Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) Program
Program overview
In fiscal years 2022 through 2025, the Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) Program received $464,725,334 in total obligated funds. The program offers communities at-risk from wildfires, states, local governments, tribal nations, state forestry agencies, nonprofit organizations, and Alaska Native corporations funding to assist at-risk communities with planning for and mitigating against wildfire risks. The money can go toward the development and revision of Community Wildfire Protection Plans and the implementation of projects described in a plan created in the last 10 years.
Learn more
Learn more about the Community Wildfire Defense Grant (CWDG) Program by visiting sam.gov, www.fs.usda.gov.
Where Was Funding Distributed?
About
Update: This tool was updated on October 21, 2026 with a new data source for federal funding information, new fiscal years of data, new measures of community need, and new analysis pages by infrastructure category.
In this tool, we analyze 71 major federal infrastructure programs funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and annual appropriations (many programs were allocated funding through multiple laws). The funding data comes from USAspending.gov, which is standardized across federal agencies. Data in the initial tool release (2023) and prior update (2025) came from a combination of sources, including USAspending.gov, program fact sheets, and agency-level press releases and award announcements.
Demographic and need indicator data come from approximately 25 publicly available sources, including the 2016–20 American Community Survey five-year estimates from the US Census Bureau and data produced by other federal agencies.
To learn more about how to use this tool and how we’ve updated it over time, see our user guide.
Project Credits
This data tool was funded by a grant from the Melville Charitable Trust as part of our work in the Infrastructure Investments Hub. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of our experts. More information on our funding principles is available here. Read our terms of service here.
- research Yonah Freemark, Amanda Hermans, Gabe Samuels, Tomi Rajninger, Sam Lieberman, Teddy Maginn, Mel Langness, and David Blount
- Design Brittney Spinner
- Development Mitchell Thorson
- Editing Lauren Lastowka
- Writing Wesley Jenkins
View the project on Github