Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP)

Description

Federal Fiscal Year 2023 Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) Status and Updates

This is where you will find the information you will need to successfully navigate the Commonwealth of Virginia 2023 NSGP application process.

VDEM provided a pre-application informational webinar on March 17, 2023 @ 3 PM. A link to the presentation can be found here.

Federal Fiscal Year 2023 Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP).

On February 27, 2023, FEMA released the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the FY 2023 Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). This grant provides $152.5M in funding support for target hardening and other physical security enhancements and activities to eligible nonprofit organizations that are at high risk of terrorist attack in Virginia.

FY23 NSGP VDEM Applications

Applications will only be accepted on-line through the designated area application portal.

There are three regional area SAA designations in Virginia:

-Hampton Roads Designated Urban Area

-National Capital Region Designated Urban Area

–Virginia Applicants Located in Other Areas Other Than Designated Urban Areas

Key FY23 NSGP Grant Performance Dates

• Application Period Status: Closed
• Projected period of performance (POP) for the subgrantee is October 1, 2023– June 30, 2025

Files and SAA Designated Area Links

• FY 2023 NSGP Investment Justification **please use Firefox to access this document.**
• FY 2023 NSGP FEMA Information
• FY 2023 NSGP NOFO
• Preparedness Grants Manual
• Hampton Roads Designated Urban Area Applicants
• National Capital Region Designated Urban Area Applicants
• Portal for Virginia Applicants in Areas Other Than Designated Urban Areas

FY 2023 NSGP Overview

FY 2023 Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) is one of three grant programs that constitute DHS/FEMA’s focus on enhancing the ability of state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as nonprofits, to prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from terrorist attacks.

The objective of the FY 2023 NSGP is to provide funding for physical security enhancements and other security-related activities to nonprofit organizations that are at high risk of a terrorist attack. The NSGP also seeks to integrate the preparedness activities of nonprofit organizations with broader state and local preparedness efforts.

Below were Application Instructions for FY 2023 NSGP:

Eligibility

Applicants must be 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations to be eligible.

What type of entities/organizations are eligible to apply under NSGP?

• Houses of worship
• Shelters/crisis centers
• Educational facilities
• Event venues
• Medical facilities
• Science organizations
• Senior centers/care facilities
• Camps
• Community/social service
• Museums
• Eligible organizations are registered 501c3 nonprofits or otherwise are organizations as described under 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and tax-exempt under section 501(a) of the IRC

What type of entities/organizations are not eligible to apply under NSGP?

• Utility companies
• Organizations active in politics/lobbying
• Governmental entities
• For-profit venues, stadiums, amusement parks, etc
• For-profit hospitals
• Homeowner associations, labor unions, etc.
• For-profit colleges/universities
• For-profit transportation entities
• Volunteer fire departments
• Municipal/public schools (elementary, middle, high)
• Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions Clubs, etc.

Other Guidelines

• The maximum amount for an individual application is $150,000.
• Applicants must only request funding for equipment/activities that are consistent with the allowable costs guidance listed in the NSGP NOFO and in greater detail in the FY 2023 FEMA Preparedness Grants Manual.
• Applicants must submit their applications no later than Friday, April 21, 2023 at 11:59:59 PM EDT to the appropriate SAA.
• Applicants must submit the following three (3) documents to the appropriate regional SAA for a complete application.
  • A completed FY 2023 NSGP Investment Justification template . Nonprofit subapplicants must use the following naming convention when submitting required documents for the NSGP-UA: “FY2023_NSGP_UA_VA_<Urban Area>_<Nonprofit Name>; and NSGP-S: “FY2023_NSGP_S_VA_<Nonprofit Name>”. If you have any issues opening the document. Please go to your “downloads” folder and you should be able to open it from there. ***IT MUST REMAIN IN THE ADOBE FILLABLE FORMAT. IF IT IS ALTERED IN ANY WAY IT WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR SUBMISSION AND REVIEW.***
  • A “mission statement” described in the NOFO, which explains the nature of the applicant organization’s purpose and mission. This will primarily be used to validate the organization’s type identified in the IJ as either: 1) Ideology-based/spiritual/religious; 2) Educational; 3) Medical; or 4) Other.
  • A copy of the vulnerability/risk assessment on which the request in the application is based.
• Application template must be saved in PDF format.
• Applicants must include the organization’s Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) in the application template where requested if available at this time.
• Note that subapplicants do not need to have a valid UEI at the time of application; however, they must have a valid UEI in order to receive a subaward.

Special update from FEMA Regarding the UEI Number Requirement

In advance of the release of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Grant Programs Directorate would like to provide the following clarification related to the April 04, 2022, change from the Duns and Bradstreet (DUNS) number to the new Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number.

It has come to our attention that many first level subapplicants, who are required to obtain a UEI number prior to receiving a federal subaward are experiencing unexpected issues in obtaining a UEI number, including technical difficulties and backlogs in processing at SAM.gov. These issues are resulting in longer than anticipated timeframes in obtaining a UEI number.

However, State Administrative Agency (SAA) should not disallow/disqualify a nonprofit organization’s FY 2023 NSGP subapplications/investment justification solely based on a nonprofit organization not having a UEI number at the time of submission to the SAA. SAAs should proceed as in prior years with processing nonprofit applications/investment justification to include validating eligibly, requested funding source, project/activity allowability, scoring/prioritizing of each submission, and submitting the results of their review as part of their application.

As long as the SAA has a UEI number and active SAM registration, it will not impact FEMA’s ability to issue the award to the SAA. However, if a nonprofit organization does not have a UEI number by the time the SAA is ready to make the subaward, then the SAA is not permitted to issue the subaward until the nonprofit organization is able to obtain and provide its UEI number per 2 C.F.R. § 25.110 (c)(2)(iii).

