Over the last several years, communities across California have experienced a whiplash of disaster impacts from catastrophic wildfires, to record snow, to extreme heat and drought, to severe flooding. The seemingly continuous cycle of climate threat in vulnerable communities, coupled with a focus by funders on immediate response, leaves communities with next to no resources to build broad long-term, equity-driven resilience to recurring natural hazards and humanitarian disasters.

Last year, Philanthropy California hosted a conversation titled: California Disaster Philanthropy Briefing: From Episodic Relief to Transformative Resilience where we uplifted the need for philanthropy to resource transformative resilience and shift away from ineffective models of funding disasters only in the immediate aftermath of a specific event. Public and private funding should move towards long-term investments in building the capacity of communities to respond, recover, and build resilience to all types of hazards. In light of recent events across the state, we are uplifting the need for immediate response and renewing our call for a significant shift in the way funders across California approach climate and disaster grantmaking.