Nonprofit Security Grant Program 2026: Status and Caps

Nonprofit Security Grant Program Status on November 5, 2026

FEMA's FY2026 round put $300,000,000 on the table, split into $150 million for nonprofits inside designated high-risk urban areas and $150 million for those outside them. According to FEMA's Nonprofit Security Grant Program page (opens in a new tab), the round now reads "FY 2026 Funds Awarded," and FEMA announced the awards on September 28, 2026. FEMA's award release (opens in a new tab) says the money went to more than 1,600 nonprofit organizations and that most of it will go to houses of worship.

Grantsights searched Grants.gov (opens in a new tab) on November 5, 2026 for posted and forecast notices from the Department of Homeland Security. The only FY2027 notice listed was a counter-drone program, not NSGP. So nobody can tell you the FY2027 amount, caps or deadline yet. Anyone quoting them is guessing.

The law behind the program is section 2009 of the Homeland Security Act, codified at 6 U.S.C. 609a. According to the statute on govinfo.gov (opens in a new tab), Congress authorized $360,000,000 a year for fiscal years 2023 through 2028, half for high-risk urban areas and half for everywhere else. An authorization isn't money in hand. FY2026's $300 million sat $60 million under that ceiling, and each year's amount depends on that year's spending bill.

How the Money Moves: FEMA, Then Your State, Then You

FEMA made 56 awards in FY2026, and none of them went to a nonprofit. According to Grants.gov, whose FY2026 listing (opens in a new tab) still shows the notice, the only eligible applicants were State Administrative Agencies (SAAs), the state offices that run federal homeland security grants. The NOFO says plainly that nonprofits may not apply to FEMA directly. Your organization is a subapplicant to the state, and if it wins, it gets a subaward.

Which stream you fall in depends on your address. NSGP-UA is for nonprofits located inside one of the FY2026 designated high-risk urban areas listed in the NOFO's Appendix B. NSGP-S is for nonprofits everywhere else in the state. Each state and urban area got a fixed allocation, and the NOFO says that if a state fails to use its published allocation, the remainder isn't reallocated.

This table shows FY2026 allocations for a few states, from the NOFO's Appendices B and C. Totals include the 5% the state may keep for management and administration (M&A), and the table is sorted by the two streams combined.

The honest reading: you're competing against other nonprofits in your own state or urban area, not the whole country. A synagogue in Newark draws from a $27 million urban area pool. A mosque in rural Alabama draws from a $3.3 million state pool. Both pools were awarded in score order.

Who Can Apply and What the Application Includes

The FY2026 notice set 3 eligibility tests for a nonprofit subapplicant. It must be described under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and exempt under 501(a); it must show through its application that it's at high risk of a terrorist or other extremist attack; and it must be in the right stream for its address. The NOFO names houses of worship, museums, educational facilities, senior centers, community centers and day camps as examples, "among many others." It also says churches, mosques and synagogues aren't required to provide an IRS recognition of exemption, since the IRS treats them as exempt when they meet 501(c)(3) rules.

FEMA's application page (opens in a new tab) lists 4 steps: find your SAA contact, get a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), prepare the subapplication, and submit it. The same page says the SAA "establishes the final deadline for the submission of subapplications," and that deadline is earlier than FEMA's. FEMA keeps a list of every state's agency on its State Administrative Agency contacts page (opens in a new tab). For the UEI, the SAM.gov registration guide explains the steps.

According to the FY2026 NOFO, each subapplicant sends the state 3 documents by the state's deadline:

1. Investment Justification (IJ). This is DHS/FEMA Form FF-207-FY-21-115, one per physical site, with no P.O. boxes. The FY2026 scoring matrix grades its Background, Risk, Facility Hardening, Milestones, Project Management and Impact sections. Projects must address a threat and vulnerability at that site and be finished within the 3-year period of performance.
2. Vulnerability or risk assessment. It has to be specific to the site in the IJ. The NOFO says one assessment is required per physical address, and failing to provide a unique one for each site may get the application rejected.
3. Mission statement. It includes any policies or practices that raise the organization's risk. The state uses it to confirm which of 4 categories you belong to, and that category changes your score.

