SNF grants support immediate relief in response to California fires

A new Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) grant initiative seeks to help support the immediate delivery of near-term relief to victims of the fires by partnering with nonprofits with deep experience and close local ties.

The new grants support:

• The California Community Foundation, whose Wildfire Recovery Fund is working with local community and government partners to regrant funding in support of direct financial assistance for displaced residents, immediate restoration work to make homes livable, provision of emergency mental and physical health services, delivery of medical supplies and gear for first responders, and more.
• Americares, which is tapping a local network of partner clinics and shelters to deliver medication, safe drinking water, N95 masks, hygiene kits, cash assistance for survivors in need, and other essential relief supplies.
• The Greater Los Angeles Education Foundation, whose Wildfire Recovery Fund is distributing emergency cash cards to 500 students, families, and teachers at Los Angeles County schools who face the greatest need.

Since its inception, SNF has sought to help respond to natural disasters around the world, including, among many others, Hurricanes Helene and Milton last year in the Southern United States, Cyclone Freddy in Madagascar, Mozambique, and Malawi in 2023; earthquakes in Syria and Turkey that same year; wildfires in Greece in 2018 and 2021; drought in Ethiopia in 2016; the 2010 earthquake in Haiti; the Indian Ocean Tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand in late 2004; and Hurricane Mitch in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua in 1998. The Foundation’s approach is that neighbors are naturally predisposed to help one another out in the wake of a disaster and that philanthropy’s role is to lower the resource barriers that can get in the way of altruism.