The Los Angeles wildfires of 2025 required the evacuation and displacement of around 200,000 people, many of which lost homes that they still haven’t yet returned to. And while hundreds of organizations did a great job in the aftermath by raising funds, throwing benefits, and collecting donations for survivors, to this day, only a few hundred building permits have been issued despite thousands of structures lost. 

Today in the Fall of 2025, you may ask yourself if there’s anything else you can do to help survivors rebuild and get back on their feet that isn’t simply donating money to a good cause. We collected a handful of constructive ways you can help any friends who have gone through this ordeal. 

Give survivors the things they really need

With wildfire clean-up and rebuilding ongoing in Los Angeles, we recently reached out to our partners at the 24LA Project to ask them what kinds of support survivors found most helpful in the aftermath of the fires. They gave us this list of the most requested forms of help:

• Direct financial assistance: Flexible funds to help families cover urgent gaps

• Rental assistance: Deposits, move-in costs, anything to help them get stable housing

• Gift cards: Especially for groceries, Target/Walmart, and gas, since they allow families to cover immediate needs with dignity

• Relief or grants for everyday expenses: Utilities, phone bills, childcare, transportation, etc.

• Community events and healing experiences: Safe spaces to gather, process, and rebuild a sense of normalcy together

• Transportation support: A big one for families traveling to work, school, and appointments to get either gas money or transit covered

When you aren’t sure what survivors are needing after a disaster, there’s no better source than asking local boots-on-the-ground aid organizations for specifics.

Keeping an eye on recent legislation changes

You can help friends affected by fire by tracking legislation in the aftermath of a disaster. Fire survivors are normally overwhelmed and short on free time when they’re forced to interact with insurance and aid organizations, and you can be a good friend by spending some time digging around any legal changes in a fire’s aftermath, to highlight things your friends might not know about.

In the wake of Los Angeles area fires, the following rule changes are good to know for survivors: 

• California Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-29-25 allowing homeowners rebuilding from the wildfires to use the less stringent 2022 building code rather than the stricter 2025 standards that take effect January 1, 2026.

• Governor Newsom also issued executive orders suspending CEQA review and California Coastal Act permitting for reconstruction of properties substantially damaged or destroyed in recent wildfires, directing state agencies to identify additional permitting requirements, including provisions of the Building Code, that can safely be suspended or streamlined to accelerate rebuilding.

• The California legislature passed sweeping CEQA exemptions to speed up delivery of housing and infrastructure projects, including infill housing, utilities, broadband, community-serving facilities, and wildfire prevention.

• Los Angeles introduced "Archistar eCheck AI Pilot" a free tool that checks home designs against zoning regulations for single-family homes in R1 or RE residential zones affected by fires. 

Send Bright Harbor’s grant finder to friends affected by wildfires

In the wake of the fires, millions of dollars was raised for survivors through hundreds of organizations and we here at Bright Harbor began to track them all in a giant database. Each and every grant had its own rules, requirements, and deadlines, and we shared those with our clients researching the rebuilding process. 

As we noticed closing dates approaching for many of the offers of aid, we decided to create an online tool that anyone could use to seek out funds. We’ve focused on grants in areas with recent major disasters (LA, central Texas, Maui) but will continue to expand across the country. 

We call it the Grant Finder and it collects hundreds of options for survivors, all in one place. You can instantly filter it by location, whether you’re a homeowner or renter, or if you have children or pets. And since it all exists on a single page, you can search for keywords that match some of the specific types of funds available to survivors (try “music” or “bookstore” or “painters” to see examples).

There are a variety of ways you can help friends and family going through a wildfire disaster that go beyond donations in the immediate aftermath. As always, offering support and care is the most important route, but we hope there are a few ideas here that can also help.