Grants for Volunteer Fire Departments: FEMA, USDA, State, and Private

Volunteer fire departments have several serious sources of grant money to work with: three FEMA programs (Assistance to Firefighters, SAFER, and Fire Prevention and Safety), two USDA programs (Volunteer Fire Assistance for wildland work and Community Facilities for stations and apparatus), state fire marshal and forestry grants that vary widely by state, and private funders such as the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation and the Gary Sinise Foundation. Each has its own eligibility rules, match requirement, and application window, and the departments that win the most are the ones that pursue several at once and get their federal paperwork in order before a funding notice ever opens.

The Three FEMA Fire Grants

FEMA runs the largest pool of money aimed specifically at fire departments, and it comes in three separate programs that fund different things.

Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG)

AFG pays for equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, and training. In fiscal year 2024, FEMA issued 1,678 awards totaling $291.6 million, with individual grants ranging from roughly $168,000 to nearly $2.7 million.¹ The FY 2025 cycle opened on May 19, 2026 with the same $291.6 million available and closed on June 22, 2026.²

The cost share is tied to the population served. Departments covering 20,000 people or fewer, which includes most volunteer departments, put up 5% of the project cost in non-federal matching funds. That rises to 10% for jurisdictions between 20,000 and one million, and 15% above one million. Smaller requests can go through a “micro grant” option: departments that voluntarily cap their federal share at $75,000 get additional consideration during review.³

Recipients must keep their operating expenditures in funded areas at or above the average of the two prior fiscal years, a rule known as maintenance of effort. All costs have to comply with the federal Uniform Administrative Requirements at 2 C.F.R. Part 200, and funds cannot be used for lobbying or to match other federal grants.⁴

SAFER — Staffing and Volunteer Recruitment

The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response program funds two things: hiring paid firefighters and recruiting or retaining volunteers. For departments struggling to fill the roster, the recruitment and retention track is the relevant one. The FY 2025 SAFER cycle made $324 million available with no cost-sharing requirement, meaning applicants do not need to provide a local match.⁵

Eligible applicants include city, township, and county governments, federally recognized tribal governments, 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and national, state, local, or tribal organizations representing volunteer firefighters.⁵ Awards can be large. In FY 2024, the County of Chelan in Washington received $1.4 million and the New England Association of Fire Chiefs received over $3.3 million for recruitment and retention projects.⁶

Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S)

FP&S funds community risk reduction and firefighter safety research rather than trucks or gear for the apparatus floor. The FY 2025 cycle made $32.4 million available.² Eligible activities include smoke alarm installations, public fire safety education, sprinkler awareness campaigns, wildland-urban interface risk reduction, code enforcement, arson investigation equipment and training, and firefighter health and wellness research. Applicants must provide a non-federal cost share of at least 5%, and applications are scored on financial need, project description and implementation plan, and cost-benefit analysis.⁷ Volunteer fire departments are explicitly eligible. Across all three FEMA programs, $648 million was announced for FY 2025.⁸

USDA Programs for Rural Departments

Two USDA programs matter for volunteer departments in rural areas, and they cover very different needs.

Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA)

The USDA Forest Service funds VFA and pushes the money through state forestry agencies to help rural departments prepare for wildland fire. The program targets communities of 10,000 or fewer residents. Because each state runs its own version, the award caps, match requirements, and eligible items differ.

South Carolina provides up to $5,000 per department on a 50/50 cost share, and eligible purchases include brush trucks, pumps, hoses, Nomex clothing, VHF radios, and dry hydrant installations. Departments must be at least 80% volunteer and actively involved in wildland fire response.⁹ New Mexico sets its cap at $25,000 per department per year with a 10% local match.¹⁰ Kansas operates on matching funds with priority for wildland fire equipment and safety items.¹¹ In Maryland’s 2025 cycle, 55 departments across 17 counties split $167,314, with a maximum of $3,500 per department.¹²

One boundary matters here: VFA money is generally limited to wildland firefighting. Structural firefighting gear, structural engines, EMS equipment, rescue tools, and station construction are typically excluded. For those needs, look elsewhere.

Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant Program

Departments that need to build or renovate a station, or buy a major piece of apparatus, can look to USDA Rural Development’s Community Facilities program. It combines direct loans and grants and explicitly covers fire departments and fire trucks.¹³

Eligible applicants are public bodies, community-based nonprofits, and federally recognized tribes in rural areas with populations of 20,000 or fewer, and the applicant must show it cannot finance the project through its own resources or commercial credit on reasonable terms. The grant share slides with population and median household income:

Up to 75% for communities with 5,000 or fewer people and median household income below 60% of the state nonmetropolitan median.
Up to 55% for communities with 12,000 or fewer people and income below 70% of that median.
Up to 35% for communities with 20,000 or fewer people and income below 80% of that median.
Up to 15% for communities with 20,000 or fewer people and income below 90% of that median.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis from October 1 through September 30, and applicants should contact a state program official before applying.¹³ The administration’s FY 2026 budget proposal sought to eliminate this program, though that proposal requires congressional approval.¹⁴

State Grant Programs

Most states run their own grant programs for volunteer departments. They vary widely, and they are often less competitive than the FEMA programs.