The NOFO also asks subapplicants for short bios and resumes of leadership and board members, with names and addresses. A common mistake is treating the IJ as a shopping list. The scoring matrix rewards an IJ whose projects line up with the vulnerabilities in the assessment, with milestones that fit the 36 months and account for the federal environmental review.

How FY2026 Applications Were Scored

The state's score was multiplied by 3, 2 or 1 depending on the type of organization, according to FEMA's Final Score rules in the FY2026 NOFO:

• 3 for ideology-based, spiritual or religious entities, a group the NOFO says covers houses of worship, educational institutions and medical facilities
• 2 for secular medical and educational institutions
• 1 for all other nonprofits

Subapplicants that have never received an NSGP award got 15 points added. Applications were then ranked within each state or urban area and funded from the top down until the allocation ran out, with ties going first to groups without prior funding and then to the SAA's own ranking. After selection, DHS checked each organization's name and address against intelligence community reporting, and the Secretary of Homeland Security made the final call.

This table is illustrative, not data. It shows why the multiplier matters for a secular group.

Grantsights' view: a secular community center or shelter can still win, but it's competing at a third of a house of worship's multiplier for the same state score. In a state whose allocation is mostly spent on religious applicants, a secular group's best bet is a near-perfect state score, a narrow request and a state program on the side. The first-time bonus also means a group funded in FY2026 starts FY2027 15 points behind a newcomer.

The NOFO's criteria for the state score include a documented threat against the organization based on its beliefs or mission, the symbolic value of the site, the group's role in responding to an attack, how closely the projects match the assessment, coordination with local preparedness efforts, and prior NSGP funding.

What NSGP Pays For and What It Won't

Allowable costs in FY2026 fell into 5 groups: planning, equipment, training, exercises and contracted security. Here's what the NOFO's Appendix A covers, with the main limits.

Subrecipients may also use up to 5% of each subaward for M&A, and the statute separately lets the state keep up to 5%. Maintenance contracts, warranties and repairs for funded equipment are allowable.

Three rules trip up first-time recipients after the award. First, projects that could affect the environment or historic properties, such as modifying an existing building, go through FEMA's Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation (EHP) review, and the NOFO says federal law requires that review to finish before federal funds are released for the project. Second, Build America, Buy America rules apply to materials on infrastructure projects. Third, the NOFO extends 2 CFR 200.319 (opens in a new tab) to contractors who help write the grant: a vendor that drafted your application, project plan or budget can't then be paid to do the work unless the contract was competed to cover both. Letting a camera vendor write your IJ for free is a red flag, not a favor.

What FEMA's NSGP Pages Don't Tell You

FEMA's 2 NSGP web pages and the 78-page notice leave 5 practical gaps, and each one can cost an applicant a round.

1. The real deadline can be very short. The federal window has ranged from 14 days to 88 days in the last 4 notices, and your state's deadline sits inside it.
2. The next round's date is unknown. The statute lets FEMA prohibit states from closing their application processes before FEMA publishes its guidelines, but nothing requires an early notice. FY2026 opened June 24.
3. Nobody pays for the assessment. NSGP won't fund it, and a site-specific assessment is required for every address. CISA's self-assessment tool lets staff start the work in-house.
4. Repeat winners lose ground. The 15 first-time points go to newcomers every year, so past recipients need stronger IJs to keep pace.
5. A grant isn't cash on day one. Nothing can be bought before the award, and any project that needs EHP review has to clear it before federal funds are released. Plan the board's calendar around that.

Grantsights pulled each row from that notice's federal listing on November 5, 2026. The pattern to plan around is the FY2025 one: 14 days between posting and the federal deadline. A group that waits for the notice before ordering an assessment, registering for a UEI and gathering board bios will probably miss its state's cutoff.

For the assessment, CISA's Protecting Houses of Worship page (opens in a new tab) links a Houses of Worship Security Self-Assessment tool, a paper version with a user guide, and a fact sheet on six steps against targeted violence. CISA also has Protective Security Advisors in the field, described on its site as experts in critical infrastructure protection and vulnerability mitigation. The tools are written for houses of worship, but a school or community center can use the same questions.

State Security Grant Programs as of November 5, 2026

At least 3 large states run their own nonprofit security money alongside NSGP, each with its own rules. Grantsights checked each state's current page on November 5, 2026.

According to New York's September 8, 2026 announcement (opens in a new tab), the money covers exterior and interior security improvements, cybersecurity and the cost of security training. Pennsylvania's program page (opens in a new tab) says a security assessment isn't needed to be eligible, and its eligible costs include planning, equipment, surveillance, electronic locks and trauma kits. According to PCCD's July 27, 2026 announcement (opens in a new tab), the round before this one, awarded in March, gave more than $10 million to 191 nonprofits in 28 counties. California's 2025-26 announcement on the Cal OES site (opens in a new tab) shows a December 12, 2025 due date, extended to January 12, 2026 for support services applicants only.

If your state isn't listed, ask your SAA whether the state runs a program of its own. Don't assume a state round is open because last year's was; check the page.

Security Grants for Nonprofits: What 990-PF Filings Show

Grantsights analysis of 990-PF grants pulled November 5, 2026 found 370 foundations that made 652 grants worth $40,392,070 to 504 recipients whose name or filed purpose named security work. The median grant was $18,307, the middle half ran from $8,000 to $50,000, and 139 of the 652 were $5,000 or less. Most gifts came from tax years 2023 and 2024.

The total is top-heavy. Secure Community Network, the Jewish community's national security organization, drew 70 of the grants from 45 foundations, worth $12,516,771, or 31% of the whole. The Marcus Foundation alone gave it $4,000,000 in 2023, and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation gave it $2,200,000 in 2023 plus several more gifts in 2023 and 2024. Community Security Service, which trains volunteer security teams, drew 26 grants from 18 foundations. For one building, the $18,307 median is the number to plan around, not the average.

Shelters show up too. One organization in Texas, Genesis Women's Shelter in Dallas, received $100,000 from the Marshall Legacy Foundation in 2023 for a new security fence, and Bay Area Women's Center in Bay City, Michigan got $7,500 from the Russell H. and Maxine E. Smith Charitable Foundation in 2025 for a security gate and fencing.

Some funders run a security round of their own. The Frist Foundation filed 14 grants worth $595,940 to Nashville-area nonprofits in 2023 and 2024, 12 of them labeled "2023 security enhancement grant in partnership with HCA," including $100,000 to Adventure Science Center and $30,000 to Salama Fellowship Urban Ministries. The McKnight Foundation gave the Council on American-Islamic Relations Minnesota $50,000 in 2023 to work with mosques on reaching federal funding such as NSGP. That kind of grant pays for the help, not the hardware.

The state spread follows big family foundations. New York had 60 foundations and 107 grants, Illinois 49 and 75, Texas 35 and 58, and California 27 foundations making 55 grants worth $6,056,600. Pennsylvania had 15 foundations and Virginia 14. In all, 35 states had 3 or more foundations making security grants. Illinois and New York look larger partly because Secure Community Network files under Chicago and New York addresses.

Two honest limits. These counts include only gifts whose filing says "security" or something close, so a lot of security money hides inside general support. And 990-PF foundations aren't the main source for most groups: congregations pay for cameras from member giving and building funds, schools from budgets and parent groups, and the largest single pool is still NSGP. A foundation grant fits best where NSGP doesn't reach: the assessment itself, a gap year between rounds, or a group the multiplier works against.

Why the Community List for Nonprofit Security

Of the 652 security grants, 339 carried no cause tag in the November 5, 2026 pull. Most of the rest sat in education (82 foundations), youth (44), faith (35) and health (33). Community giving had only 18 foundations among the security grants, so no cause list is a security list. Grantsights points general NSGP applicants to the community list because those applicants come from every faith and every kind of civic group, and the community list is the broad civic one. The free preview on the Grantsights community funder list shows community funders in your state broadly, not funders picked for security.

Each row is a statewide count of all community giving in Grantsights analysis of 990-PF filings pulled October 29, 2026, so none of it is limited to security. The community funder list covers every state, and you can get a refund within 30 days if it doesn't fit your organization.

If your group has a clearer home, use it. A church should read the church security guide and use the church list. A synagogue should start with grants for synagogues, a mosque with grants for mosques, and a private or religious school with grants for private schools. Education alone held 82 of the security funders, so schools may do better on that list.

Common Mistakes in Security Grant Applications

These 6 mistakes show up in the NOFO's own rules and in the way foundations write security grants.

• Waiting for the notice. With a 14-day federal window in FY2025, groups underestimate how long a site assessment, a UEI and board bios take. Start them now.
• One assessment for several buildings. The NOFO requires one per physical address and may reject an application without it.
• Asking for items the assessment never mentions. The scoring matrix grades how well projects match the vulnerabilities. Cameras with no camera finding score poorly.
• Buying early. Subrecipients can't claim pre-award costs. A door installed in October is a door you paid for yourself.
• Using the vendor as the grant writer. That contractor can't then be paid with the award for the work.
• Asking a foundation for NSGP-sized money. Most foundation security grants are near the $18,307 median. Ask for the piece NSGP won't cover, and use how to read a 990-PF to check what a funder has given before.

Related Guides for Nonprofit Security Funding

Security money usually comes with a building or a program, so the closest guide depends on what you run. Schools should read grants for school safety, which covers the education side of hardening, and camps should look at grants for summer camps, since the Foundation for Jewish Camp gift above shows camps are a funded category. Shelters can compare grants for domestic violence shelters, and multi-use buildings can start with grants for community centers.

For the wider federal picture, the FEMA grants guide explains how FEMA's other preparedness programs work through states. The Grantsights grant database tracks open federal and state notices, so a new NSGP round will show up there once FEMA posts it.

FAQ: Common Questions

Is the Nonprofit Security Grant Program open right now? No. FY2026 closed July 24, 2026, and no FY2027 notice is posted as of November 5, 2026.

How much could a nonprofit request in FY2026? Up to $200,000 per site, 3 sites per stream, and $600,000 per state, with no cost share.

Can a nonprofit apply to FEMA directly? No. It applies through its State Administrative Agency, by the state's earlier deadline.

Does NSGP pay for the vulnerability assessment or for writing the application? No. Both are unallowable, and so are pre-award costs.

Do private foundations give security grants to nonprofits? Yes: 370 foundations made 652 grants worth $40,392,070 in the November 5, 2026 pull.

Why does Grantsights point security applicants to the community funder list? Applicants span every faith and civic type; churches, synagogues, mosques and schools have closer lists.

Sources

These 13 sources, checked November 5, 2026, back the federal, state and filing claims above.

• Grants.gov: FY2026 Nonprofit Security Grant Program (DHS-26-GPD-008-00-99), with the FY2026 NOFO attached (opens in a new tab)
• FEMA: Nonprofit Security Grant Program (opens in a new tab)
• FEMA: How to apply for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (opens in a new tab)
• FEMA: State Administrative Agency contacts (opens in a new tab)
• FEMA: September 28, 2026 release on FY2026 NSGP awards (opens in a new tab)
• govinfo.gov: 6 U.S.C. 609a, Nonprofit Security Grant Program (opens in a new tab)
• eCFR: 2 CFR 200.319, competition in procurement (opens in a new tab)
• CISA: Protecting Houses of Worship (opens in a new tab)
• New York Governor's Office: Securing Communities Against Hate Crimes awards, September 8, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
• Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency: July 27, 2026 announcement of the $10 million round (opens in a new tab)
• Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency: Nonprofit Security Grant Fund Program (opens in a new tab)
• Cal OES: 2025-26 California State Nonprofit Security Grant Program RFP (opens in a new tab)
• Grantsights pull of 990-PF grant records, November 5, 2026 (Grants.gov listings for the FY2024, supplemental and FY2025 notices were checked the same day), and community statewide pull, October 29, 2026