Grants for AEDs 2026: 48 Funders, $3,000 Median Gift

AED source review, Grantsights, November 4, 2026: Grantsights checked the federal AED liability law at 42 U.S.C. 238q (opens in a new tab), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) page on approved AEDs and accessories (opens in a new tab), the USDA Community Facilities grant rules (opens in a new tab) and the 2014 Rural Access to Emergency Devices notice (opens in a new tab) against foundation filings that name AEDs. Where official sources stop: no federal page tells a library which cabinet to mount by the front desk, how many units a ball field complex needs, or which local foundation will say yes. Those answers come from your building, your local emergency services and the filings below.

Grants for AEDs: What 990-PF Filings Show

Grantsights analysis of 990-PF community grants pulled November 4, 2026 found 48 foundations that made 81 grants to 76 groups buying AEDs and defibrillators, worth $458,533 in all. According to IRS guidance on Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab), private foundations use that return to report their charitable distributions, so every gift in this guide traces to a filing.

The average works out to about $5,660, and it overstates the typical check. According to the same November 4, 2026 pull, the median grant was $3,000, a quarter of the grants were $1,669 or less, and 58 of the 81 (72%) were $5,000 or less. Plan your request around the price of one unit, or two at most, and you'll be asking for what these funders already give.

Private foundations are a main source for this purchase, but not the only one. Fire companies also use fund drives and town budgets, schools use district safety budgets, and civic clubs raise money from members. A foundation grant usually covers the unit the budget can't reach.

The largest AED grants in the pull

The 3 largest grants add up to $119,006, about 26% of the national total, according to Grantsights analysis of the November 4, 2026 pull. They aren't typical, but they show what a bigger funder will do when a department proposes a full rollout.

Read the Conover row carefully: the $40,000 also bought thermal imaging cameras, so it isn't a pure AED gift. The Prospect row is one of the 2 monitor-defibrillator gifts, the kind of purchase that belongs in an EMS equipment request.

Who Gives AED Grants: 4 Kinds of Funders

Grantsights sorted the 48 funders in the November 4, 2026 pull into 4 rough groups. Each one wants a slightly different request. This table is illustrative, not data: many funders fit more than one group, and states shown are where the recipients sit.

Local health foundations show up again and again. Several carry "healthcare" or "health" in their names and give close to home. A common mistake is skipping them because they look like hospital charities. Ask your hospital, county health department or community foundation whether your area has one; the Indiana and Pennsylvania examples above, and the Lewis-Clark Valley foundation's gifts in Idaho and Oregon, all funded fire departments, police departments or libraries.

Civic clubs work two ways. The Kiwanis district foundation made 13 AED grants worth $14,250 in total to member clubs in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, 12 of them $500 to $1,000 (the 13th folded in a $5,000 community service grant), according to the November 4, 2026 pull. That money went to Kiwanis clubs, which then placed the units. If your group doesn't belong to such a club, ask a local Kiwanis or Rotary club to sponsor the unit and apply on its side.

AED Grants by State

Indiana's 8 funders lead the November 4, 2026 pull, and Bethany Legacy Foundation's 2 police department grants supply $65,477, about 57% of the state's $115,141. This table counts AED grants by the state where the recipient sits.

According to the Grantsights AED data, only 5 states had 3 or more AED funders: Indiana, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Most other states had 1 or 2, which says more about how purposes get written than about who would say yes. Read local funders' general community grants rather than searching only for the word "AED."

State samples in the free preview

Five states open with an AED funder at the top of the free preview on the Grantsights community funder list. In Indiana that funder is Bethany Legacy Foundation, whose filings say it takes requests and list what to send, deadlines and a contact; it gave the Madison and Hanover police departments $65,477 for AEDs in 2023. In New York it's the Mary McClellan Foundation, which gave the Salem Rescue Squad $14,747 in 2023 and $8,000 in 2024 for Zoll AED Pro and AED Plus units, and the Cossayuna Volunteer Fire Department $10,000 for a Zoll AED and Stop the Bleed kits.

