Free download
The VFD grant-readiness checklist
The off-season kit — get these done once and your department can apply the day any window opens.
Get the checklist
Enter your email and the checklist unlocks right here — no spam, one list.
- Confirm your legal structure and that the applying entity has its own EIN matching SAM.gov exactly
- Register on SAM.gov and get your UEI — then set a yearly reminder to renew (a lapse blocks applications)
- Create login.gov and FEMA GO accounts (use the same email as SAM so they link)
- Onboard to NERIS now — it replaced NFIRS, it's free, and it's an AFG award condition
- Gather three years of budget data for AFG's Maintenance of Effort requirement
- Get current vendor quotes for the equipment you'd request
- Confirm your served population so you know your AFG cost-share tier (5% for ≤20,000, cash)
- Subscribe to FEMA fire-grant email alerts (fema.gov/grants/preparedness/firefighters)
- Call your state forester about VFA wildland grants and FEPP/FFP surplus equipment
- Run the Green-Light Test (eligible, match covered, window open) and the Live-or-Dead Check before applying
Most of this is a winter’s worth of paperwork you do once. Get it done and you’re six months ahead of the departments that wait for the NOFO. Enter your email and the checklist unlocks right here.
Next step
Get matched when we launch
Stalwell is launching soon. Join the waitlist and we'll match your volunteer fire departments to funding the day it opens — no spam, one email.