Los Angeles Fire Recovery Resources

Last updated: 2/14/25

DonorsChoose is committed to supporting teachers affected by the Los Angeles area wildfires, including the schools directly impacted by the Palisades and Eaton fires. We know there’s a long road ahead for many, and we will update this page regularly with new information, opportunities, and guidelines.

Give

To support classrooms affected by the fires, please donate directly through our 2025 L.A. Wildfire Recovery Fund. Funding will be made available for affected teachers when they’re ready to rebuild their classrooms. If you’re interested in partnering with us to support relief efforts, please visit our Partnership Center.

Funding Opportunities

Thanks to the generosity of so many donors above, we are offering up to $1000 of funding per teacher to DonorsChoose projects from inoperable schools in the greater Los Angeles region, beginning 2/14/25.

We consider a school inoperable if the entire building(s) or a portion of a building has sustained such impact from the fires that it is currently unfit for educational use, with no timeline to return to the physical space.

Teachers from eligible schools can create a project for materials they need to rebuild their classroom; once approved, we will automatically apply up to $1000 towards the total project goal. Only one project per teacher is eligible.

We have currently designated the below schools as inoperable. If you believe your school is inoperable and is not listed below, please let us know here by filling out a quick form.

Please note:

Project goals may be over $1000 total, but only $1000 total will be applied to the project. Please note that a project must be fully funded in order to be fulfilled. Therefore, if you need more than $1000 worth of materials, we recommend splitting any additional resources over $1000 into a separate, second project, to ensure the $1000 funding is received.

Only one donation of maximum $1000 will be applied to eligible projects per teacher. The donation is not able to be split between projects (i.e., we are not able to apply $500 to one project and $500 to another from the same teacher). 

If you are new to DonorsChoose and eligible for this funding, please check out these resources to get started, along with our project eligibility and teacher eligibility guidelines

Shipments and Deliveries

We are currently holding all shipments to the following schools in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and Pasadena Unified School Distract (PUSD).

If you’re a teacher with active or funded projects at one of the above schools, we will work with you and your principal to establish a school-wide alternative address that can safely receive deliveries.

Note: The following vendors are unable to ship to non-school addresses:

• Carolina
• Scholastic
• School Specialty
• Time for Kids
• Ward's
•  
• Additionally, Staples cannot ship to PO Boxes.

If your school is unable to receive shipments and is not listed above, or if you’re a teacher at an impacted school and need additional support, please let us know.

Thank you packages

We’re working to remove thank you package requirements for teachers in impacted areas.  If you’re not able to access your classroom or funded resources, please disregard automated reminders in your account about thank you packages. If you’d like to request support with your thank you package, contact us.

Getting New Resources

If you are an affected educator and are looking to rebuild your classroom, please see the following list of resources to make the process as easy as possible. If you need any help, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.

Classroom Essentials Lists

For basic items, including pens, paper, makers, snacks, and more, you can create an Essentials List, which allows individual items to be shipped as they are funded, with no minimum materials cost.

Recreating projects

While we don’t have a way to directly recreate a previous project, you can save time by copying and pasting your original essay. For projects that were posted in the last 90 days, you can also copy your materials using our “cart copy” feature on your public project page.

You can see records of previous DonorsChoose projects on the Projects page of your teacher account.

Special Requests

While our shopping portal contains thousands of items from several major retailers, including Amazon Business, Best Buy Education, Lakeshore Learning, and more, we can also support requests for resources outside of our vendor list, called Special Requests. If you are an educator at an affected school, please write to our team and we will waive the requirement to create this type of request.