Apply for a State-Share Grant

To apply for funding, you need to complete and submit:

• State Share Application
• Sub-Grantee Risk Assessment Form

You may need to provide the following information if your proposal:

Proposed budgets must ensure all costs are allowable per FEMA's federal guidelines:

• Allowable costs:
  • Planning
  • Operational
  • Equipment
  • Training
  • Exercises
  • Maintenance
  • Management and administration
• Unallowable costs:
  • Purchasing prohibited equipment
  • Hiring of law enforcement officials
  • Supplanting of funds

Propose projects must comply with the procedures and requirements detailed by:

• FEMA's Authorized Equipment List 
• Environmental Planning and Historical Preservation
• Massachusetts Historical Commission
• Local Historic Commission

Proposals are evaluated based on the:

• Clarity of the project description
• Detail provided in the project scope and Project Justification
• Relevancy to the goal(s), objective(s), and implantation step(s) contained within the State Homeland Security Strategy
• Capacity to support a Homeland Security Grant Program State Priority
• Ability to measure program outcomes
• Cost effectiveness, reasonableness, and allow-ability of the proposed project budget
• Feasibility of a proposed timeline and deliverables

Applicants are encouraged to review the following documents (available upon request from your State Share program coordinator):

• State Homeland Security Strategy
• National Preparedness Report

Is the Threat Hazard Identification Risk Assessment (THIRA) and the State Preparedness Report (SPR) available online?

No. The THIRA and SPR are considered For Official Use Only (FOUO) documents. The THIRA and SPR must be requested by emailing stateshare.pc@mass.gov.

Will slides from the General Information Session be posted online?

Yes. See Downloads below. 

Can you clarify what you look for when evaluating project justifications?

Reviewers evaluate proposed projects using the following criteria:

• Clarity of the project description
• Detail provided in the project scope and Project Justification
• Capacity to support a Homeland Security Grant Program State Priority
• Ability to measure program outcomes
• Cost effectiveness, reasonableness, and allow-ability of the proposed project budget
• Feasibility of a proposed timeline and deliverables

How much grant money will be available?

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not released the official funding notice. We anticipate $1 million dollars in Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2019 will be available for State Share competitive awards.

What is the range of award amounts?

Award amounts vary. Last fiscal year project requests ranged from $2,000 to $2 million dollars. 

In the past has the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security awarded an agency partial funding? 

Yes. For example, depending on available funds, an agency that requests $10,000 may only be awarded $8,000.

What if we are partnering with another agency?

Please include letters of support if partnering with another agency. We recommend that you review the costs to ensure support. Proposed partnered project should not supplant funds or duplicate efforts.

Can we request funding for a multi-year project? 

Within the Project Justification Template, we request that you include a project end date. The maximum period of performance using FFY2019 funds is 2 years. All projects must be completed by 6/30/2021.

Are applicants required to match funds?

We anticipate that applicants will not be required to match funds in FFY2019. This answer will be confirmed once FEMA releases the funding announcement. 

Can proposed training occur in different phases or expand upon already funded training?

This depends on the nature of the project. Funds can supplement new components to a planned training. New training components must be outside normal operational training requirements/opportunities. Additional funds cannot supersede/supplant original funding sources. Project justifications must demonstrate that the additional training would not occur without addition funding. All funded training must correlate to counter-terrorism.

Are the Law Enforcement Councils eligible to apply for State-Share funding?

Eligible applicants include Massachusetts:

• State government agencies and authorities
• State institutions of higher education
• Non-profit organizations that support state homeland security needs
• Sheriff's Offices 

Law Enforcement Councils are ineligible to apply for this funding. All proposed projects need to support statewide homeland security needs.

Who should letters of support be addressed to?

Application documents can be addressed to the following:

State Share

Program Coordinator

Executive Office of Public Safety and Security

Office of Grants & Research

Homeland Security Division

10 Park Plaza, Suite 3720A

Boston, MA 02116

Are indirect costs allowed?

Indirect costs are allowed. If indirect costs are included in the proposed budget, please include a copy of the federally approved indirect cost rate letter with the application.

When will applicants be notified of successful/unsuccessful award decisions?

All applicants will be notified of award decisions by Fall 2019. All funding and awards are contingent upon Massachusetts’ receipt of federal Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) funds. Awards will begin no sooner than October 1, 2019.

Reading the application guidance document, it states that applicants for training should reach out to you for guidance. Does the submission for training follow a different format than the general guidelines?

The Project Justification for training does not follow a different format or application than the FFY2019 application posted on the website. However, there is specific guidance regarding allowable training/exercise that EOPSS would consider eligible under the Homeland Security Grant Program. Please contact stateshare.pc@mass.gov for the EOPSS Training and Exercise Guidance. There is specific guidance within this document regarding allowable training expenses and compliance requirements.