Wow, we tripled our impact from last year! We invested $775,000 and worked 10,000 man-hours on NRG Fire Risk Reduction in 2022! Congratulations to NRG Firewise for working together with 17 micro communities to accomplish this in just 11 months. Wow.
Thank you to Carolyn Stallard for converting our survey results to numbers that the Firewise USA organization needed for our annual renewal application. We worked on this together this morning and I’m submitting our renewal application tonight.
Carolyn has agreed to create our annual survey to include questions that will make it more streamlined for all households to complete. Thanks Carolyn!
ONE MILLION DOLLARS SPENT ON FIRE RISK REDUCTION FOR OUR NRG FIREWISE COMMUNITY.
Can you give us a high level breakdown on where that money came from and where it has gone? Just something like percentages coming from grants, government, donations, members, and so forth. And, outgo like signs, meetings, communications, etc. Just curious.
Other than $2000 for free chipping through the RCD, all funds were provided by the property owners on NRG! We calculated our numbers based on the survey that we sent out a few months ago.
Our NRG community spent $763,000 on contractors, home improvement, landscaping, chippers, equipment, and other expenses related to wildfire risk reduction.
Our NRG community expended $285,400 in labor as they worked on their homes, common areas, landscaping, and other areas. Firewise has a formula that we used to determine this figure. They give $28.54 per man hour reported.
We removed 60,000 cubic yards of vegetation this year! Woohoo!
If you or anyone can help us write grants (or donate funds so we can hire grant writers), that would open doors for us to purchase heavy equipment to remove vegetation, order emergency egress signs, get MURS radios, and create defensible space on NRG. There is money out there but I do NOT have time to write grants. I’ve been told that successful firewise communities like ours will be the first in line to receive these grants so a grant-writing team would really help us out.
Please help us or donate funds so we can hire professional grant writers!
I am totally incompetent as a person for either managing money or writing grants.
Because of the pandemic, which caused me to retire several years earlier than expected, I have a lot less ability to donate money to any cause. So, the best I can do is to offer to help with physical tasks.
How much do you think a professional grant writer would cost? I’ve never written a grant, but I have found detailed instructions on the internet. The talented folk in our neighborhood must include some with experience writing grants.
I agree! We should be able to write these grants using our incredible talent. I’m confident that we can get grants if we can write them. NRG Firewise community, please reach out to neighbors who have experience writing grants or are good writers. Thanks!
I don’t have the list yet, but I’m working with the OR3 and the FireSafe Council to learn more. Both organizations appreciate our active community. They’re in the process of reviewing grant options. Would you like to help write the grants Dave?
Hi Dave! Thank you and so glad to her you’re going to help us. Please join us on Saturday, Dec 17th, at 9:30-10:30 am (Google Meet) to discuss our plans. I am working with the OR3 to determine which grants best apply to our needs. Let me know if you can attend the meeting and I’ll send you a link. Thanks!