While our firefighters battled some of the worst blazes in our history, a host of people donated money, organised events and conducted fundraisers to support our programs, as well as sending messages of support and encouragement.
As 2020 comes to an end we want to share the real difference the communities generous contributions have made to CFA volunteers, brigades and the communities we serve.
CFA received $27.6 million in donations from over 22,000 deposits between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020 in response to 2019-20 fire season. Every donation, big or small, helps CFA to build our capabilities and provide much-needed support to Victorians. The communities continued support helps make us an even better emergency service.
How did we spend the money?
The CFA Executive, the CFA Board and the Trustees of the CFA & Brigades Donations Fund collaborated on a plan to spend the funds in line with donor intent and to ensure all our volunteer brigades would be positively impacted.
All donations were distributed to programs under the plan by the end of October 2020 and allocated through four channels:
- Designated donations to specific brigades, group of brigades or local District for approved projects which were paid directly, and they are already using them to support communities and boost their capabilities.
- A District Pick List Program to support brigades with practical items at a local level, which saw a total of 11,800 items allocated to brigades including thermal imaging cameras, apparel, defibrillators, torches and chainsaws.
- State-wide initiatives to further enhance volunteer safety and capabilities through three projects including; Breathing Apparatus Distribution and a Cylinder Exchange program, a Mobility Communication Solution for CFA vehicles and installation of up to 400 defibrillators in CFA vehicles to complete coverage across the entire fleet.
- Organisation-wide transformative initiatives to help transform the capability of our volunteers through the development of a suite of volunteer leadership opportunities, tablets for volunteer digital training and a fleet of community engagement vehicles to support innovative and accessible community education and to provide community briefings during major incidents.
How we distributed $27.84M in donations following the 2019/20 fire season
