FIRM, Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries: home Call (559) 487-1500

FIRM runs on people who decided to be neighbors.

Congregations started FIRM in 1994 by pooling what they had. Thirty-two years on, the work is still carried by volunteers, interns, donors and partners who show up. Here is where the need is, and the phone number if you would rather just talk it through: (559) 487-1500.

Give on FIRM's donation page

Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 77-0357297, incorporated in Fresno in January 1994. Candid Gold Seal of Transparency, 2025.

The FIRM entrepreneurship group on a tour of a shared commercial kitchen, standing together between the counters.
Nineteen people joined FIRM's entrepreneurship program in 2025. Six earned California food licences and three opened businesses.

Give

A gift can be one-time or repeating, and you choose where it goes: general programs, the Neng Thao Memorial Scholarship, or something you name yourself. Checks are welcome by mail at 1940 N Fresno Street, Fresno, CA 93703.

Give on FIRM's donation page

What it paid for in 2025
$28,874 in emergency relief for families who ran out of room to wait: utilities, medical costs, rent gaps.
Donation Days
FIRM takes household goods, clothing and school supplies for families who have just arrived. Call ahead and ask what is needed this week.
Questions

(559) 487-1500, Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM

The Neng Thao Memorial Scholarship

Neng Thao was a valedictorian at Edison High School and a youth leader at FIRM. He drowned in the San Joaquin River in the summer of 2017.

His family funds a scholarship in his name through FIRM, and it has gone to a graduating senior every year since. In 2025 it was $2,500. FIRM also gave his name to the conference room, so that everyone who sits down to a meeting in this building sits in his room.

Give to the Neng Thao Memorial Scholarship, one of the designations on FIRM's donation page.

Neng Thao

Memorial Conference Room

Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries
1940 N Fresno Street, Fresno

Volunteer, intern, or bring a group

Volunteer

Call and ask for Safia Amirzai, the office manager. Tutors, drivers, garden hands, event help and interpreters are the usual needs, and the usual answer is yes.

Internships

FIRM takes interns year round, and it is not a filing job. Christine Barker came here as a summer intern in 2008 and is the executive director now.

Service-learning groups

Groups come for a day or a week and work alongside staff: gardens, events, the welcome center. Ask for the current schedule when you call.

Two women laughing together at FIRM's awards night, one holding an engraved award plate.
FIRM's 2025 Impact Awards went to Thongchai Xiong, Thongdy Mangala and Aziza Ahmad Hassoun Sharbak, who opened her home to newly arrived Afghan women, with an honorable mention for Dr. Amin Attia of Masjid Al Aqabah.

What a year of this looks like

In 2025 FIRM worked directly with 2,400 people. 5,594 came through its events and 38,957 were reached across seven counties. Its Hmong and Lao radio and television programs were listened to 153,090 times. Community health workers made 7,000 appointments, a HUD-certified counselor helped 241 households, and the clinic FIRM runs with UCSF Fresno saw 198 people. $28,874 in emergency relief reached families who had run out of options, and $2,500 went to a graduating senior in Neng Thao's name.

Read FIRM's 2025 Annual Impact Report (PDF, opens on firminc.org)

Three people from FIRM standing together in a congressional office in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., 2025. FIRM also spoke at Equity on the Mall and took forty neighbors to the State Capitol.

Who FIRM works with

A partnership of congregations started this in 1994, and the list has grown to include mosques, temples, churches, clinics, agencies and schools.

  • Ethiopian Community Development Council
  • UCSF Fresno
  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • Central California Legal Services
  • Fresno Housing Authority
  • SEARAC
  • Stone Soup Fresno
  • Masjid Al Aqabah
  • Community Mennonite Church
  • Memorial United Methodist Church, Clovis
  • House of the Gospel
  • 4141 Ministries
  • City of Fresno
  • Toys for Tots

Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, EIN 77-0357297, incorporated in Fresno in January 1994. Candid Gold Seal of Transparency, 2025. Martin Luther King Community Service Award from the City of Fresno; Vocational Excellence Award from the Fresno Rotary Club.

FIRM's seal from 1994 to 2025: a maroon circle reading Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries.
The seal FIRM carried for thirty years. In 2025 Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries became Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries. The maroon did not change.

Come and see it first, if you would rather.

1940 N Fresno Street
Fresno, California 93703

Give on FIRM's donation page

Nobody will ask you to sit through a presentation. Ask at the desk and someone will walk you through the building, the garden and the clinic.

If you came here looking for help instead, start here