For more information about this transition, visit SAM.gov or the Federal Service Desk, FSD.gov. You can search for help at FSD any time or request help from an FSD agent Monday–Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.

• Applicants that do not have a UEI number by visiting gov or the Federal Service Desk, FSD.gov.
• Applicants do not have to register with gov, because the designated SAA is the sole applicant on behalf of the region.

The scoring criteria for the applications are included in the NOFO.

Information on FY 2023 National and State Priorities

DHS/FEMA continuously evaluate the national risk profile and establishes national priorities to ensure appropriate allocation of scarce security dollars to meet the highest priorities in the current highly dynamic environment. In assessing the national risk profile for FY 2023, the enhancement and protection of soft targets/crowed places is determined to be a national priority.

Likewise, there are several enduring security needs that crosscut the homeland security enterprise. The following are enduring needs that address a grant recipient’s ability to implement a comprehensive approach to securing communities:

1. Effective planning;

2. Training and awareness campaigns;

3. Exercise

Please see the NOFO for the detail and breakdown of these priority areas for the FY 2023 NSGP, showing both the core capabilities enhanced and lifelines supported, as well as examples of eligible project types for each area. A detailed description of allowable investments for each project type is included in the Preparedness Grants Manual.

Applicants in the Hampton Roads Designated Urban Area

The following information and instructions are for nonprofit applicants located within the Hampton Roads Urban Area: City of Chesapeake, City of Franklin, Gloucester County, City of Hampton, Isle of Wight County, James City County, City of Newport News, City of Norfolk, City of Poquoson, City of Portsmouth, Southampton County, City of Suffolk, Surry County, City of Virginia Beach, City of Williamsburg, and York County.

Applicants must submit their applications no later than Friday, April 21, 2023 at 11:59:59 PM EDT to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC). After review by the Urban Area Working Group, projects will be submitted to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the State Administrative Agent (SAA).

Submit all applications through the 2023 Hampton Roads Nonprofit Security Grant Program. HRPDC grant information can be found here. Your point of contact is Lisa Anderson at lisa.anderson@vdem.virginia.gov.

Applications must use the following file naming convention: “FY2022_NSGP_UA_ VA_HR_<Your Nonprofit Name>”

Applicants in the National Capital Region Designated Urban Area

The following information and instructions are for nonprofit applicants located within The National Capital Region Urban Area (NCR) which includes Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William Counties and the City of Alexandria in Virginia.

Applicants must submit their applications no later than Friday, April 21, 2023, at 11:59:59 PM EDT to the District of Columbia Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (DC HSEMA), which is the State Administrative Agent (SAA) for this grant in this region.

Submit applications by email to ncr.saa@dc.gov and <Cembrye.ross@dc.gov.> Do not submit to FEMA or Grants.gov. Capital Region NSGP grant information can be found here at the DC HSEMA website.

Applications must use the following file naming convention: “FY2023_NSGP_UA_ DC_NCR_<Your Nonprofit Name>”

Virginia Applicants in Areas Other Than Designated Urban Areas

Any nonprofit applicant in Virginia that is not located within either the Hampton Roads or The National Capital Region designated urban areas will submit their applications to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM).

Applicants must submit their applications no later than Friday, April 21, 2023, at 11:59:59 PM EDT to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, which is the State Administrative Agent (SAA) for this grant for all areas other than designated urban areas.

Submit applications through the VDEM application portal 2023 Nonprofit Security Grant Program Application Portal

Applications must use the following file naming convention: “FY2023_NSGP_S_<State Abbreviation>_<Nonprofit Name>”.

VDEM will conduct an initial review and scoring of the applications received and will submit a combined application to FEMA by May 18, 2023, on behalf of Virginia non-urban and Hampton Roads urban area that includes all the eligible applications. FEMA will make the final selection of award recipients and will announce the result by August and will issue the grant award to the SAA no later than September 30, 2023 Awards to non-profits will occur within 45 days of the FEMA award.

Do not submit to FEMA or grants.gov—the SAA will do that on behalf of the region.

Please feel free to reach out to your VDEM Chief Regional Coordinator and VDEM grants staff if you have questions. Descriptions of the VDEM Regions and regional staff contacts can be found here. VDEM regional grant administrator contacts can be found here. Grants staff questions can be directed to vdemgrants@VDEM.virginia.gov.

FEMA has provided the following Key Application Takeaways based on the NSGP grant cycle that you may want to consider:

1- Duplicative applications: If you hire a grant writer, review their work. Limit copy and pasting between IJs if applying for multiple locations.

2- Administratively incomplete/insufficient: The FEMA-provided IJ must be submitted. Any incomplete package will not be reviewed by FEMA.

3- Unallowable/out of scope expenditures: Ensure that all requested expenditures align with the program rules and objectives.

4- Organizations applying on behalf of ineligible entities: Nonprofits may not act as a pass through for a government or profit-entity.

5- UEI number: While you can apply for NSGP without a UEI number, you MUST have a valid UEI number to receive any funding.

6- Threats/Risks/Vulnerability: Nonprofits must tie threats/risks to existing physical vulnerabilities. All must tie to terrorism or extremism.

7- Direct hiring of law enforcements/public safety officials is not allowed. Contract security CANNOT be sole sourced. 8- Misalign or unrealistic narratives, timelines, projects/activities: The IJ content and project goals should be logical, reasonable, and attainable.

Do not submit to FEMA or grants.gov—the SAA will do that on behalf of the region.

VDEM Staff

Please feel free to reach out to your VDEM Chief Regional Coordinator and VDEM grants staff if you have questions. Descriptions of the VDEM Regions and regional staff contacts can be found here. VDEM regional grant administrator contacts can be found here. Grants staff questions can be directed to vdemgrants@VDEM.virginia.gov.

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