This was a breakout year for Watch Duty as a group of committed volunteers and staff, a trusted brand, and most importantly, as a community of people living under the constant threat of wildfire. In 2024 we reached almost four times as many residents and first responders than the year before to become a household name for all things wildfire in the American West. In fact, we doubled, tripled, and nearly quadrupled every metric that we measure ourselves against.
Our yearly active users is up to 7.2 million from 1.9 million the year before (up 3.7x) and active mobile devices more than doubled, growing from 1.3 million to 2.8 million (up 2.2x). Pageviews also quadrupled from 115 million to 512 million (up 4.4x), and at our peak usage, over 1.1 million users relied on us daily – earning us the number one spot in the App Store during the Southern California fires in September. This extraordinary traction attracted national media coverage from The Washington Post, Bloomberg (x2), NPR, to NewsNation. It garnered recognition from Governors and Mayors (x2) looking to keep their communities safe and most notably, we were invited to the White House to discuss the critical role our work plays in disaster response.
These achievements would not have been possible without our incredible team and the donors who power our mission. This year we grew to fifteen full-time staff (up 2x), onboarded 72 new volunteers (up 2x), reported on 9,102 wildfires (up 2.2x), and secured $5.6 million in funding (up 4.6x) to sustain our organization and fuel our growth. We are happy to report that $2 million of that funding comes from 65,500 paying members (up 4x), $600,000 from individual donors, a $1 million grant, and finally a $2 million grant from Google.org! Thank you for your support and trust because without you this would not have been possible.
In return, we think it's important that we steward your money in the most responsible and transparent way possible. Today, we’re proud to share that we’ve driven our operating cost down to $0.34 per active user (1.5x less than last year) — so every dollar you contribute helps more than two people gain access to critical life-saving information.
Throughout this annual report you will see an unusually transparent view of the finer details of our budget, operations, unaudited pageviews, and product direction. Our hope is that this radical transparency will build upon the existing trust we have created together and help us forge new partnerships. We are here to serve and we’d like you to continue to be a part of our grassroots success story.
For those who live in fire-prone areas, true success isn't measured by being the number one app in the App Store, receiving invitations to the White House, or making headlines in national media. Instead, success means that our community no longer needs to rely on Watch Duty because wildfires are effectively managed and minimized.
As residents of the wildlands ourselves, it’s challenging to talk about success without acknowledging that our growth is due to worsening wildfires, loss of livelihood and even loss of life. Despite the unfortunate reality that we need to exist, it is our intent to focus on how we can help rather than focus on the destruction that these fires have caused. Almost every single person on our team has been directly affected by wildfire and has chosen to join Watch Duty in order to cope and fight back.
Beyond the quantitative data that we use to track our success, it’s the actual stories from residents and first responders that keep us going. For many people, Watch Duty may be the only notification they will receive before seeing their house for the last time, such as Keith Dennis who was able to save his pets before fleeing from the Davis Fire in Reno, NV. Or Eric Moro who was literally tracking the Ruidoso wildfires on Watch Duty in New Mexico when firefighters knocked on his door to evacuate him and his family immediately. The outpouring of love letters and harrowing tales of life and death makes the long hours worth it.
It is our honor to serve as the lifeline for so many during their time of need and what raised the bar this year was knowing that first responders are also relying on us for intelligence – from the LA County Sheriff to the Butte County Sheriff and Emergency Management, to the tanker pilots, dozer operators, and firefighters who are out on the front lines. The people who have chosen a life of service need our help and it is now our mission to serve them. All of our hard work over the years has led us to deeper conversations with dozens of local, state, and federal agencies who plan to work more closely with us in 2025.
We are all in this together, starved for information and trying to survive some of the most horrific days we may ever encounter. Beyond all of the “big wins” and “milestones” that most organizations measure themselves against, every time a firefighter stops one of us in the street and thanks us for our service, we know we’ve made a difference.
As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, it is our legal obligation to publish much of our accounting as part of the tax code, but that only tells part of the story. We feel as though we can do better and share more about how our organization works; not just for donor transparency but for others who work at non-profits or are thinking about starting one. We are proud of our novel approach and since we are supported by our members and donors, we think full transparency is the right thing to do. Transparency builds trust and trust is the cornerstone of our organization – from the top to the bottom.
Without further ado, our year-over-year budget is available publicly and will be from here on out (current year’s financials are unaudited and are subject to change). Below you can see our accounting broken down in a few different ways to help demonstrate our efficiency as an organization.
As you can see from the graph above, our most expensive category by a wide margin is for personnel who support our program. Borrowing from the software industry, our goal is to keep all other costs as low as possible and pay competitive wages for all of our employees. We have no need for an office nor a large marketing budget or fancy travel expenses. We need as much of our budget as possible to go to top-tier talent that could otherwise work elsewhere for twice the compensation.
