Shortly after wildfires broke out across Southern California, donations began flowing into a small office near Dodger Stadium.
Leonardo DiCaprio wanted to give. So were the Dodgers, Lakers, Netflix and Las Vegas casinos.
The object of their big money is an obscure nonprofit organization called the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, which for the better part of two decades has spent the better part of two decades selling equipment not covered by the city (often nominally like gloves and flashlights). We have been quietly supporting firefighters by raising funds for things like this. budget.
The group, which for years averaged less than $3 million in annual donations, received about $20 million in just a few days.
Funds were raised so quickly and so much that foundation board chair Liz Lin was unsure of the exact amount in a recent interview. “It’s really overwhelming,” she said.
Right now, she and her staff are fielding calls and looking for suppliers to fill urgent orders for hand tools, hydration packs and fire shelters (silver blankets to protect firefighters in flames). . They received hundreds of requests for headlamps.
“There’s so much they can do to help,” Delia Ybarra, former president of the Civilian Los Angeles Fire Commission, said of the foundation. “To me, those are gold.”
Whether fire departments need such leniency has been the subject of debate, pitting Mayor Karen Bass against billionaire Elon Musk and drawing fire chiefs and other civic leaders into the fray.
Bass reportedly cut fire departments’ budgets by 2.7% from 2024 to 2025 as fires burned thousands of acres in the Pacific Palisades, Altadena, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley.
In fact, when ongoing negotiations with the firefighters union concluded several months after that budget took effect, an additional $53 million in raises and $58 million to purchase new fire trucks were approved, and the operating budget increased by more than 7% compared to the previous financial year. According to city financial analysts,
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (right) and Los Angeles Fire Chief Christine Crowley (left) address the media during a press conference on January 11.
(Allen J. Scherben/Allen J. Scherben/Los Angeles Times)
Nevertheless, Fire Chief Christine Crowley complained that there wasn’t enough money. Musk and Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong criticized city officials on social media. Lin and her foundation have sought to distance themselves from the controversy.
“We don’t want to get into political nuances,” she said. “We just ask [the firefighters]’what do you need? Please give me the cost. ” ”
Her establishment dates back to 2010. At that time, a local business owner visited the station building. The station building did not have a washing machine that could remove toxins from thick voting booth coats. They found that a large portion of the department’s budget goes toward salaries, and relatively little goes toward equipment and specialized training. Each station was holding a pancake breakfast to raise money.
Establishing its status as a 501(c)(3) organization, the new group has entered into an agreement with the city to become a recognized fundraiser and developed a process through which department leaders and departments can apply for support. .
Initially, donations totaled approximately $500,000 per year, enough to purchase computer equipment, specialized washing machines, and thousands of flashlights. When the station’s refrigerator broke down and there was no budget for a new one, the foundation stepped in.
Firefighters often “have to make repairs at the fire station itself,” Ybarra said. “Sometimes we solve the problem at our own expense because it’s easier than asking.” [to the city]”
By 2017, the foundation was raising more than $1 million annually, and that number will continue to grow. Lin took over from the previous president the following year, just before the Woolsey Fire, which burned nearly 100,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
“Woolsey was my training camp,” she said. “We needed to understand the mechanisms, the processes, and what happens.”
When a 2020 explosion injured 11 firefighters, the department requested a $277,000 Thermite RS3 robot that could remotely search the engulfed building. Two years later, an aging helicopter needed to be replaced.
The foundation raised about $6 million that year, about half of which was spent on purchasing new Bell 505s. Other donations include professional training courses, mental health services and veterinary care for search and rescue dogs.
“This is a process unlike anything we’ve ever gone through before,” said LAFD spokeswoman Margaret Stewart, a 19-year veteran. “Those were unmet needs.”
Foundations remain relatively small in a world of philanthropy, where local entities such as the J. Paul Getty Trust and the California Endowment hold billions of dollars in assets. The five paid staff members work out of rent-free offices at the department’s Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center near Chavez Ravine.
Charity Navigator, a watchdog group, gave the organization a four-star rating and reported that 93 cents of every dollar donated goes to firefighters. This is significant because a similar nonprofit in L.A. that supports the county’s firefighters recently disbanded after being accused of misappropriating funds.
“If you give them money, the firefighters are going to receive that money,” Ybarra said of the city’s foundation.
With some quick thinking, the possibilities have expanded significantly. Immediately after the Palisades fire broke out, Lin told her staff to “put something out on social media.” Money has been rolling in.
As the wildfires subside in the coming weeks, she plans to meet with department leaders to discuss future purchases to help prepare firefighters for the next emergency. Mr. Lin said: “This morning, as I was walking out of the operations center and walking down the hallway, four people stopped me and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ What do you think about that?”
Since the department is so large and serves such a vast city, the wish list seems never-ending.
Was that sturdy washing machine the one that started it all? The foundation has patiently purchased several stations at a time in between more pressing needs, building a list of 106 stations. Fifteen years from now, Lin says there’s still another 10 years left.
Source link
