Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program
This program’s primary goal is to help fire departments and nonaffiliated EMS organizations meet their basic firefighting and emergency response equipment and training needs. The AFG program supports organizations that lack the tools and resources necessary to safely and effectively protect the life and safety of the public and their emergency response personnel.
This program is usually offered in the early spring, and you have up to three separate opportunities for funding:
- Operations-equipment
- Vehicles
- Part of a regional application
Of the 16,000 to 21,000 applications submitted, approximately 5,000 are awarded. In 2009 there were 19,792 applications requesting a total of $3,167,966,451. The total budget for 2009 was $565,000,000. The reality of these numbers is that 82% of the dollars that were applied for went unfunded. The vast majority of these applications were not funded because they failed to meet funding priorities and/or had narratives that were incomplete or lacking critical information as well as a lack of federal funds. Because of our intimate knowledge of the program and past experiences, in 2009 Grantmasters had an 80% funding rate for all of our funding priority applications. Not only did these departments receive funding for their projects, but many also received reimbursements for their grant writing fees.
Some examples of projects that have been funded in the past include:
- Vehicles
- SCBA
- Hose
- Fitness Centers
- Exhaust Extrication Systems
- Station Generators
- Washer-Extractors
- Marine PPE
- Structural PPE
- EMS PPE
- Radios, MDTs & Communication Systems
- RIT Tools
- Thermal Imaging
- Truck Modifications
- Station Modifications
- Station Based Air Compressors
- Portable Generators and Breathing Air Compressors
- Training