North Carolina funds its Volunteer Fire Department Fund through a tax on property insurance premiums. Awards go up to $40,000, and departments that receive less than $50,000 in annual municipal or county funding face no local match requirement. Applications are due by March 1 each year, with awards announced by May 15.¹⁵

Texas runs the Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program through the Texas A&M Forest Service. It covers firefighting vehicles, equipment, protective clothing, dry hydrants, training, and recruitment resources. In FY 2025 the program awarded 58 truck grants, 260 equipment grants, and over 2,200 training tuition grants.¹⁶

New York created the Volunteer Fire Infrastructure and Response Equipment (V-FIRE) Grant Program with $25 million in state funding, along with a separate $1 million Recruitment and Retention Grant offering up to $25,000 per eligible applicant for health and wellness, training, outreach, and marketing.¹⁷

Pennsylvania administers the Fire Company and Emergency Medical Services Grant Program through the Office of the State Fire Commissioner, supporting facility construction and renovation, equipment, debt reduction, training, and recruitment.¹⁸

Check with your state fire marshal’s office and state forestry agency. Many state streams get far less attention than the federal programs and see fewer applicants as a result.

Private and Corporate Grants

Private funders tend to write smaller checks than FEMA, but the applications are usually shorter and the turnaround faster.

The Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation is one of the most active. It accepts applications quarterly, with a maximum request of $40,000, and funds breathing apparatus, thermal imaging cameras, extrication tools, helmets, radios, defibrillators, and turnout gear. Since its founding the foundation has distributed over $109 million to more than 7,286 organizations across all 50 states and Puerto Rico.¹⁹ Applications are capped at 600 per quarter, the portal opens at 10 a.m. Eastern on the scheduled date, and approved recipients must wait three years before reapplying.²⁰

The Gary Sinise Foundation runs a First Responder Grant program that gives explicit priority to volunteer and underfunded departments. Grants are limited to equipment and training; building costs and utilities are excluded. Departments may submit one application per calendar year.²¹

The National Volunteer Fire Council coordinates a rotating calendar of corporate partnerships. The MSA and DuPont Globe Gear Giveaway selects 13 departments each year for four sets of turnout gear and four helmets. The State Farm Good Neighbor Firefighter Safety Program awards equipment grants. Anheuser-Busch provides emergency drinking water to departments responding to wildfires.²² Many of these are open only to NVFC members, and membership costs $24 per year.²³

American Water runs a Firefighting Support Grant through its regional subsidiaries in states where it provides water service. The grants are small, typically capped at $1,000 per department per year, but they cover personal protective gear, communications equipment, firefighting tools, water-handling equipment, and training materials. Pennsylvania American Water distributed $125,000 across 143 organizations in 2024 and has contributed over $885,000 since the program began in 2009.²⁴

Set Up Your Federal Paperwork Before You Apply

A volunteer department cannot apply for a federal grant without first clearing a stack of administrative requirements, and each step takes real time. Handle these well before a funding notice opens.

Get a Unique Entity Identifier. Every organization that does business with the federal government needs a 12-character UEI, available free through SAM.gov.²⁵
Register in SAM.gov. Organizations applying directly for federal awards must maintain an active registration in the System for Award Management. The initial registration can take up to 10 business days and must be renewed every 365 days.²⁶
Create a Grants.gov account. For programs that accept applications through Grants.gov, including FP&S, the organization’s designated point of contact must set up an account linked to the same email used in SAM.gov.²⁶
Register in FEMA GO. AFG and SAFER applications go through FEMA’s own portal, FEMA GO, which requires a separate registration.¹

The NVFC identifies the complexity of the AFG and SAFER application process, the SAM.gov system, and DHS’s Civil Rights Evaluation Tool as the three biggest obstacles volunteer departments face with federal grant compliance.²⁷ Free help with SAM.gov registration is available through APEX Accelerators, a federally funded network formerly known as Procurement Technical Assistance Centers.²⁵

What Wins a FEMA Application

AFG applications are scored on four narrative sections: statement of effect, cost benefit, project description, and financial need.²⁸ Reviewers are typically firefighters, so plain language works better than jargon and better than spending characters defining terms the audience already knows.

Guidance from the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Fire Fighters lines up on a few points:

Start with a needs assessment. Pull call volume data, operating budgets, equipment inventories, and staffing levels. Document incidents where a lack of resources affected outcomes. Letters of support from mutual aid partners, schools, or local officials help.²⁹
Read the Notice of Funding Opportunity carefully. It spells out what reviewers are looking for and what FEMA considers high priority. The most common reason applications get denied is failure to follow the instructions.²⁹
Be specific about consequences. Explain what happens if you do not get the funding. Concrete incidents carry more weight than abstract statements about risk.²⁸
Build a complete budget. Include every cost tied to the project: equipment, accessories, training, and ancillary expenses.³⁰
Get outside eyes on the draft. At least two or three people outside the writing team should review for clarity, grammar, and consistency before submission.²⁹

Federal Budget Uncertainty

As of mid-2026 the FEMA fire grant programs remain funded and operational, with the FY 2025 cycle opening on schedule in May 2026 and $648 million on the table across AFG, SAFER, and FP&S.⁸ FEMA’s website carries a notice about a lapse in federal funding that may delay some non-disaster transactions until appropriations are enacted.¹ The administration’s proposed FY 2026 budget includes a $646 million cut to FEMA and would eliminate the USDA Community Facilities Grant and Loan Program.¹⁴ Those proposals require congressional approval and are not final, but they are a reason to pursue several funding sources at once rather than betting the department on any single program.

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Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation
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Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation Grant Portal
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