Lessons from the LA Fires: Philanthropy’s Role in Disaster Response and Recovery

Philanthropy California’s Role in Disaster Response 

As the impacts of climate change continue to wreak havoc, philanthropy’s role in supporting disaster-affected communities remains essential to achieving equitable recoveries and building resilience before the next disaster.  Philanthropy California (Philanthropy CA) has long monitored wildfire & natural hazard events, provided resources and timely programming to support funder awareness and collaboration, and partnered with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) to support immediate disaster relief as well as long-term recovery efforts. As part of Philanthropy California, NCG supports SoCal Grantmakers and Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties in their response to catastrophic disasters that may go beyond the ability of regional staff capacity. The firestorm in Los Angeles is a poignant example of how staff across Philanthropy California step up during times of crisis.  

The LA Fires 

In early January, NCG’s Climate & Disaster Resilience team began tracking a historic straight-line wind and high fire risk event in Southern California. In preparation for the forecasted weather, we convened our partners at the League of California Community Foundations, Cal OES, and the Governor’s Office. On January 7th, our preparations quickly transformed into one of the largest responses we have ever led in the aftermath of a disaster, as the Palisades and Eaton Fires destroyed 16,000 structures in the span of several days.  

We quickly launched the Philanthropy CA Disaster Response site, which provides a list of vetted philanthropic response funds held primarily by place-based funders who will be engaged in long-term recovery. Over the course of the next several weeks, we vetted a list of 20 response funds – the most ever for a disaster in Philanthropy CA’s history. These funds represent hundreds of millions of dollars in giving that have been used to support immediate relief, and are transitioning in scope as communities begin to shift into early, and long-term recovery.  

In addition to the direct fund coordination, SoCal Grantmakers launched a Wildfire Recovery Funder Collaborative, and Philanthropy CA has held four briefings: 

• Firestorms & Wildfires in Southern California, which highlighted rapid-response needs 
• Cross-Sector Partnerships for Recovery that uplifted lessons learned from community foundations in prior disasters. 
• How the LA Fires are Reshaping the Nonprofit Sector, where we focused on impacts to the nonprofit sector. 
• Funder Briefing on Economic Recovery, which provided updates on emerging housing and economic recovery needs. 

Moving Forward with Lessons for Funders

Taking some of the lessons that are emerging from our response in LA, we pulled together some important considerations NCG members and others in philanthropy can use to develop strategies for your own disaster and crisis response portfolios:  

• Collaboration is essential during times of crisis, but relationships are built on trust, and trust takes time to build. Consider how you can deepen engagement with community organizations, local government, regional philanthropy partners, and NCG in advance to develop plans for how you will respond to disasters in our region.  
• Long-term recovery is incredibly complex and challenging. Many communities that have experienced widespread destruction in recent years have not fully recovered the housing or businesses lost, resulting in the permanent displacement of community members. Consider how you might prioritize your disaster or crisis response portfolio to include an emphasis on supporting long-term recovery (1- 5 yrs) after a disaster. Focusing some funding during this time horizon may have an outsized impact when leveraged alongside public recovery dollars.  
• Funding disaster preparedness and prevention is key to avoiding the worst disaster impacts in the first place. For every dollar spent on risk reduction, communities save thirteen in recovery costs and economic impact.  
• Investing in the power of communities to develop, pilot, and scale policies will support them in winning hard-fought campaign victories. Regulatory and policy innovations like building code improvements for new and (re)builds, development prohibitions in risky areas, disaster-eviction moratoriums, and establishing sustainable funding mechanisms for building retrofits are essential and need sustained investment.