The San Diego Regional Disaster Fund, a supporting organization of The San Diego Foundation, accepts charitable donations following a natural or manmade disaster in the San Diego region and makes grants to support disaster response, recovery, rebuilding, and preparedness activities.

Following a disaster, the San Diego Regional Disaster Fund is a resource for survivors, community members, nonprofit organizations, government entities and donors for information on community impact and disaster recovery. It is also a source of grant funding for nonprofit service organizations and collaborative funding information for other funding organizations.

The San Diego Regional Disaster Fund is seeking qualified 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations to apply for funding related to wildfire preparedness.

Through the incredible generosity of donors from within San Diego County and across the nation, the San Diego Regional Disaster Fund has stewarded approximately $10 million for the response, recovery and rebuilding efforts of the region following the devastating wildfires of October 2007. Over the past two and a half years, the Board of Directors of the Disaster Fund has meticulously defined and enacted its research-based strategy to transform those donations into a wide variety of support services for the communities most heavily impacted by the fires. Information on the Disaster Fund’s work to date can be found by clicking the links below to access our library of Community Needs Assessments and the 2003 After Action report.

The Disaster Fund’s priority has always been and will always be to support survivor needs, especially needs related to recovery and rebuilding. At this point in time, two and a half years after the disaster, reports from Community Recovery Centers and case management agencies indicate that the vast majority of survivors who have reached out for assistance and who meet eligibility requirements have already been helped. Though to meet the needs of every person who was affected by the disaster would be nearly impossible, no matter how many donations were received, the Disaster Fund and the strong network of community-based recovery organizations it supports have served the people and communities who needed help the most.

With that in mind, the Disaster Fund is now looking to the future – what can be done to help our region better prepare to respond to a similar wildfire disaster in the future? What didn’t work well last time? What could we do better?

The Disaster Fund intends to utilize the remaining donations to support grants that will improve our communities’ ability to be better prepared against future wildfire threat. The concept is to work within existing systems related to response, recovery and rebuilding in order to bridge current functionality gaps, enhance coordination of services before and after times of disaster, and help organizations and the general citizenry to be better prepared.

Please click here to download the Application Guide and learn more about the kinds of projects for which the Disaster Fund is seeking applications.