Spokane Complex Fires
The fires that swept through our region have taken homes, businesses, and a sense of safety from thousands of our neighbors. Our hearts are with the families who have lost so much, and with the firefighters and first responders still protecting our community. Many of you have asked the same question: How can we help? This page is our answer — one trusted local channel for giving, and a clear guide to the resources our neighbors need most.
Spokane Public Schools has an immediate need: men's & women's business attire for fire-displaced neighbors heading back to work Monday. Drop off at the trailer in the St. John's Cathedral parking lot on E 13th Ave (across from 214 E 13th) — Sunday 9 AM–2 PM — then starting Monday, drop-offs move to the Salvation Army, 222 E Indiana (tell them it's for fire victims). Please do not bring items to Shadle Park.
More than 800 structures have been destroyed, including 700+ homes lost or significantly damaged — more than twice the scale of the 2023 fires. Roughly 1,400 firefighters are on the lines, growing past 2,000 this weekend. A Red Flag Warning is in effect from 11 a.m. Friday to 11 p.m. Saturday: gusts to 30 mph and single-digit humidity. Evacuation lines are being held for hard reasons — active fire and toxic debris. Please stay out, stay patient, and thank a first responder.
Register at the Disaster Assistance Center — Shadle Park High School, 4327 N Ash St — open 9 a.m.–6 p.m. daily through Sunday. Connecting with a case manager (Red Cross, Catholic Charities, or the Long Term Recovery Group) is the doorway to every form of help that follows. Need shelter tonight? The Spokane Convention Center is the region's official evacuee shelter (Red Cross-run, pets welcome); the Fairgrounds takes RVs, livestock, and large animals. Details at spokanecommunityresources.org →
The Innovia Foundation's Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund has raised $2.8 million from 2,500 individual gifts. Innovia takes no fee, and 100% is distributed through vetted local nonprofits to families — from today's gift cards to years of rebuilding. Give now →
The Washington Attorney General is warning of fraudulent fundraisers. Give to organizations you know and trust, and be cautious with crowdfunding pages unless you personally know the family. Read the AG's guidance → · Our Give Wisely guide →
Wednesday, Aug 12, 2 p.m. — a free U.S. Small Business Administration webinar on disaster loans for businesses, nonprofits, homeowners, and renters. Loans are not yet available for this disaster — this is how to be ready the day they are. Register →
Investigators say the Old Trails Fire was intentionally set, and new human-caused starts have occurred around town this week. In this weekend's winds, one spark is all it takes: no burning, no fireworks, no dragging chains, no yard work in dry grass. See something? Call 911.
New stories rotate in as our community keeps writing them — check back.
With the full support of our Board of Directors, the Spokane Business Association recommends the Innovia Foundation's Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund as the trusted local channel for giving. Pointing our whole community toward one proven fund — rather than splitting our generosity a hundred ways — multiplies the impact of every dollar.
Make checks payable to Innovia Foundation with “Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund” in the memo line, and mail to:
Innovia Foundation
Attn: Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund
818 W. Riverside Ave., Suite 650
Spokane, WA 99201
Double your gift: STCU is matching community donations dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000 through its Here for Good Foundation, also managed by Innovia.
We know donors want more than promises. Innovia Foundation has served the Inland Northwest as its community foundation for decades, and its wildfire response record is public, specific, and independently reported. Here is what that record shows — with links so you can verify every claim.
Wondering whether the 2023 fire donations actually reached people?
It's a fair question — and the answer is public. Innovia published the complete record: every grant, every dollar, every recipient, from 2023 through today. Read the full distribution record → or see our summary of where the money went below.
Innovia states plainly that 100% of gifts to the fund will be distributed to vetted nonprofit organizations serving affected individuals and families — Innovia takes no administrative cut.
After the Gray and Oregon Road fires, Innovia's fund raised $1.4 million from more than 3,200 donors and distributed all of it — including $1.07 million that helped complete 13 rebuilt homes (with more planned) in partnership with Spokane County.