Connecticut's sample, the Thomaston Savings Bank Foundation, gave the Harwinton Ambulance Association and Terryville Fire Department $3,500 each in 2025 toward AEDs, and the Middlebury Police Department $2,750 to buy 1 AED. Pennsylvania's sample, the Ellwood City Community Health Foundation, gave the Ellwood City Police Department $6,000 in 2023 for 5 AEDs and the town's public library $1,500 in 2024 for an AED and supplies. Wisconsin's sample, the Webster Foundation, gave VFW Post 5278 in Ripon $1,000 in 2024 for AED equipment.

California is the gap. Only 1 California foundation showed up in the November 4, 2026 AED pull, the Barceloux-Tibessart Foundation, which gave the Orland Volunteer Fire Department $4,911 in 2023 to buy 3 AED devices. With one funder, there's no California AED sample in the preview, so California groups should work from the statewide community numbers below and read each funder's past gifts.

Why the Community List for AEDs

AED gifts are spread across 3 cause tags, and community holds the most local funders. According to separate Grantsights pulls dated November 4, 2026, 39 education funders made 53 AED grants worth $716,736 to schools, libraries and a high school booster club, and 29 health funders made 44 grants worth $8,986,204. The health total is misleading for a small group: the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust's 10 grants to state health departments for first responder AED projects in Nevada, Nebraska, Iowa, Wyoming and North Dakota add up to about $8.3 million, roughly 92% of it.

That leaves community as the list with the most small, local AED funders: 48 of them, giving to the fire companies, police departments, libraries and civic groups that place public access units. Schools are the exception: most gifts for AEDs in gyms and classrooms sat under the education tag, so a school should read each funder's education giving as well.

These rows count every community grant on 990-PF returns in each state, according to Grantsights analysis of filings pulled October 29, 2026, not only AED gifts. The typical community grant runs from $1,000 in New Hampshire to $3,000 in Indiana, close to the $3,000 AED median, and between 24% and 38% of these funders say they take requests. Start with those. The community funder list is sold for every state at once, and you can get your money back within 30 days if it doesn't help.

What the Federal AED Law Doesn't Tell You

The federal law on AED liability has 5 subsections, and it's narrower than many boards assume. It was added in 2000 by the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act of 2000, part of Public Law 106-505, according to the notes on 42 U.S.C. 201 (opens in a new tab). Read it next to the filings and 5 points come out.

1. It protects users and buyers, with conditions. Section 238q(a) says a person who uses or tries to use an AED on someone in a perceived medical emergency is immune from civil liability for resulting harm. The group that acquired the device is immune too, unless the harm came from its failure to notify local emergency response personnel of the placement, to properly maintain and test the device, or to train an employee or agent who used it and would reasonably have been expected to.
2. It doesn't cover everything. Under subsection (b), the immunity doesn't apply to willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence or reckless misconduct, and it doesn't cover licensed health professionals acting within their jobs or hospitals and clinics whose staff used the device.
3. State law usually comes first. Subsection (c)(1)(B) says the section overrides state law only where the state has no statute or regulation giving that class of people AED immunity. Most boards will need to read their own state's AED law, which this guide doesn't cite.
4. It doesn't require an AED anywhere. The section says plainly that it doesn't require placing a device at any building or location. Any requirement for your school, gym or pool comes from state or local rules.
5. It doesn't pay for anything. The law is about liability. The three duties it names, notifying responders, maintaining and testing, and training, are the costs that turn one grant into a working program, and they belong in your request.

The FDA adds a buying rule the liability law skips. According to the FDA's AED page, the agency encourages owners to use FDA-approved AEDs and accessories, and warns that if an AED isn't FDA-approved, compatible accessories may no longer be available after February 3, 2022. Grantsights checked the device models named in the largest filings, such as the LIFEPAK CR2, HeartStart OnSite and Zoll AED Plus, against the FDA's approved-AED table, and each was on it. A funder that sees an approved model and a replacement plan for pads and batteries sees a careful buyer.

