As a reminder from BOLDplanning, an Agility company, FEMA’s fiscal year 2021 (FY 2021) application period for two Hazard Mitigation Assistance Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) will soon end.
This includes the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant program and the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program. The BRIC grant program, as you most likely know, replaced FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) grant program in 2020.
Both competitive grant programs provide states, local communities, tribes, and territories funding for eligible mitigation activities to strengthen our nation’s ability to build a greater culture of preparedness by reducing disaster losses and protecting life and property from future disaster damage.
The guiding principles of the BRIC program, in particular (and as explained by FEMA), are:
- Supporting communities through capability- and capacity-building;
- Encouraging and enabling innovation;
- Prompting partnerships;
- Enabling large projects;
- Maintaining flexibility; and,
- providing consistency.
For FY 2021, FEMA will distribute up to $1 billion through the BRIC program alone in the following manner:
State/Territory Allocation – $56 million (up to $1 million per applicant). All 50 states and U.S. territories, as well as the District of Columbia, are eligible.
Tribal Set-Aside – $25 million. All federally recognized tribal governments may apply for $1 million federal cost-share per applicant.
National Competition for Mitigation Projects – $919 million (estimated). The remaining funds that are not awarded from the State/Territory Allocation or Tribal Set-Aside will be included in the national competition. Applicants may submit an unlimited number of mitigation project sub-applications, each valued up to $50 million federal share.
The application period for BRIC and FMA funding opened on September 30, 2021, and will close at 3 p.m. ET on January 28, 2022. Eligible applicants and sub-applicants must apply for funding using the new grants management system: FEMA GO. (The system replaced eGrants for the BRIC and FMA grant programs, and BRIC will not accept paper applications.)
