Fire Safe Council Offers Grant Writing Workshop

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The California Fire Safe Council is encouraging organizations in California and parts of Nevada to visit the Fire Safe California Grants Clearinghouse online to submit community fire safety projects for funding consideration.

The California Fire Safe Council (CFSC) is a state-wide non-profit organization that works to assist communities to reduce their risk of wildfire. According to California Fire Safe Council Executive Director Margaret Grayson, the CFSC is not a membership organization and there are local fire safe chapters throughout the state which are independent groups with the same wildfire safety mission. The CFSC helps these local branches and other state and local agencies and non-profits with funding for their projects through the Fire Safe Grants Clearinghouse.

Through the Clearinghouse, applications can be submitted online for National Fire Plan grants by writing one grant proposal that is routed to the appropriate programs. The clearinghouse is made possible by California Fire Alliance member agencies. Funding for grants is provided by the USDA Forest Service, USDI Bureau of Land Management, USDI National Park Service and USDI Fish & Wildlife Service.

According to Margaret Grayson, "Any non-profit or state or local agency, cities, fire departments, water districts, different kinds of quasi-government or governments as well as non-profits can apply to us for funding." Much of the funding goes towards fuels reduction and removal projects, and in 2008, every proposal submitted from Southern California that met the Clearinghouse's criteria was funded, according to CFSC Grant Manager Cathy Brooks.

From December 8, 2008 to January 15, 2009 the Fire Safe Council will be hosting 12 grant writing workshops throughout California. According to the Fire Safe Council, attendees at the workshops will learn how to write and submit a grant proposal, to navigate the Clearinghouse and details on the grant programs for Federal Fiscal Year 2010. Attendance at the workshops is highly recommended for previous grantees and mandatory for those who have never received grant funds through the California Fire Safe Council.

Organizations that have submitted grant proposals in the past that were not funded can resubmit them for consideration in the new grant proposal format, according to the Fire Safe Council. To resubmit in the new format, transfer the information from the old grant to the new format by clicking in the status box 'click here to copy this grant proposal to the current cycle'. Some questions have changed, therefore some editing of the information will be required in the new format.

The deadline to submit grant proposals and for the California Fire Safe Council to have received letters of support for funding consideration is February 20, 2009 at midnight.

The Fire Safe California Grants Clearinghouse can be found at www.grants.firesafecouncil.org. For questions, e-mail the clearinghouse at grants@firesafecouncil.org or call (800) 372-2543 (FS CALIF).