Archived NSGP Tutorials

While the details of the grant will not be known until the Guidance is released, consult these tutorials from the NY Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services and CSI. We don’t anticipate many changes. Click on the images below for guidance to get started now!

	Feb. 8th Webinar transcript

Today, vaccines are the light at the end of the COVID shutdown tunnel. Hopefully, life will begin to return to normal in the coming months.

In preparation, the Community Security Initiative (a joint program of UJA-Federation and JCRC-NY) has been closely monitoring increasing anti-Semitic activity on the internet and in our communities. The presence of anti-Semitic images and memes among the January 6^th attackers on the Capitol was shocking. Jewish institutions are soft targets that continue to be at risk.

The Community Security Initiative (CSI) was created to secure our institutions in New York City, Long Island and Westchester and to protect our people. Now is the time to take substantial steps to protect your synagogue, school, Jewish community center or Jewish institution.

Through the significant efforts of NY’s Congressional delegation – led by Majority Leader Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Appropriations Chair Lowey and Representative Meng – the FY2021 federal budget doubled the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) allocation to $180 million. We expect that the federal guidance will be published sometime around February 26^th and that the NY Division of Homeland Security will release its Request for Applications soon thereafter. We expect that NY applicants will have 4-8 weeks (spanning Pesach) to complete their applications. We urge organizations contemplating an application to get started now.

In order to win a grant, you must:

1. be pre-qualified and comply with other New York-specific requirements;
2. submit an up-to-date security assessment (professional assessments are more likely to be successful); and
3. complete a specialized NSGP grant application, known as an Investment Justification.CSI is here to help you with all these issues and offer additional assistance over the next few weeks.

To begin, we recommend you:

1. Review information on the New York requirements and tutorials are available below; and
2. attend a training session during the week of February 21^st (date to be determined) that the Community Security Initiative plans to co-sponsor, with Senators Schumer and Gillibrand.

What can you do to get ready for the 2021 federal grant? (view a recording of our December 15, 2020 webinar, “Getting a security grant in New York: the basics” here and a PDF of the presentation here.

Apply for a professional security assessment

With generous support from UJA, the Community Security Initiative will make available professional security assessments so that you can immediately start safeguarding your institution and be ready to apply for the upcoming grants. Organizations that are professionally assessed are significantly more likely to receive funding than those that do not. These assessments will be delivered to our institutions at no cost to them.

Due to the COVID situation, we plan to do virtual assessments and will require the assistance of an individual onsite to walk through the facility with the cameras on their cell phone to allow our regional security managers to “see” the problems in real time. Apply for a professional assessment now.

Older grants

New York State status (SCAHC)

New York State has not yet announced the results of the Spring 2020 round of the SCAHC grants.

1. Prequalify. To apply for any grant in New York State, not-for-profit organizations must be prequalified in order to do business with New York State (including applying for federal grants). Most of the process requires that corporate documents be uploaded into a “Document Vault”. If your organization is not yet prequalified, click to: https://grantsmanagement.ny.gov/get-prequalified. JCRC-NY has a dedicated webpage with FAQ’s on prequalifying here. Note: some information (mostly financial) in a Document Vault expires after one year. We recommend that you check whether anything has expired well before the grant deadline.
2. DUNS. You will need a DUNS number to apply. Learn how here.
3. Get an assessment. More information coming soon.
4. Investment Justification. The most important part of the application package is the Investment Justification. We suspect that it will be substantially similar to the 2020 document. Start to work on your answers by downloading the 2020 Investment Justification and start to complete it. Get it here. Caution: Do not try to submit the 2020 form in 2021. Simply cut and past the information from the 2020 form into the 2021 edition. For help, scroll down for links to the 2020 presentations.
5. E-Grants. All New York State applicants must submit their grants through the E-Grants system. If you are already registered, use your existing username and password. If you need to register download the E-Grants Registration Form
6. Vendor Responsibility Questionnaire. Not-for-Profit (NFP) organizations receiving an award greater than $50,000 are required to complete a Vendor Responsibility Questionnaire. This form is available at http://www.osc.state.ny.us/vendrep/forms_vendor.htm . Vendors can also file the Vendor Responsibility Questionnaire online through the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) New York State VendRep System. To enroll and use the OSC NYS VendRep system, instructions are available at http://www.osc.state.ny.us/vendrep/index.htm

For New York State assistance contact DHSES at 1-866-837-9133 or email them at Grant.Info@dhses.ny.gov. To submit a question to us email to security.requests@jcrcny.org. Click on the buttons below for the necessary forms and the most up-to-date information. Click to the Community Security Initiative (a joint program of UJA-Federation and JCRC-NY) tutorials below for more information and guidance.

Information from the 2020 grant cycle. Note: The New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NY DHSES) administers the grants.

