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Grant Writing
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One of the most essential needs of EMS departments is effective fund-raising and in many cases this includes grant writing. Grant writing is a necessary, tedious, time consuming, frustrating and often complicated process. Most EMS and combined volunteer fire departments do not have members who know how to do this, go through the guidelines, read the laws, jump through the hoops, have the time to do this, have the desire to do this and don't have a track record of successful grant writing. For examples of grant guidelines, See: § 152.4 Roles and responsibilities. See also: AFG 2005, 2006, 2007 Guidelines In Pennsylvania, also see PA Loans to Volunteers Program Similar assistance programs and laws exists for volunteer fire departments and EMS services in other states. Other EMS grant sources include: CDC grants, EMSC grants, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, TEA-21 State Highway Safety grants, TOPG, and many others, which varies from state to state. After reviewing these, you'll understand why we developed VFD-Funding to provide these services to our fellow EMS and combined volunteer firefighters. We work with you, your officers, and members to determine the needs and which is the best course and source to follow for grant funding. You, your department and your members make the final decision on which grants (federal & state) to pursue, equally, as you make/vote the final decision of the form we submit for you to apply for the grant. You remain in control of the grant, its administration and the administration of your EMS or combined volunteer fire department. We are just a helping hand in assisting you in finding a grant, preparing the grant, administrating the grant, lobbying for the grant, and preparing those necessary auditing filings. In many cases, our grant writing services may be part of the grant. Although we don't do this on a contingency, as this is not permitted by some grants (Notably AFG), the net effect is if you don't get the grant, we cannot administer the grant. We usually address this by making our grant administration services as part of the grant (because many of the federal grants also require OMB filings and follow-up) and of course if we administrate the grant for you, we will have also written the grant for you. In those situations where the grant guidelines require 5% - 10% of the project to be non-federal funding, we can package our services and fund these at one percent (1%) interest. This is not only legal and provided for by the law, but is also ethical. We also work with your local municipal authorities and elected officials to find alternatives for the non-federal funding requirement. In some cases the non-federal funding may be a tax-exempt lease for new apparatus. Here a grant may be pursued to cover 90% - 95% of the lease agreement, thus enabling your department to make a balloon payment on your lease for your new apparatus. Even at low interest rates, such a grant and lease payment will save your department and municipality a lot of money over the term of many years. At VFD-Funding, we not only write the grants for you, we lobby them for you. This is an essential part of the process. Many EMS and combined volunteer fire departments are declined on grants, because they simply have not lobbied for them declaring the need, or the original grant was poorly or unprofessionally prepared. Although we cannot guarantee every grant we may write will be funded, we do guarantee that we will work hard for you to receive the grant and by doing so and providing our services we believe you'll agree that the chances of getting the grant and certainly going through the application process to be far easier than you trying to do it yourself. And again, if you don't get the grant, you owe us nothing for administrating the grant, because we can't administrate a grant that you do not have. Given that most EMS department grant applications are not approved, we always develop a "Plan-B", so that we can help you to acquire the apparatus, equipment and buildings your fire department needs to service your community. Plan "B" alternatives are usually low interest loans or low interest tax-exempt leasing. Although we cannot guarantee your EMS department grants, we can assure that we can arrange tax-exempt leasing agreements and we can do so with approval rates faster than grants. So contact us at VFD-Funding today or fill out our convenient on-line feedback form, give us your wish list and tell us a little about your organization and then let's see what all we may be able to do for you and your combined volunteer fire department, rescue squad or EMS service. REMEMBER, there are NO up front costs or fees required. Last modified: January 12, 2008
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