YouTube’s support for LA wildfire relief includes $3 million fund for local creators

It’s been seven months since Southern California was devastated by a series of wildfires, and YouTube is adding to the ongoing relief efforts. The platform has earmarked $3 million to directly support creators who were affected by the disaster.

The $3 million sum is coming out of the $15 million total YouTube and Google jointly pledged to wildfire relief efforts back in January. Creators are eligible to access that fund if their property was lost or damaged in the fires. That group includes some of YouTube’s biggest names, including both members of the duo known as Colin and Samir.

YouTube’s goal, however, is not just to help its homegrown creators get back on their feet. Los Angeles would not be able to maintain its status as the epicenter of U.S. creator content without supporting a broader community of creative professionals, and YouTube is looking to support those individuals as well, “regardless of whether they create on YouTube.”

That quote comes from a blog post authored by YouTube VP of Sales Adam Stewart, who lost his own home in the wildfires. “That magic of Los Angeles lies in its rich ecosystem of creative talent,” Stewart wrote

. “The people who support our creators and their growing businesses are a vital part of the YouTube family: the editors, writers, costume teams, and countless other professionals who make up the backbone of the creative industry.”

YouTube is one of several platforms that have supported creators who have been displaced by wildfires. Like Spotify, it opened its doors to provide studio space for affected individuals.

Some of those creators chose to document their experiences during the wildfires through harrowing vlogs that went online in the days following the onset of the disaster. Those videos are part of a long history of first-person disaster viewpoints published on YouTube. Those eyewitness accounts date back to Hurricane Katrina, which hit the South just a few months after YouTube was established.

YouTube’s video journalism community is an important part of its culture, so it’s nice to see the platform giving back to creators who have told painful — but important — stories. The $3 million of support will be distributed through the Entertainment Community Fund, an organization that advocates for professionals in fields like theater, film, television, radio, music, and dance.