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Grant Writing
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Volunteer Fire Department Grants One of the most essential needs of volunteer fire departments is effective fund-raising and in many cases this includes grant writing. Volunteer fire department grants has long been a primary source for funds, however and unfortunately these are diminishing in recent years, certainly the FEMA, AFG, SAFER, USDA, Forestry, and other federal grants. Grant writing is a necessary, tedious, time consuming, frustrating and often complicated process. Most 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 grant sources include: DHS-SLGCP and various state level grants, which vary from state to state. After reviewing these, you'll understand why we developed VFD-EMS to provide these services to our fellow 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 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. At VFD-EMS, we not only write the grants for you, we lobby them for you. This is an essential part of the process. Many 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 fire 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 fire 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-EMS 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 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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