Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced the opening of the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Program and the Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) Grant Program. These programs help fire departments and volunteer firefighter organizations increase or maintain staffing levels, enhance community fire prevention efforts and support research into best practices for firefighter safety - ensuring strong, reliable fire protection and emergency response in counties across the nation.
What do these programs fund?
SAFER grants aim to increase or maintain trained firefighters to meet industry standards, attain 24-hour staffing and enhance fire protection capabilities, ensuring communities are adequately safeguarded. It provides funding to fire departments and volunteer firefighter organizations to hire new, additional firefighters or to change the status of part-time or paid-on-call firefighters to full-time firefighters and to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters.
FP&S grants aims to enhance community fire prevention efforts and support scientific research on innovations meant to reduce injury and improve the overall health of firefighters. It supports fire prevention programs and firefighter health and safety research and development such as clinical studies that address behavioral, social science, and cultural research.
How does my community apply?
The deadline for both programs is July 3, 2025, at 5 p.m. ET. Eligible applicants must apply via FEMA Grants Outcomes (GO).
What will make our application competitive?
Both programs electronically pre-score applications with the highest-ranking applications moving to the next review step. The pre-score criteria and scoring is listed in each program's guidance. You can use the pre-scoring to assess your project's potential for success.
Projects that align with the program priorities will be the most competitive so craft your application text using the words that FEMA uses in the program priorities and the metrics (measures of success) FEMA will use for the grants. Invest more time on evaluation criteria that are weighted higher in scoring. Finally, read the application guidance thoroughly and highlight and address other statements that mention information FEMA will seek.
How can my community learn more?
Learn more about SAFER at https://www.fema.gov/grants/preparedness/firefighters/safer.
Learn more about FP&S at https://www.fema.gov/grants/preparedness/firefighters/safety-awards.
Where can my community find help with grant writing or management?
VLCT published a resource, Increasing Municipal Capacity for Grants, that offers ideas for assistance with grants. Many of the capacity builders also provide project management services. Hiring experienced project management assistance can increase the speed of project development and help avoid cost, permitting, and other development surprises.
Fees for grant writers are eligible costs and may be included as a pre-award expenditure if specific requirements are met. One requirement is to competitively source grant writing services. FEMA will review procurement documentation if you hire a grant writer, and it is beneficial to read pages 60-61 in Appendix C of the Notice of Funding Opportunity for details. FEMA considers it a conflict of interest for former employees to manage a grant or carry out a contract when those former employees worked on such activities while they were employees.