Security grants for churches, synagogues, mosques, temples & gurdwaras

The federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program is available in every state through the state's homeland security agency (the SAA). It comes in two streams, and which one you use depends on whether your site sits inside a FEMA-designated high-risk urban area — each state page below lists the metros that count.

What the federal notice means for houses of worship

• A church, synagogue, mosque or temple does not need an IRS determination letter for the federal NSGP — the current federal notice treats houses of worship as 501(c)(3) organizations without one. Other nonprofits should attach theirs.
• You apply through your state's homeland security agency (the SAA), not directly to FEMA — so the SAA's own page, not FEMA's, is where the application actually happens.
• Contracted security personnel are an allowable cost and can make up the whole award, but grant funds cannot buy the guards' own equipment.
• A congregation with more than one building needs a separate vulnerability or risk assessment for each site — a single shared assessment can get the whole application rejected.
• Construction or renovation — a secure vestibule or reinforced entry, for example — triggers FEMA's Environmental and Historic Preservation (EHP) review, and work cannot begin until FEMA approves it — so build in extra lead time.

Step by step: how to apply for the NSGP →

The NSGP-UA and NSGP-S allowable-cost list is the same in every state, with a note on how each line tends to apply to houses of worship. Lines without a note are allowable too — they just have no audience-specific angle.

• Target hardening (cameras, doors, fences, alarms, lighting)Cameras, controlled entry doors and alarms fit a sanctuary that is open to the public at service times and quiet in between.
• Contracted security personnel (can be up to 100% of the award, but grant funds can't buy their equipment)Paid security staffing covers services, festivals and holiday gatherings without putting congregants on the door.
• Security planningSecurity planning and a risk assessment give a volunteer-run congregation a written plan it can hand to the next board.
• Training (attendance fees only)Training and drills help ushers, greeters and volunteers — the people actually at the door — know what to do.
• Exercises
• Cybersecurity measuresCybersecurity appears on this list — check the line's own limits — and matters for a congregation that keeps a member directory.
• Construction and renovationConstruction or renovation can pay for a secure vestibule or reinforced entry when the building itself is the weak point.
• Management & administration (up to 5% of the award)

Each of the following has a program of its own with a rule that bears on houses of worship — who qualifies, which documents to attach, what the money can buy or a carve-out to know about. Its page checks every program there, state and federal, with the documents to gather and a realistic next step.

Each label summarizes the program's own materials; the state page quotes the rule behind it and names the agency to confirm it with before you apply.

For each of the following, this catalog lists no security-grant program of its own, so for houses of worship the federal NSGP through the homeland security agency (the SAA) is the route. Its page names that agency and the urban areas where the NSGP-UA stream applies.

Each of the following also has a program of its own, but nothing in this catalog's summary of it speaks to houses of worship one way or the other — the program's general nonprofit rules apply as written, and its page lists the program alongside the federal NSGP.