Eligible applicants for a Brothers Helping Brothers grant are limited to fire departments or EMS organizations operating in any of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

Applicant organization must serve a population of fewer than 10,000 people or organization must have less than 30 employees which a majority is volunteer or paid per call personnel.

A “fire department” is defined as an agency or organization having formally recognized arrangement with a State, territory, local or tribal authority (city, county, parish, fire district, township, town or other governing body) to provide fire suppression to a population within a fixed geographical area on a first-due basis. The “fire department” must be a municipal, non-profit, or not for profit organization.

An “EMS organizations” is defined as an agency or organization having formally recognized arrangement with a State, territory, local or tribal authority (city, county, parish, fire district, township, town or other governing body) to provide EMS to a population within a fixed geographical area on a first-due basis. 

The “EMS organization” must be a municipal, non-profit, or not for profit organization. Brothers Helping Brothers shall determine the amount of any financial grant award as funds are available. The non-availability of funds may prevent the approval of any application for grant funding. Brothers Helping Brothers shall reserve the right to determine the method and amount of grant disbursement.

All applications, including attachments and additional information, become the property of Brothers Helping Brothers and, upon the determination of eligibility, may become public information subject to disclosure. Ineligible applicants are the following:

• Fire training centers.
• Emergency communications centers.
• Auxiliaries and/or fire service organizations or associations.
• Dive teams and search and rescue teams or any similar organization that do not have fire suppression/EMS responsibilities.
• Any for profit Fire or EMS agency.

Applying organizations must demonstrate financial need and appropriately establish the risk in their community, how many people will benefit, and how the tools or equipment will help benefit activities in their community.