Previous grants

Updated April 25, 2019| U.S. DHS posted its Fiscal Year 2019 Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). There are three key changes:

• Grant amount. The maximum award this year will be $100,000.
• Stacking the deck for new applicants. This year 10 bonus points will be added to the scores of organizations that never received NSGP funding. This effectively gives a serious advantage to newbies.
• Security guards. Hiring of contracted security personnel is now allowed under this program (see the FEMA update here).
  • Note: Recipients of NSGP funding may use the grant to pay for contracted security personnel over the entire three year period of the grant. However, grantees should not assume that they will be successful applicants in coming years (you might not win a grant or this program may not exist in coming years) so you should be able to sustain this capability in future years without NSGP funding.
  • NSGP funds may not be used to purchase equipment for contracted security guards. These costs should be classified as organization costs.
  • Subrecipients (grantees) may not use NSGP funding to hire full or part-time employees that are currently, or will be placed on a nonprofit’s payroll.
  • Rob Goldberg of JFNA reports after speaking with FEMA, that the blanket waiver WILL be in place and interested organizations may now request up to 100% of their total award towards the cost of contacted security personnel.
  • JCRC comment: Make a case for security guards through an identified vulnerability included in your assessment (e.g., failure to review or monitor CCTV recordings for possible instances of hostile surveillance, inadequate access control measures and an inability to interdict a hostile intruder, and or the lack of security guards during all hours of operation) and add “Contracted security guards” as an “Item to be purchased” in IV. Target Hardening (Note: there is no AEL number for Contracted security guards).

A case can readily be made for additional contracted security guards, additional hours or an upgrading replacement (e.g., unarmed to armed) of the existing guards.

Finally, we think that it is appropriate to remind you that security guards are no panacea. Security planning should entail a well-considered mix of personnel, plans, procedures, training, drills and exercises and security hardware. The judges tend to look at your assessments to see if you are addressing the most important vulnerabilities.

• Investment Justification. Download it here.
• Timing. In New York, the application package must be submitted through the E-Grants system by 5 PM, May 8, 2019.
• Help. Download the JCRC-NY tutorial here.

The New York Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (NY DHSES) posted its New York-specific Request for Applications here. Check their website and ours for updates.

No news yet on NY Hate Crimes grants

Please be advised that the NY DHSES is still processing the submissions from the December Securing Communities against Hate Crimes (SCAHC). We advise you to prepare two lists of priorities for your Investment Justification: 1) assuming that you receive the SCAHC grant; and 2) if you do not. NY DHSES is making every effort to let the December applicants know ASAP.

Getting ready for the grant
All organizations planning to submit for a grant this year should get started now, because the actual application may not be available until the last minute. Here’s what you should do:

1. Get an assessment. If you don’t already have one, or have scheduled one, do so immediately. Since November, JCRC-NY, through a generous grant from UJA-Federation and the Paul E. Singer Foundation, has arranged for scores of professional security assessments for Jewish organizations. These assessments cover most of what is required on the federal Investment Justification (the major component of the application). By implementing the recommendations from the report, you should go a long way towards making your facility safer. Applications accompanied by self-assessments will be accepted. For more guidance click to: /security-assessment/.
2. Prequalify. Your Nonprofit Security Grant Program will not be accepted unless your organization is “Prequalified.” See more information at: /document-vault-faqs/. If you submitted for a grant last year you are prequalified, but you may have to update some documents.
3. E-Grants. NY grants must be submitted through the E-Grants system. Previous applicants already have an account. Otherwise, click here to apply for an account. N.B. JCRC-NY cannot answer questions about your E-Grants submissions. Contact DHSES at 1-866-837-9133 or Grant.Info@dhses.ny.gov.
4. Investment Justification. This is the key component of the application. We don’t expect significant changes this year. Download the 2018 template here and answer all of the questions to the best of your ability now, so that you will be able to adapt your answers (if necessary) and cut and paste them into the 2019 Investment Justification, even if the application window is very brief.
5. Help with the vulnerability and facility hardening sections. See our document, Tying together the risk and target hardening language. Select and build on our language to complete the most challenging sections of the Investment Justification.
6. More help. Click here for the multi-year FAQ‘s on the NSGP distributed by FEMA. There are some interesting details in the FAQ’s.

   Get a head start on the application by reviewing the FY 2018 NSGP Investment Justification (IJ) questions and preparing your answers. Download a copy at: Investment Justification2019, JCRC-NY’s 2019 Tutorial (PDF of PowerPoint), JCRC-NY’s Tying together the risk and target hardening language and JFNA’s Threat Chronology.

   See our 2018 Tutorial (PDF of PowerPoint), Tying together the risk and target hardening language and JFNA’s Threat Chronology.

Good luck!

