Our Mission
"No community should have to invent recovery alone."
When disaster strikes, people do not reach for binders, they reach for people. People who have walked the path, who can orient them, who understand the devastation, and who will walk their community home while supporting local leaders every step of the way. We have the network, the experience, and the empathy. We are here for you, from Day One until you are home.
Our Story
2017
North Bay Fires, Sonoma County
After the Fire USA founder Jennifer Gray Thompson witnessed the destruction of her hometown. But the hardest part came after the flames: Recovery was fragmented. Federal systems weren’t designed for megafires. Rebuild North Bay Foundation was born.
2018
Camp Fire and Woolsey: the mission expands
What we learned in Sonoma couldn't stay local. We began paying it forward: sharing hard-won tools, frameworks, and field knowledge with communities entering the same nightmare.
2020
From regional to national
We became After the Fire USA, growing from a regional nonprofit into a national organization to meet wildfire survivors wherever disaster struck.
Now
After the Fire USA: a national movement
We are now the nation’s leading survivor-centered wildfire recovery organization, walking beside every megafire community in the U.S. Between 2017 and 2021, megafires spread across California, Oregon, and Colorado, and we met the moment again and again, ultimately expanding our work to Maui in 2023 and Los Angeles in 2025.
What We Do
Connect
Peer-to-peer knowledge transfer
We connect fire-impacted communities with peers who've navigated recovery in other regions. Every fire we've worked, documented here.
Advocate
Fighting for fair recovery policy
We show up in Washington with survivor voices and stay until the policy changes. That sustained presence has helped deliver over $6 billion in tax relief for fire communities across the country.
Convene
Wildfire Leadership Summit
The only place where recovery practitioners, policymakers, funders, and survivors are in the same room, every year.
Educate
Cross-fire insights and analysis
Eight years of field data across 15+ fires, organized into a framework that reflects how recovery actually works.
Our Network
Runs Deep
Recovery doesn’t happen in isolation. That’s why we’ve built a robust, trusted network of experts and partners across every dimension of wildfire recovery:
- Survivors & community leaders
- Disaster navigation for individuals & municipalities
- Former FEMA, HUD & SBA officials
- Land management & fuels reduction
- Resilient rebuilding & insurance experts
- Debris removal & smoke damage specialists
- Mental health & trauma-informed recovery
- School & family recovery experts
- Equity-driven policy & philanthropy leaders
From Paradise to Lahaina to Los Angeles
Our Impact
Since 2017, After the Fire USA has partnered with every megafire community in the country. We’ve transformed lived experience into national systems change, and isolation into connection.
We are building a national backbone for wildfire recovery, powered by community wisdom, equity, and evidence-based practices.
Our Commitment
We honor local leadership not override it.
We act with authenticity and humility.
We believe megafire is a solvable crisis.
We stay—long after headlines fade.