Australian Bushfires
How you can helpThis is a curated list of organisations to which you can donate to help communities affected by the bushfires.
Disclaimer 🙂
This list is not intended to be comprehensive, but it should help you maximise the effectiveness of your donation. It’s designed primarily for international donors, so I’ve only included organisations that make it easy for those overseas to donate. I’m an ex-pat Aussie living in New Orleans, with family and friends in the affected bushfire zones, so this is a personal list I’m making available in case it proves useful to others.
I haven’t included big organisations such as Red Cross, St. Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army. Through my own experience in Hurricane Katrina, I haven’t found large orgs to be the best place for my donations (big overheads, funds not reserved for current emergencies, bad politics, etc).
This is a first run at this list. If you have additions or suggestions, please email me.
PS. A couple of these organisations only accept donations through an Australian bank account. If you’d like to donate to them and you don’t live in Australia, you can use a service such as Transferwise or Xoom to send the money.
For volunteer firefighters and bushfire brigades
Rural Fire Brigades (Queensland)
South Australia Country Fire Service
Victoria Country Fire Authority (via direct deposit to its bank account)
For local and regional communities
Fire Relief Fund for First Nations Communities (Gofundme)
Blue Mountains Bush Fire Mayoral Relief Fund (direct deposit)
Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund (PayPal)
 For the animals
Immediate assistance for injured animals
WIRES Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (or donate via Facebook)
Warriors for Wildlife (or via Facebook)
Adelaide and Hills Koala Rescue (South Australia):
Port Macquarie Koala Hospital (New South Wales):
You can also adopt a koala through Port Macquarie Koala Hospital here
Long-term recovery of animal habitat