2018 Nonprofit Security Grant Program: results

Congratulations to the 112 NSGP 2018 grantees and the 5 upstate winners. Our friends at NY DHSES (thank you Commissioner Roger Parrino, Shelley Wahrlich, Eric Abramson, Marianne Lindsay and everyone else) sent an email to every applicant to notify them of their status.

Here is a chart showing NY’s funding history:

See our past posts below:

The 2018 Grant

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released its Notice of Funding Opportunity.

• In FY 2018, Congress appropriated $50 million for nonprofit security through the Urban Area Security Initiative (NSGP-UA) for 32 regions, including New York City (including Long Island and Westchester). There is a supplemental program (NSGP-S) of $10 million (with grants up to $100,000) covering areas outside of the designated regions.
• Each eligible organization can apply for equipment totaling $150,000.
• Target hardening proposals can now include equipment, planning and training.
• Should I apply to NSGP-UA or NSGP-S?
  If your nonprofit organization is physically located within a FY 2018 UASI-designated urban area, then you may apply to NSGP-UA; if your nonprofit organization is not physically located within a FY 2018 UASI-designated urban area then you may apply to NSGP-S. You may not apply to both programs. For more information about the NSGP-S (supplemental) program for organizations outside of the 32 designated areas, see the JFNA preliminary memorandum here.

NY Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services materials

• Request for Applications due on June 8, 2018 by 5:00 p.m.Updated
• Webpage: http://www.dhses.ny.gov/grants/nonprofit/nsgp.cfm. This page has forms and tutorials.
• Application package: FY2018 NSGP Request for Applications
• Excel spreadsheet: FY2018 NSGP Investment Justification.
• Authorized Equipment List
• E-Grants Tutorial NFP 2018 UPDATED

Help with grant applications

• JCRC-NY Dedicated Webpage
• JCRC-NY Tutorial (PDF of PowerPoint)
• JCRC-NY: Tying together the risk and target hardening language
• JCRC-NY: Selective Threat Scan
• JFNA: JFNA Grant Guidance
• JFNA: Threat Chronology
• JFNA: Guidance, Cyber

If you’ve read the materials on this webpage and still have questions? Click here.

Getting started

The process and application is likely to be quite similar to last year’s RFA (Request for Applications) :

• Prequalification. Plan to complete your prequalification ASAP. New York State will not accept applications for grants unless the applicant is prequalified, i.e., applicants must upload basic organizational documents and answer questions about their nonprofit’s capacity and integrity. This portal is known as the “Grants Gateway.”
  • New applicants. See JCRC-NY’s additional information about how to get started and special instructions for religious corporations at: /document-vault-faqs/. Updated
  • Previously prequalified. If your nonprofit was previously prequalified, you will still have to update certain documents if your document vault “expires” (i.e, certain information goes out of date). Check out your Document Vault for more information.
• E-Grants. Grant applications must be submitted to the NYS Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) via the automated DHSES E-Grants System operated by DHSES. The system allows an agency to complete an application electronically and submit it over the Internet. If upon reading this RFA you are interested in completing a grant application, and you have not previously been registered to use the DHSES E-Grants system, your agency will need to register and be assigned a username and password. The Registration Request Form can be found at the following Internet address: http://www.dhses.ny.gov/grants/forms-egrants.cfm . Send the completed registration form to: grant.info@dhses.ny.gov
  Organizations should use their legal name in the E-Grants system as the Grantee under the “Participant” tab. This should match the name used on the Investment Justification form.
  Instructions for use of the E-Grants system by a nonprofit organization can be found at: http://www.dhses.ny.gov/grants/nonprofit/index.cfm
  Should you have difficulty in accessing or using the E-Grants system, please call 1-866-837-9133 for assistance.
• Risk/vulnerability assessment. The federal grant requires organizations to submit an assessment and the state grant asks for much of the same information. Learn more about the options to get a risk assessment or to conduct one yourself here. Use this information to complete the “Vulnerability” section on the Investment Justification.
• Look at the 2017 Investment Justification. Click here to see and download an example of what the application looks like. We expect very few changes. We will post the 2018 Invesment Justification as soon as it is available.
• Learn about risk and threats. Review JCRC-NY’s Selective Threat Scan and the JFNA Threat Chronology for help on how to answer the questions on threats and consequences.
• Equipment. Click here to see the Authorized Equipment List from 2017. We do not expect many changes.
• Subscribe. Click here to add your name to the JCRC-NY Security and Emergency Preparedness Alert list, which will notify you about additional details when they become available.

• 2018 Background.

Through the efforts of an amazing coalition (led by JFNA and including JCRC-NY and UJA-Federation of New York), we were able to secure $50 million for the ongoing Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) of the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) (Click here for 2017’s list of eligible areas, we do not expect changes).

