Thinking that many of you may have the same question, I am providing a quick planning sheet to guide your efforts:
10 Steps to Preparing a Winning “Assistance to Firefighters” Grant Proposal
1. Identify the Best Grant Source
Choose the best funding source for your top priority project:
- Personnel & Volunteer Incentives: Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant.
- Equipment & Apparatus: Assistance to Firefighters (AFG) grant.
- Smoke Alarms & Fire Safety Programs: Fire Protection and Safety (FP&S) grant.
2. Start Planning Early!
Compelling grants are based on formally identified needs -- not just “wants”. Create a Written Plan. Tie your plan to meeting NFPA statutes & standards. Don’t forget to include training needed to help you meet these standards.
- SAFER: Hiring/Recruitment and Retention Plan
- AFG: Equipment Critical Needs Assessment or Vehicle Replacement Plan
- FP&S: Community Risk Assessment
3. Select Your Grant Project, Based on FEMA Priorities
Review last year’s grant program guidance. This will give you a very strong indication of what FEMA will want to fund this year. Only apply for “high priority” items, as determined in the guidance (medium and low priority items rarely get funded).
- AFG Guidance: Funding priorities listed in next article of this newsletter
- SAFER Guidance: Google “2013 SAFER foa”
- FP&S Guidance: Google “2013 FP&S foa”
4. Update or Initiate Your SAM/CCR Registration
These unique numbers identify your district/department and must be updated yearly. If you haven’t done it recently, this can take a significant amount of time to be approved by FEMA. FEMA applications cannot be submitted without them. Website:
https://www.sam.gov/portal/SAM/##11
5. Spend Time Thinking & Brainstorming, Before Your Start Writing
Questions to consider:
• What are your biggest operational threats?
• What makes your fire district unique?
• What measurable difference will this request make to your district?
Find someone to brainstorm your ideas with – several minds working on a proposal will help fine tune it for the highest fundability.
6. Determine How Much Money You Need
Solicit three verbal price quotes for vehicle purchases. For equipment purchases call suppliers or go online and compare three companies. Be sure and print out and retain the information you find. For personnel grants determine how much it will cost to hire, equip and train a firefighter in your district/department. For volunteer incentives, once you’ve determined what will work best in your fire department, determine how much these will cost.
7. Begin Writing Before the Deadline is Announced
Plan to have your grant 75% completed before FEMA announces the grant deadline. Too often those who wait until the grant deadline is announced do not have enough time to complete their application. I can provide you with a free WORD grant template of the narrative questions that you will need to answer. (Email me at Michelle@ResourceSolutionsNow.com to request the template – please specify SAFER, AFG or FP&S).
8. Gather Data for the Computerized Questions
The online questions will take much longer to complete than you think. You will need to gather call volume, fleet data, and answer many other demographic and equipment-related questions. Although FEMA will not allow you to “open” a new grant until the 30 day grant application period is open, you can print an old grant and begin updating your numbers today.
9. Determine if You Have the Time and Skills to Prepare a Winning Grant Proposal
Fees for grant writers may be included in some of your AFG grant applications. If you need the assistance of a professional grant writer, do not wait until the 30 day grant period is announced. Good grant writers get booked up far in advance. I have a Fact Sheet on my website that provides tips on how to hire a grant writer/grant administrator. You can access it by clicking here: http://www.resourcesolutionsnow.com/sites/default/files/backup/how%20do%20I%20hire%20a%20grant%20writer.pdf
10. Prepare to be Successful!
Be ready to finalize your application quickly once the grant deadline is announced. Plan to get someone else to read and comment on your entire grant, before you submit it. Then be ready to implement the project as soon as you are notified of an award. Gain an understanding, now, of the grant reporting requirements – and make sure you have the capability to complete them. (Or find a professional grant administrator to assist you). Lack of attention to reporting requirements can hinder your ability to receive future grants.
Question #2
“Can you make it easy for me to figure out what FEMA’s AFG funding priorities are going to be this year?”
Since reading the 75+ page of the Funding Opportunity Announcement can be daunting for all of us, below you will find a simplified list of their High Priority funding opportunities.
2013 Funding Priorities (2014 priorities are not yet available; however, they are not anticipated to change from last year).
Grant Deadline? The latest word I have from FEMA is that the AFG grant program will be accepting application this Fall; while the SAFER grant program will not be opening again until after the first of the year.
What will they Fund?: Operations and Safety Grants - Training, Equipment, PPE, Wellness and Fitness, and Modifications to Facilities and Vehicle Acquisition Grants - new, used, or refurbished apparatus.
Equipment:
Top Funding Priorities: First-time purchase to support existing mission and/or replace obsolete, broken/inoperable equipment.
Grant Eligible Equipment:
• Foam and associated equipment
• Hazmat and decontamination equipment
• Compressor systems and/or cascade systems to fill SCBAs
• Hose, nozzles, and adapters
• Training specific to the requested equipment
• Automated external defibrillators
• Rapid Intervention Packs
• Flashlights & Gear Bags
• Boats 20 feet or less in length
• Maritime firefighting equipment
• Mobile communications equipment (including mobile repeaters and mobile data systems, only P25 compliant )
• Individual P25 compliant communications equipment, e.g., portable radios
• Traffic signal preemption systems
• Equipment for response to incidents involving CBRNE/WMD
• Shipping, taxes, assembly, and installation of the requested equipment; extended warranties and service agreements
PPE:
Top Funding Priorities: Districts purchasing new PPE for the first time, replacing PPE that is torn, damaged, or obsolete (a minimum of two NFPA cycles or 10 years of age or older), personal safety/rescue bailout systems and PPE for members without gear.