Innovia publishes a distribution table listing every wildfire-recovery grant — date, recipient nonprofit, amount, and purpose — from 2023 through today. That is the standard of accountability this fund is held to.
A disaster this size brings hard questions about money — and it should. Here are the plain facts about how this fund works, from Innovia's published record and this week's regional coordination briefings.
Federal law requires community-foundation funds to flow through eligible nonprofit organizations — and that structure is a feature, not a hurdle. Every family works with a case manager, every loss is verified through a shared damage assessment, and every dollar is coordinated so help lands where it's truly needed. That same process is what keeps scammers and bad actors out of the pipeline your generosity flows through.
Every dollar is published — every grant, every amount, every purpose. Names are not, and never will be. Families who lost everything deserve help without surrendering their privacy. That's a principle, and it protects your neighbors.
2,500 individual gifts have already reached the fund — many of them $5 and $10. After the 2023 fires, gifts like those combined with volunteer labor to rebuild homes for less than $100,000 each — 13 completed and more underway. Small gifts, multiplied and stretched, put roofs over families.
No fund can — the damage runs far beyond what philanthropy could ever cover, and many families will discover they were underinsured. What this fund does is stabilize families through the crisis and then target the greatest unmet needs, prioritizing neighbors with the fewest resources. That's not a limitation to apologize for — it's exactly what a community fund is for.
“Our community is facing an incredibly difficult moment right now, with hundreds of families losing their homes and businesses to these fires. The Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund exists so we can move resources quickly to the nonprofits and organizations already on the ground helping people… We know from experience that recovery doesn't end when the fires are out — it takes sustained support over the months and even years ahead, and Innovia is committed to walking alongside our region for the long term.”
Because of IRS rules for community foundations, Innovia doesn't hand out cash directly — it grants funds to vetted nonprofit organizations that deliver help to fire survivors: emergency shelter, rental assistance, food, utilities, clothing, gas cards, case management, and ultimately rebuilt homes. In 2023–26, that money flowed through trusted local organizations like these:
Nonprofits serving fire-affected families can apply for a grant from the Spokane Complex fund here.
How the 2023 wildfire fund was spent
$1.4M fully distributed, per Innovia's published report:
Source: Innovia Gray & Oregon Road Wildfire Recovery Fund report.
Our region has walked this road before — and that experience is now our advantage. Recovery from a disaster this size moves in three phases, and understanding them is how a community's generosity meets real need. Dollars are already moving: the day the Disaster Assistance Center opened, case managers were putting grocery and Visa gift cards directly into families' hands. Innovia's first grants are already public: $20,000 to establish the Disaster Assistance Center and $10,000 in Visa gift cards distributed to 200 affected families on its opening day.
Safety, food, housing, and clothing. Grants are flowing to the nonprofits doing this work today — the Spokane Regional Long Term Recovery Group, Catholic Charities, the Red Cross, and more — while families connect with case managers at the Disaster Assistance Center.
Once damage assessments are complete, help shifts to keeping families safe and stable while insurance and rebuilding plans come together: rental assistance, down payments, and the practical needs — after 2023, that even meant generators and winterizing campers families were living in.
Homes rise again — many built with volunteer labor that stretches every construction dollar, finishing homes for under $100,000 each. Thirteen homes from the 2023 fires are complete and seven more are underway right now. This community does not walk away.
How help reaches a family
Shadle Park High School — walk in, get connected with a case manager. This is the single doorway to everything that follows.
With the family's permission, one shared assessment is used by every relief nonprofit — no repeating your story ten times, and full transparency on verified need.
Case managers bring each family's remaining gaps to a table of funders — one covers the roof, another the tree removal — so every resource in the region is maximized. Requests are weighed on fire connection, other assistance exhausted, household vulnerability, and reasonable cost.
Resources reach the families with the least — the underinsured and uninsured — and stay committed through rebuilding, however long it takes.
Spokane's generosity this week has been extraordinary. A few simple practices make sure every dollar of it lands in trustworthy hands.
Within days of the fires, our own members moved. Founding funders — Washington Trust Bank, STCU's Here for Good Foundation, Premera, and ICCU, all SBA members — seeded the Innovia fund, and member commitments have grown from there. This is what business leadership looks like in a crisis.
Commitments as shared publicly or with the SBA community as of August 5, 2026.
Has your business made a commitment — or do you want help making one? Tell us, and we'll amplify it.
Beyond donations, Spokane businesses and nonprofits are opening their doors, their services, and their balance sheets to fire-affected neighbors. Offers our members and community have shared:
Interest-free, no-fee 36-month recovery loans for residents of Spokane County evacuation zones whose personal property was damaged or destroyed. Ask for the Community Cares loan at any branch.
Wildfire Relief Emergency Loans with no collateral required. numericacu.com
Donation drop-off site for fire relief, and collecting new hygiene items for displaced families and firefighters. projectbeautyshare.org
A free community resource center, now open to anyone impacted or displaced by the fires: free clothing for infants, children, women, and men, plus household items, toys, kitchen goods, and appliances — everything free. Maddie's Closet has given away roughly $125,000 in clothing in six months and is now one of Spokane's largest distributors of free clothing, with donated goods arriving from all 50 states. Donations of new baby essentials welcomed. 1004 E 8th Ave · (509) 315-5146 · maddiesplace.org
Donating 100% of Beer Campus proceeds toward a $50,000 community relief goal.
Waived day-pass fees for evacuated residents — showers, rest space, and respite. Find a location
Taking applications for immediate family relief for those impacted by the fires, with five drop-in centers for applications, donations, and free supplies (8:30–4:30) at Coldwell Banker Tomlinson North, EXIT Real Estate, Realty One Group Eclipse, RE/MAX Inland Empire, and Windermere City Group. Apply or find a location · (509) 326-9222
Offering space, services, discounts, or relief programs to fire-affected neighbors? Tell the SBA and we'll list it here and amplify it to the community.
Recovery help for businesses is opening in stages. The SBA is tracking the federal disaster-declaration process daily — several of the biggest programs below unlock the moment a major disaster declaration is approved, and we will update this page the day that happens.
The short version: the fast-moving pieces — firefighting funds, emergency declarations, state mobilization, shelter — happened within the first 72 hours. The steps that put money directly in survivors' hands — the Presidential major disaster declaration, FEMA Individual Assistance, SBA disaster loans, and HUD relief — are still ahead. The SBA is tracking each one and will update this page the day they land.
None of these has happened yet, and together they represent nearly all of the direct federal money for rebuilding. After the 2023 Gray and Oregon Road fires, the major disaster declaration took roughly six months — the region's shared push this time is speed.
The gateway to real household aid: FEMA Individual Assistance grants, Disaster Unemployment Assistance, crisis counseling, and expanded rebuilding funds. Watch: this week's joint damage assessments and the Governor's request.
Households cannot register for FEMA aid until it is authorized under a major declaration. The moment DisasterAssistance.gov opens for these fires, we will post it here.
Low-interest federal loans for homeowners, renters, businesses, and nonprofits — historically the largest source of rebuilding capital. Watch: an SBA declaration and a Business Recovery Center opening in Spokane.
FHA foreclosure moratorium, rebuild mortgages, and eventually long-term CDBG-DR recovery funds — these follow the major declaration.
NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection guards burned hillsides against erosion, flooding, and debris flows.
Permit-fee waivers, a one-stop rebuild permit center, like-for-like rebuild rights, and coordinated debris removal — the early steps other fire-hit communities took.
Second Harvest and Partners INW are accepting food donations — but only certain items. Check 2-harvest.org and partnersinw.org before you drop off.
Share this page with employees and customers. Turn an event into a fundraiser. Consider a match. A short note from a trusted employer directing people to one local fund multiplies the whole community's impact.
People are showing up in droves — and the region now routes that energy through volunteerspokane.org, the vetted volunteer channel used by the schools and the resource hub. The Red Cross also urgently needs shelter volunteers for displaced families.
Support the crews and workers carrying this crisis: the Firefighter Benevolent Fund (Local 29), and Big Table for restaurant and hospitality workers displaced by the fires.