Additionally, another $10 million for nonprofit security under the State Homeland Security Program (SHSP). All 56 states and territories (including the District of Columbia) are eligible to apply for SHSP funds. How those funds will be allocated is still unknown.

In speaking with FEMA, we understand that the guidelines for these programs will be published the week of May 21. NY’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services will release its package a few days earlier. As we feared, we believe that there will be a very narrow window until the deadline so

With respect to the UASI-NSGP program, we expect that the program roll-out and requirements will be similar to those established in past years. With respect to the SHSP-NSGP program, which is new, we will have to wait for FEMA to publish its guidelines before we will know what the framework and permissible activities will be under this new program, which could be different than those under the UASI-NSGP program.

As we learn more about the specifics of both program roll-outs, we look forward to updating you further.

People always complain that they aren’t given enough time to complete their applications so we advise you to click to scroll down and follow the instructions to get started now. Please scroll down for the JCRC-NY’s suggestions.

The projected increase in the grant allocation would not be possible without our Congressional champions. A major push for the $50 million came in a bipartisan “Dear Colleague” letter to the leadership of the House Appropriations Committee (including the Ranking Member, our own Rep. Nita Lowey) circulated by Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. and our own Dan Donovan, Jr. Our New York delegation figured prominently among the signers, including: Representatives Yvette Clarke, Joseph Crowley, Eliot Engel, Adriano Espaillat, John Faso, Hakeem Jeffries, John Katko, Peter King, Carolyn Maloney, Gregory Meeks, Jerrold Nadler, Thomas Suozzi, Kathleen Rice, Claudia Tenney and Nydia Velázquez. Of course, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Democratic Leader Charles Schumer were helpful in the Senate. Please contact their offices to let them know that you appreciate their leadership.

JCRC-NY and UJA-Federation are key members of the dynamic coalition that pushes for this legislation year-after-year. The linchpin of this effort is Rob Goldberg of the Washington, DC office of the Jewish Federations of North America. Our friend, William Daroff, the senior vice president for public policy and director of the Washington office of The Jewish Federations of North America, plays an important role.

• New York State grant. The NY State Division of Homeland Security is currently reviewing the submissions for the FY 2017-18 Securing Communities Against Hate Crime Program (SCAHC). They anticipate that they will notify the applicants of the results soon. All of the eligible applicants that appropriately and accurately responded to the Request for Applications are likely to receive grants.

For 2017 grantees

• How much money did we get? We don’t have that information (it will be in the official notification letter). However, doing the math, the average of all of the grants was $73,888. It is highly likely that the grantees will receive the requested amounts.
• Can we start to spend money yet? Don’t spend any money yet, there are several more hoops to jump through. Significantly:
  • Official notification. Our friends at NY DHSES are the official gatekeepers for the grants. You are not really a grantee until they tell you that you are. When they are officially notified by U.S. DHS they will send out communications to all applicants, both those who were successful and those who were not. The communication will include the definitive list of “next steps”.
  • Contracts. Once you’ve done your EHP (see below) and jumped through a few hoops, NY DHSES will send you a contract. Only when the contract is fully signed by your organization and NY State officials can you begin the procurement process. And yes, there are rules for that, too.
    NY will not reimburse you for items purchased before you have a fully signed contract.
  • Environmental and Historical Preservation submissions. The Request for Applications explained:
    

    As a Federal Agency, DHS/FEMA is required to consider the effects of its actions on the environment and/or historic properties to ensure that all activities and programs funded by the agency, including grant-funded projects, comply with Federal EHP regulations, laws and Executive Orders, as applicable. Grantees proposing projects that have the potential to impact the environment, including but not limited to the modification or renovation of existing buildings, structures and facilities, or new construction including replacement of facilities, must participate in the DHS/FEMA EHP review process. Much of the equipment purchased with NSGP funds require Environmental and Historic Preservation (EHP) review. The EHP review process involves the submission of a detailed project description that explains the goals and objectives of the proposed project along with supporting documentation so that DHS/FEMA may determine whether the proposed project has the potential to impact environmental resources and/or historic properties. In some cases, DHS/FEMA is also required to consult with other regulatory agencies and the public in order to complete the review process. The EHP review process must be completed before funds are released to carry out the proposed project. DHS/FEMA will not fund projects that are initiated without the required EHP review completed and approved.

  • If you have time now, there is no reason not to get started on your submission. Check out the EHP Screening Form Tutorial and EHP Instructional Assistance for Nonprofits and begin to fill out the EHP Screening Form FFN-024-0-1 (fillable).
• When can we start our project? If you keep on top of the process and submit all of the correct paperwork, plan on being able to start spending money in January, 2017.
• At this point, it’s best to direct your questions to the mavens at DHSES at 1-866-837-9133 or e-mail at grants@dhses.ny.gov.

For the most up-to-date grants info/securitygrants