How to get a FireAid Grant: You Deserve It

Casa was one of the many nonprofits that received FireAid money.

The more than $100 million raised for FireAid Survivors did not go to individuals, it went to nonprofits. Individuals will not receive funds. Experts in philanthropy working through the Anneberg and Clippers organization, have said donations are going to nonprofits.

Circling the News has come up with a way for Palisades and Altadena individuals to receive money: form your own nonprofit.

As background some of the FireAid nonprofits that received money include Friends Indeed (providing critical resources, distributing essentials goods, and offering community support to those most vulnerable) or Home Grown (conducting cleaning and sanitation for early childhood education facilities with acute needs) or  CA Native Vote Project (Financial assistance for displaced and affected Native families, expanded healing and mental health services, and distribution of critical health & safety resources).

Palisades resident and president of Pacific Marketing Research, Al Popelka (who also lost his home), helped CTN with some nonprofit ideas so that residents could get a head start on forming their own.

(insert your address) Bucket Brigade (Grant request wording: We will use our $200K to buy some Home Depot buckets, a wading pool to fill with water, and I will train my kids to make a brigade to put out the next fire – the rest will go to my executive salary.)

ASH – Always Seem Happy (Grant request: If I encounter someone who is sad about their fire loss and their financial challenges for re-building, I will give them a copy of the lyrics to the Partridge Family theme song [Come On Get Happy]; any unused funds, of course, will go to my executive salary)

I Told You So – (Grant request: I will hand out DVD’s of the Cheech and Chong movie Up in Smoke to let people know they should have listened [Cheech’s beautiful home in the Highlands survived, so he must know something].  After my executive salary is paid, I estimate, with bulk pricing, I can hand out as many as 25 DVD’s.)

One might say it can’t be that easy to get funds. Au contraire. You might ask for help from a Palisadian, who formed a nonprofit this spring, put up a website and was awarded a FireAid grant in the second round.

To get a grant, you have to be a 501 (c) (3) and fill out a form (below taken in its entirety from the FireAid website):

Organization Name:*

Organization Description – Briefly describe how your nonprofit is currently working to provide LA wildfire relief: *

Organization EIN Number: *

Geographical Area Served/Serving:
(ex: Pasadena, CA) 

Estimate of People Served in Fire Areas:

Contact Information:

Yes, that’s it, six questions. There is no vetting, no other questions asked about when the nonprofit was formed, if there is a board, or actual numbers –it’s a little like the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority- a lot of money, not a lot of accountability.

During the Pacific Palisades Community Council June 12 meeting, the lead for the FireAid  operations team Lisa Cleri Reale spoke.

“We are trying so hard not to be like FEMA,” which she explained had incredibly complicated forms to fill out. Instead, a different approach was taken, “What is your nonprofit doing for the fire relief?”

She added, “We’re asking people to be honest with us.” The main criterion was the nonprofit had to provide direct fire relief in some way.

Tahitian Terrace and Palisades Bowl mobile homes parks were destroyed. Fire victims have received no funds from FireAid.