Grant Eligible PPE:
• Replacing SCBA compliant with NFPA 1981, pre-2002 Edition
• PPE for structural or Wildland firefighting (including boots, pants, coats, gloves, hoods, goggles, helmets, coveralls, and fire shelters)
• ANSI-approved retro-reflective highway apparel
• SCBAs, spare cylinders, and individual face pieces
• PPE for hazardous materials and other
• EMS PPE (coats, trousers, and jumpsuits) for blood borne pathogens
• Personal Safety/Rescue Bailout Systems
• Training for requested PPE
Wellness and Fitness:
Top Funding Priorities: In order to be eligible, fire departments must be providing, or request funding to provide, all four of the following:
• Periodic health screenings
• Entry physical examinations
• Immunizations
• Behavioral health programs
If you have the above, in place, only then can you request:
• Formal Fitness and Injury Prevention Program
• Critical Incident Stress Management Programs
• Employee Assistance Programs
• Injury/Illness rehabilitation programs
• Candidate physical ability evaluation
• Formal fitness and injury prevention program/equipment
• Injury/illness rehab
• IAFF or IAFC peer fitness trainer program(s)
Grant Eligible Activities:
• Procurement of entry-level physicals that meet NFPA 1582
• Annual medical/fitness health evaluations consistent with NFPA 1582
• Immunizations, as required by the department or law (e.g., NFPA)
• Behavioral health programs
• Implementation of IAFC/IAFF peer fitness trainer programs
• Contractual costs (non-hiring) for personnel, physical fitness equipment (including shipping charges and sales tax, as applicable), and supplies directly related to physical fitness activities
Modifications to Fire Facilities:
Top Funding Priorities: Departments requesting Sole/At source capture exhaust systems, sprinkler systems, or smoke/fire alarm notification systems for stations with sleeping quarters, including maritime/air operations facilities, that are occupied 24/7. Modifications to fire stations and other facilities built prior to 2003.
Grant Eligible Station Equipment:
• Direct Sole/At source capture exhaust systems
• Sprinkler systems
• Smoke/fire alarm notification systems
• Air quality systems
• Emergency generators
Vehicle Acquisition:
Top Funding Priorities: Pumper, Ambulance, Aerial, Tanker-Tender, Rescue and Brush-Attack
Grant Eligible Items:
• Cost of vehicle
• Physicals to meet current NFPA 1582/US DOT 649 F
• Cost of associated equipment that is eligible under current NFPA 1901/1906
• Driver/operator training programs that meet applicable standards, current NFPA 1002 or Emergency Vehicle Operator Curriculum, or equivalent
• Transportation to inspect a requested vehicle during production
Training:
Top Funding Priorities & Grant Eligible Activities:
• Firefighter I and II certifications
• Emergency Medical Responder (EMR)
• Community Paramedics (EMT-Ps with Primary Care certification)
• Driver/Operator
• Fire Officer I-IV
• Hazardous Materials (Hazmat)
• Wildland firefighting
• Vehicle rescue
• Rapid Intervention Team (RIT)
• NIMS/ICS/All Hazard Incident Management Team (Type 3)
• Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Train-the-trainer courses
• Alternative fuel firefighting
• Conference equipment
• Response to natural disasters
• Maritime Firefighting. NFPA 1005/1405
• Tuition, exam/course fees, and certifications/certification expenses
• Compensation to volunteer firefighters for wages lost to attend training
• Purchase of training curricula, training equipment (trailers, mobile simulators), training props, and training services (instructors)
• Purchase of Tow Vehicles (limited to $6,000 per application)
• Overtime expenses paid to career firefighters to attend training or to cover colleagues who are in training
• CBRNE awareness, performance, planning, and management
• Safety Officer
• Travel expenses associated with Type 3 Incident Management Teams (IMT) attending position development/mentoring assignment with national Type 2 or Type 1 IMT’s
• Those supplies or expendables or “one time” use items essential for an award’s scope of work.
Other items for you to consider:
Training Funds: FEMA always wants to ensure that firefighters have the training they need to operate the equipment and vehicles purchased with a grant. They will even pay for it! So be sure and request training funds if you need them.
Department’s Cost Share Requirements: Rural – 5%; Suburban – 10%, Urban - 15%
Grant Writer Fees: Fees for grant writers may be included in some of your grant applications.
Question #3
“What questions should a Chief ask when hiring a grant writer?”
Since this is a common question, I put together a Fact Sheet to share: Fact Sheet
If you have any grant-related questions, feel free to contact me. I enjoy sharing my knowledge!
Michelle S. Mazzola, Resource Solutions, LLC
Phone: 509/669-4442
Email: Michelle@ResourceSolutionsNow.com
Website: www: ResourceSolutionsNow.com