The Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General (AGO) is pleased to announce the Natural Gas Fuel Assistance (NGFA) grant program. The NGFA will utilize funds received by the AGO through a settlement agreement with National Grid to fund or assist in funding programs or initiatives designed to assist Massachusetts customers with paying or lowering their natural gas heating bills.
Natural Gas Fuel Assistance
Each year, tens of thousands of Massachusetts families struggle to pay their energy bills. Approximately 1 in 4 income eligible households receive low-income heat assistance.
Massachusetts governmental heat assistance programs are available to help low income and hardship customers meet their monthly heating bill. To be eligible for the state’s low income heat assistance program, household income cannot exceed 60 percent of the estimated median income in Massachusetts. Other heat assistance programs, which rely on donations from the general public and the business community, focus on those residents who do not meet the state’s low-income eligibility requirement. These assistance programs are designed to help a tranche of customers who have a household income between 60 and 80 percent of the state’s median income level and who have been beset by a short-term financial setback. These critical programs allow our most vulnerable residents to stay warm in the winter months.
The goal of the NGFA program is to provide additional assistance to programs, which provide assistance to Massachusetts families currently receiving heat assistance and to expand assistance to more eligible households. Programs may assist customers directly by subsidizing their heating bills or indirectly by supporting energy-saving measures designed to lower heating bills.
Submission Instructions
- Proposals must be delivered electronically through the AGO’s online grant application by 5:00 p.m. on October 11, 2019.
- Applications received after the deadline will not be reviewed.
- Applications will not be accepted in any other format.
- Interested applicants may access the application here
- New applicants will be asked to create a free online account. Any applicant that has applied for any grant using the online grant management system may log into its existing account.
- Once applicants have started an application, the application may be saved and returned to later.
- Confirmation of Receipt: Applicants typically receive an email confirmation within 48 business hours; if one is not received please call 617-963-2291 for further instructions and assistance.
Questions
Questions regarding this RFP may be submitted by email to AGOGrants@state.ma.us, only until 5:00 p.m. on October 2, 2019. When submitting your question(s), please include “Natural Gas Fuel Assistance Grant” in the email subject line.
Reasonable Accomodation
Applicants who seek reasonable accommodation, which may include the receipt of the application in an alternative format, must communicate such requests in writing to AGOGrants@state.ma.us, no later than 5:00 p.m. on September 27, 2019.
Eligibility
The following types of organizations are eligible to apply:
- State Agencies;
- City/Town Municipalities;
- Charitable Organizations; and
- Non-Profit Organizations
*Non-profit organizations must be in full compliance with all annual reporting requirements of both the AGO and the Internal Revenue Service, as applicable, in order to be eligible for funding.
Please refer to the full RFP for more information.