Federal Money for AEDs: 2 Programs and Their Limits

Only 2 federal routes came up when Grantsights checked, and neither is a ready AED program for a small group in November 2026.

HRSA's Rural Access to Emergency Devices (RAED) program. According to Grants.gov (opens in a new tab), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) posted RAED notices in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2014. The 2014 notice, HRSA-14-129, funded community partnerships to buy AEDs, provide defibrillator and basic life support training, and place the units in rural communities. It named fire and rescue departments, police, community hospitals and local nonprofits as possible partners, said faith-based and community-based organizations were eligible, and required one lead applicant to act as fiscal agent. It listed awards up to $150,000, estimated total funding of $450,000, and a deadline of April 30, 2014. A search of that site on November 4, 2026 found no newer RAED notice, and Grantsights couldn't confirm the program's current status on HRSA's own pages. Treat RAED as a past program and ask HRSA's Federal Office of Rural Health Policy before planning around it.

USDA Community Facilities grants. According to USDA rules at 7 CFR 3570.62, Community Facilities grants can help rural public bodies, nonprofits with strong local ties, and tribes buy "major equipment," and the examples named include fire service equipment. Section 3570.63 caps a grant at 75% of project cost and scales it by town size and income: up to 75% for towns of 5,000 or fewer with the lowest incomes, stepping down to 15% for towns up to 50,000. The rules also bar grants for annual recurring costs. A single AED for a church hall is a poor fit for that process; a rural fire district bundling AEDs into a larger equipment purchase is a better one. The USDA Community Facilities guide covers how towns qualify.

Many recipients in the pull are town or city departments, not charities. Under 26 U.S.C. 170(c)(1) (opens in a new tab), a gift to a state or a political subdivision counts as a charitable contribution only if it's made for exclusively public purposes, so a department's request should make the public use plain: where the unit hangs and who can reach it.

What an AED Grant Request Should Price

Grants of about $1,200 to $2,750 per unit show up in the filings that state a unit count. Grantsights analysis of those filings, from the November 4, 2026 pulls, is below. Some of these grants covered only part of the cost, so treat the last column as the grant per unit, not the price.

Most groups underestimate what comes after the box arrives. This table is illustrative, not data: costs vary by model and site.

The filings back this up. The Clearwater Memorial Public Library in Orofino, Idaho asked the Lewis-Clark Valley Healthcare Foundation for AEDs, cabinets, first aid items and training, and got $4,000 in 2024. Conover's grant included an extreme weather mounting case. Brookhill School in Texas asked the Kyle Lake Foundation for a defibrillator, supplies and pediatric packs.

Common Mistakes in AED Grant Requests

These 6 mistakes are easy to avoid, and each can sink a $3,000 request to a local funder.

• Asking for a program without a unit count. A red flag for a small funder is a request for general safety support with no number attached. The Thomaston Savings Bank Foundation's filing says "to fund the purchase of (1) AED," and that's the level of detail that gets paid.
• Forgetting the placement plan. Say where each unit hangs, who can reach it, and the hours the building is open. The Rotary Foundation of Wallowa County's $9,830 grant in 2023 was filed as placing and supporting AEDs across the county, not just buying them.
• Skipping the training line. Federal law ties the buyer's protection partly to training employees expected to use the device. A request that adds a CPR class reads as more complete.
• Ignoring loaner programs. The Alexander Eastman Foundation funded AED loaner programs at the Windham, Londonderry, Chester and Hampstead fire departments in New Hampshire in 2023. If your event is seasonal, a fire department loaner unit may fit better than a purchase.
• Mixing up AEDs and monitors. An ambulance replacing monitor-defibrillators, like Prospect Volunteer Ambulance with its $20,000 grant for two, should read grants for EMS and ambulance services, which covers equipment programs built for rigs. Fire companies outfitting every engine should read grants for volunteer fire departments.
• Reading a funder's size, not its habits. Look at past gifts with how to read a 990-PF before you ask. A bank foundation whose AED grants ran $2,750 to $3,500 isn't the place for a $40,000 rollout.

