Australia Wildfires Relief Fund

We can’t thank you enough for your generosity. Through your donation to GlobalGiving’s Australia Wildfires Relief Fund, you joined nearly 24,000 other people from around the world to raise more than $3.5 million in support of community-led relief and long-term recovery after the deadly and destructive bushfires across Australia in late 2019 and early 2020.

While several years have passed since the fires and attention has moved on to other terrible crises and events around the world, these fires are not a distant memory for those whose lives and families have been changed by them forever. We must not forget the community impact nor the tragic devastation of so many ecosystems and large numbers of wildlife across Australia. 

To date, GlobalGiving has made flexible grants in support of nearly two dozen vetted nonprofit organizations in our community that are based in and working across the most affected communities in Australia. You can find the full list of organizations at the end of this report. 

One powerful example of what bushfire recovery looks like in practice comes from our partners at the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF). Since the 1990s, ARLF has been a trusted organization in Australia that is focused on building local leadership capacity in rural, regional and remote communities across Australia. Like GlobalGiving, ARLF believes that local communities most affected by a crisis or disaster are the ones best positioned to find durable and long-term solutions. 

With flexible, multi-year funding from GlobalGiving, the organization worked with a diverse set of more than a dozen community leaders in the Nambucca Valley in New South Wales. This area experienced an unprecedented amount of devastation and loss during the 2019–2020 fires (and tragically again during the severe flooding in 2021). With ARLF’s support, these community leaders grew in their leadership skills and capacity to be more effective in serving their communities still recovering from the fires. The community leaders also expanded their capacity in disaster resilience and preparedness, recognizing that more disaster events are sure to come in the future.

As an important added benefit, ARLF was able to leverage funding from GlobalGiving and the Australian government to attract additional funding from other sources to expand its important leadership capacity programs to other communities in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Area. You can learn more about ARLF’s important work in the Nambucca Valley here.

Your generosity is at the core of GlobalGiving’s commitment to long-term bushfire recovery. Because of you, we have been able to serve as a trusted and reliable resource that stands by our community of vetted nonprofit partners for multiple years as needs evolve over time. From everyone at GlobalGiving, thank you again for your incredible support. 

The GlobalGiving team is preparing for the final round of flexible grants from this fund in support of our trusted Australian nonprofit partner community. These grants will be awarded before the end of this year. Please expect a final update like this one from our team via email in the months ahead to celebrate all that we’ve accomplished together.

With immense gratitude, 

Chase + the GlobalGiving Team

Nonprofit Partners Receiving Grants To Date

Australian Rural Leadership Foundation

Catholic Social Services Australia

Community Foundation For Albury Wodonga Region (Border Trust)

Community Foundation For Tumut Region

Community Foundations Australia

Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation

Foodbank Australia Limited

Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife

Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal

Into Our Hands Community Foundation

Mumbulla Community Foundation

NSW Wildlife Information Rescue & Education Service (WIRES)

Northern Rivers Community Foundation

OzFish Unlimited

Renew Australia

Rural Fire Brigades Association Queensland

St Vincent De Paul Society NSW

Sydney Wildlife

Southern Highlands Community Foundation

Upper Murray Innovation Foundation

Wildlife Warriors

Two years ago, the world was gripped by the terrible images showing the devastating fires across Australia. A lot of progress has been made since then to help communities and ecosystems heal, but the impact of the 2019-2020 Black Summer fires will take many more years of recovery. 

Thanks to your generous donation to GlobalGiving’s Australia Wildfires Relief Fund, our trusted nonprofit partners in Australia continue to drive the recovery process.

Since our last update to you, the GlobalGiving team has delivered more flexible funding to our partners. In 2021, we made US$950,000 in grants from this fund to 12 trusted partners across Australia to support long-term fire recovery.

Here is a snapshot of the vital recovery work led by three of our incredible nonprofit partners:

• Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation is an Indigenous-led network that aims to reinvigorate the use of cultural burning by facilitating cultural learning pathways to fire and land management. These traditional approaches to fire and land management can be valuable in preventing and limiting the types of fires we saw during the 2019-2020 fires. The organization is preparing to bring together women from bushfire-impacted communities in Australia to participate in a national Indigenous women’s fire workshop this year. The workshop will affirm the importance of Indigenous cultural fire management practices and serve as a safe space for women to connect and learn together. You can read more about the organization in this recent profile in Vogue!
  
  
• Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) is restoring the habitat of native woodland bird species in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia after vast devastation from the fires. With nearly 40 years of experience preserving and protecting nature in Australia, the organization is addressing the concerning 45% decline in woodland bird species in this area—a decline sped up by the bushfires. CVA is engaging with community members and landholders to expand appropriate woodland bird habitats on their properties.
  
  
• Serving more than 300,000 people in New South Wales, the Northern Rivers Community Foundation is reaching grassroots and local community groups through its community grant programs. With support from GlobalGiving, the foundation is funding an additional 16 local groups working on recovery, resilience, and regeneration of bushfire-impacted areas and communities. One of its local partners, Friends of the Koala, is propagating and distributing 20,000 native trees, shrubs, and grasses to landholders to support ecosystem recovery and regeneration—with a special emphasis on koala food trees.

Thank you again for your incredible generosity! Because of you, GlobalGiving can remain committed to long-term, community-led disaster recovery. You can find the full list of 2021 Australia Wildfires Relief Fund grantee partners at the end of this report and learn more about our disaster response work in our 2021 Year in Review.

With gratitude, 

Chase + the GlobalGiving team

List of Grantees:

Community Foundation For Tumut Region

Northern Rivers Community Foundation

Community Foundation For Albury Wodonga Region (Border Trust)

Into Our Hands Community Foundation

Mumbulla Foundation

The Southern Highlands Foundation

Upper Murray Innovation Foundation

Alternative Technology Association (Renew)

Community Foundations Australia

Australian Rural Leadership Foundation

Conservation Volunteers Australia

Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation