Foundation, League Funneling Funds for California Wildfire Victims

The National Credit Union Foundation said Tuesday it is working with the staff at the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues to provide disaster relief funds for credit union people affected by the state’s wildfires.

Though firefighters have been making progress over the last few days in containing the wildfires, they continue to battle more than a dozen blazes that are threatening lives and property, according to national media reports. The disaster has so far claimed the lives of six firefighters and four civilians. Earlier this month, the league reported the wildfires forced credit union employees to evacuate their homes.

“After an unprecedented summer of natural disasters in 2017, we encourage everyone to give to the Foundation’s General Disaster Relief Fund to help prepare for another summer of potential loss, including the already catastrophic fires in Northern California,” Gigi Hyland, executive director of the Madison, Wis.-based Foundation, said. “The General Disaster Relief Fund allows the flexibility to quickly shift aid between the individual efforts as each situation evolves and need becomes present.”

Donations to the Foundation’s general disaster relief fund are being used to help any credit union employees and volunteers affected by the wildfires. Credit union supporters in every state can always make contributions to the general disaster relief fund at cuaid.coop.

All donations are used for credit union disaster relief.

The Foundation said it does not use disaster relief funds to pay for the CUAid.coop web platform or any of the costs to administer the national disaster relief program for credit unions. In the event that any donations to the general disaster relief fund are not used for a current disaster affecting credit union people, the funds will be used for any future credit union disaster relief efforts.