AEDs for Churches, Schools and Youth Leagues

None of the 81 community AED grants in the November 4, 2026 pull went to a church by name, and that's worth knowing before you search for a church-only AED program. The nearest gifts went to faith-based schools in the separate education pull: the Maurice Romy Foundation gave 4 Catholic schools in Philadelphia $7,635 each in 2023 for 2 smart boards and 2 AEDs, and the LaFollette Medical Foundation gave Campbell County Christian Academy in Tennessee $4,120 in 2025 for an AED and CPR training.

A church request reads stronger when the building serves the public. Ask a bank, health or civic foundation for one unit, and say the AED will serve the weekday food pantry, the polling place or the community meals as well as worship. Then check a funder's limits on religious purposes; grants for churches and grants for faith-based organizations explain how those limits work.

Youth leagues have their own pattern. The Kalas Foundation gave the Palmyra Civic Baseball Association in Pennsylvania $2,000 in 2023 for AED units, and the education pull shows Palmyra Kings Daughters giving Pal Mac Youth Lacrosse in New York $400 in 2024 for AED equipment. Project ADAM (Automated Defibrillators in Adam's Memory) says on its own site (opens in a new tab) that it helps schools, sporting programs and community sites become "Heart Safe" through local affiliates. A group named Project ADAM in New Haven, Connecticut appeared in the education pull. Grants for youth sports leagues and grants for school safety cover the wider funding picture for fields and schools.

For example, the Petroleum County Community Center in Winnett, Montana received $3,000 from the Town Pump Charitable Foundation in 2023 for an AED. One organization in New York, the Northwest Buffalo Community Center, received a $2,000 AED grant from the Buffalo Bills Foundation in 2023. Libraries show up too: the Justin F. Coressel Charitable Trust gave the Defiance Public Library in Ohio $2,000 in 2025 for AED machines.

Related Guides for AED Buyers

27 of the 81 grants in this pull went to libraries, community centers, civic clubs, veterans posts, community foundations or a ball league rather than a fire, police or rescue agency. Libraries placing a unit by the circulation desk will find more of their own funders in grants for libraries, and halls that host meals, classes and meetings can compare notes with grants for community centers and grants for senior centers.

Rescue groups that cover trails, rivers and backcountry, where an outdoor case matters, should read grants for search and rescue teams. Police foundations equipping patrol cars can see how departments pair with nonprofit partners in grants for police departments. The Grantsights grant database lists open federal and state grant notices you can search by state.

FAQ: Common Questions

Are there grants for AEDs for churches? Yes, from local bank, health and civic funders, though none of the 81 community grants went to a church by name.

How many foundations give grants for AEDs? 48 in the Grantsights search of 990-PF community grants pulled November 4, 2026.

How big is a typical AED grant? The median was $3,000, and 58 of 81 grants were $5,000 or less.

Is there a federal grant program for AEDs? No open one that Grantsights could confirm. RAED's last federal notice was posted in 2014.

Does a group that buys an AED face liability if someone uses it? Federal law gives immunity with conditions, and a state AED statute takes priority where one exists.

Should a fire or EMS agency buying cardiac monitors use this guide? No. Read the EMS and volunteer fire department guides instead.

Sources

• 42 U.S.C. 238q, liability regarding emergency use of AEDs (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• 42 U.S.C. 201 notes, short title of the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act of 2000 (opens in a new tab)
• 26 U.S.C. 170, charitable contributions to governments for public purposes (opens in a new tab)
• 7 CFR part 3570, subpart B, Community Facilities Grant Program (eCFR) (opens in a new tab)
• Grants.gov: HRSA-14-129, Rural Access to Emergency Devices Grant Program (opens in a new tab)
• FDA: Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), approved devices and accessories (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: About Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)
• Project ADAM (opens in a new tab)