Our employees represent the core of our program and therefore that is where we want to direct as much capital as possible. Looking at the same data by class (below), you can see just how capital efficient we are with an admin ratio of just 4.16% this year, down from 6.44% the prior year! With a non-profit industry standard of around ~35% we are operating at an extremely high efficiency. Over the coming years we expect that number to rise slightly but we are still targeting to be well under 15%, below half of the industry standard.
In terms of measurable impact, this year we were able to serve over 500 million page views, reaching 7.2 million people directly and countless more who receive our information from officials and other news sources. We have been asked by hundreds of first responders and emergency managers alike to share our pageview analytics so they can better understand our reach and decide how best to partner with us. Today we are proud to share those unaudited page view analytics in the hopes that radical transparency will allow more partnerships to flourish.
In that same vein, now that our budget and viewership analytics have been quantified and shared publicly, we are able to tabulate our efficiency as a non-profit organization. This is something we are incredibly proud of and is made possible by free open source software, cloud compute, and our talented team of engineers. As you can see from the graph below, our cost per user has decreased to just $0.34, down from $0.51 last year. We’re proud to steward your donation and membership dollars directly to people who may be having the worst day of their lives, with minimal overhead costs.
Beyond all the success metrics of running an efficient and impactful non-profit, we were able to accomplish everything we set out to achieve – most importantly, bolstering our service. As you can see from our 2023 end of year report, our primary focus was on expanding into new states, creating more reporter tooling, integrating more data sources from partners, and finally launching Watch Duty Pro for first responders.
We are proud to report that we achieved those goals and then some. We were able to expand to more states than we anticipated, integrated more partner data such as ALERTCalifornia and ALERTWest wildfire cameras, integrated advanced AI and monitoring for our reporters and radio operators, and sold 3,500 professional memberships to first responders and utilities.
With the addition of the wildfire cameras, we have accomplished a momentous goal that we set out to achieve three years ago: creating a one-stop-shop for all available wildfire information. Whether it be wind data, fire perimeters, aircraft positions, or wildfire cameras, users no longer need to navigate multiple apps to access critical information. Everything is now available at a moment's notice in the palm of your hand. This achievement is a testament to our team's relentless dedication and ingenuity, made possible despite operating with limited budgets. A huge congratulations is in order to everyone on the team who toiled for years to make this vision a reality.
But perhaps what we are most proud of are the partnerships we have forged this year. Our collaborations have evolved from one-off engagements to standard practice, establishing Watch Duty as a trusted partner for emergency management agencies across the American West. We have built robust communication channels with key state agencies like CALFIRE, Oregon Department of Forestry, and Washington’s DNR enhancing our ability to deliver critical messages to our communities effectively.
These partnerships have enabled us to support counties issuing evacuations and assist Incident Management Teams (IMTs) managing some of the most complex fires by providing accurate, timely information through our trusted platform. We are even beginning to power state and local agency fire maps like that of Idaho Department of Lands and we have started onboarding government agencies who are reporting prescribed fires directly in Watch Duty like California State Parks and Fire Forward to name a few. We’re honored to support these agencies and become another trusted tool in their toolbox.
This will be the year when our community discovers why our organization is not called “Fire Duty”. We will be expanding our services to include river flooding alerts and weather events that exacerbate wildfires, such as threshold-based wind alerts. By integrating real-time monitoring and predictive analytics, Watch Duty will provide timely information and situational awareness for floods and weather-driven wildfire risks. This expansion ensures that residents and first responders are equipped with the necessary tools to stay safe during a broader range of natural disasters, reinforcing our mission to protect and safeguard communities effectively.
From day one, we knew that wildfire was just our beachhead and our name represents just who we are – seemingly ordinary residents who stay up late on “watch duty” during a disaster. What we have created has become something extraordinary and now we have the opportunity to help during other natural disasters that we face.
Expand Into More Hazards
Wind, rain, air quality, and other inclement weather are still a challenge for us and our community to stay ahead of. Sure there’s a forecast of what may happen, but we are in the business of what is happening. For those of us who live in remote areas, the predictions are usually wrong or overstated and not one of them can tell you when the river is going to breach or the air quality is so bad that you can’t go outside. This is the year we are going to attempt to solve this problem once and for all.
Continue Expanding Our Service Eastward
At the very least, we’ll be adding coverage for Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas. We may continue expanding past that for 2025, depending on volunteer and reporter recruitment in those areas. If you know anyone who would be a great volunteer, please direct them to watchduty.org/volunteer.
More Tools for First Responders, Emergency Managers, and Utilities
As we discovered this year, professionals are adopting Watch Duty quickly and our Pro offering is no exception. In a short time, we have sold over 3,500 memberships and counting. Professionals are also asking for more features that we intend to deliver – many of which will be free to first responders. Although we do have a paid professional offering, we are still in the business of helping the public. As such, any feature that directly impacts public safety, like posting prescribed fires or road closures, will always remain free for all.
