Camas Valley Rural Volunteer Fire District

How a volunteer firefighter with no formal grant-writing training, secured a private grant using Funding Navigator.

  • $6,200

    grant secured

  • PPV Fan

    equipment

  • The department

    Camas Valley Rural Volunteer Fire District in Oregon with approximately 18 volunteer personnel.

  • The problem

    Replace the department’s aging positive pressure ventilation (PPV) fan.

  • The solution

    Captain Beans used Funding Navigator to secure a private grant and purchase the much needed replacement for his department.

The department

Volunteer fire departments rely heavily on grant funding to purchase the equipment they need to protect their crews and communities. But with limited time and resources, the grant process often feels overwhelming –demanding hours of research, paperwork, and uncertainty.

That was the reality for Captain James Beans IV of the Camas Valley Rural Volunteer Fire District in Oregon. A 10-year volunteer firefighter with no formal grant-writing training, he stepped into the role of grant writer for his department three years ago. The process of finding and securing funding remained an uphill battle – until he found Funding Navigator.

Finding the right funding

A new powerful tool

Finding the right grants was a time-consuming challenge for Beans. Without a central resource, he spent hours just searching and often resorting to trial and error.

“I would just try to search the web the best I could and find grants that would apply to us just by typing in random information,” Beans said. “And it would just take a lot of time that I don’t really have.”

With Funding Navigator’s curated database, he could quickly identify relevant opportunities tailored to Camas Valley Rural Volunteer Fire District — eliminating the guesswork and drastically reducing search time.

"Without Funding Navigator, we wouldn’t know which grants were out there or which ones to apply for. Just the search for each individual grant would take me hours — Funding Navigator probably saved me a day’s worth of work, at least."

The solution

  • Grant target

    Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund

  • Grant awarded

    $6,200

Background

Before using Funding Navigator, Beans had no idea the Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund existed — a private grant that turned out to be the perfect fit for his department’s funding needs. With Funding Navigator’s support, he successfully secured $6,200 for a new positive pressure ventilation (PPV) fan — a much-needed upgrade for improved firefighter safety and response time.

How Funding Navigator Works

  • Onboard your data (one time only)
  • Get help building your application
  • Submit application
  • Secure your grant

Outcome

The battery-powered fan replaced an aging gas-powered model that was heavy, unreliable, and required two people to move into position, creating potential delays and increasing the risk of back injuries. The new fan is much lighter and equipped with wheels, allowing a single firefighter to easily move it into place.

Customer reflections

Customer reflections

“There are always new grants coming up, and staying on top of deadlines is hard when you’re a volunteer. Funding Navigator keeps everything organized and saves us so much time. It allows us to look for grants more often and keep on top of them so we can apply for as much funding as possible.”

“Volunteer fire departments know what it’s like to have limited time and having to do a lot of things by yourself. Using this takes one more thing off your shoulders so you don’t have to worry as much about it.”

“It explains, step by step, the whole application process, which I really love,” Beans said. “Sometimes, the application itself can be harder than actually writing the grant narrative. Funding Navigator puts it all in a format of what to do, where to put the information, and what details to include.”

“They provided excellent customer support,” he said. “It could take me some time to fill out applications, and the people [at Funding Navigator] would call to check in and make sure I didn’t have any questions.”

Going forward

After experiencing firsthand how Funding Navigator streamlined the grant process, Beans plans to continue using it as part of the Camas Valley Rural Volunteer Fire District’s funding strategy.

“There are always new grants coming up, and staying on top of deadlines is hard when you’re a volunteer,” he said. “Funding Navigator keeps everything organized and saves us so much time. It allows us to look for grants more often and keep on top of them so we can apply for as much funding as possible.”

For fire departments — whether volunteer, combination, or career — having a tool that simplifies grant funding is invaluable. Beans recognized the value of that support from Funding Navigator.

“Volunteer fire departments know what it’s like to have limited time and having to do a lot of things by yourself,” said Beans. “Using this takes one more thing off your shoulders so you don’t have to worry as much about it.”

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