000 multi-year grant to provide recovery and mitigation support to the most marginalized people in the communities in Comerío, Puerto Rico, on issues related to health and food security and to prepare their organization to activate in the face of the next disaster.

CDP California Wildfires Recovery Fund

• In September, CDP began a partnership with California nonprofit news source CalMatters, making a $50,000 grant from the CDP Disaster Recovery Fund for California Storms recovery and from the CDP California Wildfires Recovery Fund. With support from this grant, CalMatters will sustain and expand its fact-based reporting on the impact of climate change on California communities to best inform the public and hold leaders accountable to those they serve.
• 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.

CDP Disaster Recovery Fund

• We granted an additional $100,000 to Northern California Grantmakers to increase philanthropic investments in building climate and disaster resilience for vulnerable communities across the state and ensuring disaster-affected communities achieve resilient recoveries.
• We awarded a $300,000 grant, pulling funds from the Disaster Recovery Fund, Atlantic Hurricane Season Recovery Fund and Tornado Recovery Fund, to CDP’s longtime partner Vibrant Emotional Health and its Crisis Emotional Care Team. Vibrant will use the grant funds to sustain and expand its disaster behavioral health training and preparedness program to support local disaster-responding organizations throughout the U.S.
• We awarded a $75,000 grant, designated for recovery from the California storms and flooding, to new partner UndocuFund, part of the North Bay Organizing Project. UndocuFund of Sonoma County will expand its capacity to serve undocumented residents in the area to help them know their rights and access resources for recovery and preparation.
• We awarded Transgender Law Center (TLC) a $450,000 multi-year to provide legal services and address the humanitarian needs of LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and migrants entering the U.S. at the southern border with Mexico through its ongoing collaborative program, the Border Butterflies Project.

CDP Tornado Recovery Fund

• With funding from the Midwest Early Recovery Fund and the Tornado Recovery Fund, CDP awarded a $180,000 grant to the Arkansas Community Foundation to support disaster case management and childcare provider needs in response to the 2023 Arkansas tornadoes.
• Disaster Services Corporation – Society of St. Vincent de Paul received a $134,766.03 grant to continue its disaster case management work in Rolling Fork, Mississippi and surrounding communities affected by tornadoes in 2023.
• CDP granted $150,000 from the Tornado Recovery Fund and the Midwest Early Recovery Fund to Recovering Oklahomans After Disaster (ROAD) to support staffing capacity for home repair work after multiple severe storms throughout Oklahoma in 2023.

CDP Hawaii Wildfires Recovery Fund

•  As we announced in September, we made a $125,000 grant from CDP’s Hawaii Wildfires Recovery Fund to Maui United Way‘s direct cash assistance program to empower fire-impacted residents of West Maui to determine and prioritize their own unmet needs in the aftermath of devastating wildfires. Maui United Way provides direct financial assistance of $1,000 to adults who lived within the fire impact zone using a culturally competent outreach strategy and simple application process.

As always, our domestic grantmaking is done in the spirit of being as helpful as possible to the organizations working to bring about just, responsible and equitable recovery after their communities experience a disaster. Because so many disaster recovery organizations are working within more restrictive grant budget frameworks, CDP is proud to provide flexible funds aimed at building capacity, responding to shifting needs and directing dollars toward developing community resilience.