Sales Process and Business Operations
By the end of 2024, we were hoping to have our sales process and business operations set in stone, but we were unable to find product-market fit until we launched our professional version. Now that we have our feet properly under us, we are going to continue working with agencies more aggressively and helping the first responder community at large.
Geographic Information System (GIS) Improvements
The underpinnings of our system rely heavily on GIS, from evacuation zones to power outages to our own reporting. Although we have built a very robust system over the years that has served nearly 1 billion requests, we now know more about who we are and where we are going which allows us to tune our system for the next 10 billion requests.
Beyond our five themes for the year, we have two simple goals – double our members and continue to chase financial sustainability, funded by memberships rather than donors.
Currently Watch Duty, like most non-profits, relies heavily on donor support from individuals as well as foundations. Without them we would not exist today. This is the traditional model of fundraising that the world is accustomed to – end of year pledges, fundraisers, and other events that take time and money away from critical operations.
When we started Watch Duty in 2021, we asked ourselves, what if we could create a member-supported non-profit where hundreds of thousands of people only contributed a small amount to support the entire organization? As you’ve seen in this report, we brought in nearly $2 million in memberships, which is over 80% of our annual budget! We are a stone's throw away from our goal but as we continue to hire and grow, the goal post also moves farther down the field. This is something we will keep a close eye on as we enter into 2025 but with your support we know that we can continue to achieve our goals and serve our community.
It is truly an honor to serve our family, friends, neighbors, and community. We say this every year but every year it is more true than the last. We have the distinguished privilege of using our skills to do something we love, something that has never been done before, something that the world needs in a time when we need it the most.
After all, we live here too and we also rely on Watch Duty. When we are not at our desks manning our radios, we are just like you – in town, with our community, or enjoying country life with the comfort of knowing our colleagues are watching over us. We know they are on Watch Duty.
Thank you for allowing us to serve and to fulfill our purpose.
If you have found Watch Duty to be helpful to you, your family, or your friends please consider donating or becoming a member. Your community needs you.
Aloha, Hawai’i! We are now offering our real-time wildfire coverage throughout all of the islands!
It’s an honor to be of service and join you in your fight against wildfires. Last year, we watched in horror as Lahaina suffered what so many of us have experienced in Santa Rosa, Paradise, Talent, Greenville, and countless other towns in the West. We are all learning to come to grips with a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon, but neither are we.We created Watch Duty, a non-profit organization, because we live under the ever-present threat of wildfire, and more and more of us are experiencing the need for real-time information. Our service, which will always remain free, follows the newly deployed wildfire cameras from ALERTWest that are integrated directly into Watch Duty. All of this functionality gives you the ability to track and monitor wildfires in real-time, all in one place, on either iOS, Android, or your web browser. Mahalo.
Introducing Watch Duty Pro — professional features for firefighters, first responders, and emergency managers for only $79 for the first year ($99 after that). This enhanced version extends our existing capabilities by offering additional features and resources in a single place to help first responders make informed decisions faster.
Watch Duty Pro includes:
Features coming soon:
You can upgrade to Pro in the same app that you know and trust for only $79 for the first year if purchased before December 31, 2024 and just $99 per year after that.
As always, the core life and safety features of Watch Duty will remain free and all proceeds from memberships will go to supporting our non-profit operations.
Real-time wildfire cameras from ALERT West and ALERT California are now integrated directly into Watch Duty and viewable on our map!
ALERTCalifornia incorporates more than 20 years of UC San Diego research into their state-focused camera network of nearly 1,100 cameras. Outside California, ALERTWest partners with other universities and stakeholders to operate hundreds more cameras in neighboring states, with the network constantly expanding. It’s an honor to partner with these two organizations to provide you with the most actionable wildfire information available.
Once you've updated your app, open the ‘Layers’ drawer found in the top right hand corner of your map and select ‘Live Wildfire Cameras’. When you zoom in you will see the cameras appear. Clicking on one allows you to view in real-time as well as a 6-hour time-lapse.
We are pleased to announce a strategic collaboration with California State Parks aimed at improving wildfire safety and communication across the state. As part of this partnership, California State Parks will now be posting directly on the Watch Duty platform, providing valuable updates about prescribed fires throughout the parks system.
This collaboration comes at a critical time as California faces increasing wildfire risks. By leveraging the reach and capabilities of Watch Duty, California State Parks will be able to disseminate important information to not only residents of the surrounding areas but also the fire services and first responders.
"We are excited to partner with California State Parks to enhance wildfire safety for our communities," said John Mills, CEO of Watch Duty. "This collaboration allows us to work with more fire practitioners who are putting good fire on the ground and let residents know there is nothing to worry about when they smell smoke.”
This partnership comes on the heels of our earlier announcement in April that Fire Forward, the leading burn bosses in California, are also posting directly on Watch Duty to help keep our communities informed. In addition, we have already partnered with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to become the leader in real-time prescribed fire information.
The integration of California State Parks' postings on Watch Duty is now live and available to users of the app.
