How to Win Public Safety Grants

Hi, everyone. Good morning and good afternoon depending on what time zone you're joining us from.

Thank you for taking the time to join us on this webinar titled how to win public safety grants, excellent guidance on US grants for hazard response, chemical ID, and radiation detection, hosted by Blackline Safety in partnership with Fire Grants Help. My name is Isaac Gugungkombe, and I will be I'm the product marketing manager at Blackline Safety. I will be moderating this hour long session, which will be split between presentations by experts from Firegrants Health and Blackline Safety. And then we will close it out with a q and a session at the very end where you will get answers to your questions.

Some quick housekeeping rules. If you have any questions during the course of the presentation, please feel free to type those questions out. And at the very end, the experts will answer all the questions.

If there are any questions that we cannot get to by the end of the session, we will respond via email.

If you lose connection at any time, please feel free to rejoin the session using the link that was sent to you. And this session is recorded. So at the end of this session, you would receive the recording.

Yeah. So those are the quick housekeeping rules. And so with that, I will be introducing our experts.

So very starting at the very beginning, we have Samantha l Dorn.

Samantha is a senior grants consultant for Lexible and has been working with Firegrants help.

She joined the grants division in 2010 and has since helped numerous public safety and nonprofit agencies across the US to secure funding.

Sam also instructs grant writing workshops and reviews for federal agencies.

So moving on to Michael. So Michael is a senior manager of customer success at Firegrants.

He is dedicated four years to supporting public safety agencies through the grant assistance program.

He leads a team of customer success managers. And so far, he's helped different departments secure over 233 million dollars in grant funding, demonstrating a strong commitment to overcoming any funding challenges.

And finally, we have our very own Doug Mayer. So Doug brings over thirty years of experience in environmental health and safety, emergency response across industrial, chemical, and public sectors. He has delivered gas and radiation detection solutions and trainings to hundreds of teams, including fire departments, CSTs, and the EPA, helping them to improve response capabilities and worker safety.

Moving up to our agenda for today, what are we going to be covering? So today we're going to be covering a couple of topics, and starting right at the top is introduction to grants. Some of you know a lot about grants, but just a bit of, like, a refresher cost to say. We'll also be talking about some grant sources, some of the sources you're very familiar with, and some might be actually new to you overall. We'll walk you through the grant process as a checklist.

We'll speak about some alternative grant funding sources that are available in the market today. We'll talk you through how to access grants. And finally, we talk about the power of connected safety. We'll tie it all up with a q and a session at the very end.

And so before I pass it off to Sam, like I said, if you have any questions throughout the presentation, don't wait till the very end. Ask your questions in the chat, and we will get to those questions at the very end. And so with that, I'll be passing it off to Sam for her to take it away.

Sam? Wonderful. Thank you, Isaac. And we certainly want to thank everyone who is joining us here today and, those who have an opportunity to review, the presentation at a later date. So not knowing where everyone is in this process, we want to give some basics first. And the first and foremost, we wanna talk about, you know, what is a grant? And so grants fund solutions to identify a problem within your community.

Grants are available to fund focused projects to make something better within the community. It's certainly an investment towards the future, but more importantly, it is a legal binding contract.

Now once you submit your grant application, and receive that award letter, when you sign that award letter, that is officially a legal binding contract. So you always wanna make sure that you are reading the terms of contract before signing signature to that. Now grants are considered one of several options for alternative funding sources that can be used to purchase technology that is gonna safeguard our responders and the public.

Grants are not alone.

You will not have to pay them back as long as you are using the funding in the manner in which it was intended.

Grants are not a short term purchase solution. Now typically, we could go anywhere from, say, 6 to upwards of 12 months.

What we're looking at right now at the timing of this, particular recording in June of 2025, it could be for grants that would be awarded for projects in 2026 in some cases. And so, again, it is not a short term solution.

Grants are not free money. And particularly when it comes to government grants, there will be some type of reporting requirement. And for some of the grants, there are matching requirements. One of the great things that we're able to do here, through Lexipol is help you guys to be able to come up with various sources of funding to meet the match. So please do hang on, with us throughout the presentation because we're gonna talk about those various different types of funding. There is no guarantee of funding when you're submitting that application.

So we do, again, encourage people to look at multiple sources of funding to ensure that you can get to one hundred percent of what you need to keep your community safe, to keep your staff safe, to do what you all need to do out in the field. So let's dive into talking a little bit about where these, grants are coming from. We source from federal, state, local, as well as corporate and community foundations.

The grants that you apply for depends on the technology that you'll need. That's one of the criteria. And there are some other things that come into play. It's not just the technology you need, but in some cases, how you're going to use it as well. But as I mentioned, federal, state, local, as well as corporate and community foundations.

I've been doing this now for over 25 years. And regardless of which grant application we're looking at, who that funder may be, what generally we talk about is the time commitment that goes into completing an application and being able to hit submit.

Only about fifteen to 20% of that time involves the actual writing of the application, requirements, the narrative sections.

The rest of that, that 80 to 85% is really what you should be working on now to make sure that when grants open, that you are ready to almost essentially be able to cut and paste.

First and foremost is identifying the problem.

By identifying the problem, that's going to help us determine the best funding source to address that problem.

Then propose the solution. In this case, one of those solutions would be the technology and resources available through Blackline.

Defining the scope of the work, being able to get that cost estimate so that you know exactly how much funding that you're going to need.

But when you identify that problem, you also need to have the data to validate that the problem exists. And there will probably be other data, elements that you would be looking at as well, certainly information about your organization, demographics related to the community, and also financial need. They want to know why your department is not able to just make this purchase on their own.

Oftentimes, particularly again with government grants, we see, several administrative requirements that will be need to that need to be met, excuse me, and that's something that you could be working on now even before grant opens.

Engaging editor stakeholders, you may need to put together letters of support or letters of commitment, and then being able to complete any planning if required depending on the grant that you're looking at. We will talk about that a little bit more, but I just kind of wanted to go through the process. Again, regardless of which grant you're looking at, there are some elements of each of these steps, for every grant that we work with.

On the federal side, anytime that we have a change in administration, whether that's at the federal, state, local level, there's always going to be a time period where we're looking at the priorities for your new administration coming in. That is not anything that is new.

So as we are working through periods of transition and waiting for all of the language and terminology to come out for this federal funding cycle, we're still looking and working with state grants, local grants, as well as corporate and community foundations.

On the federal landscape, some of the notable things that we are currently following as far as with our team, looking at any reductions in funding where any duplication may exist between what's being funded by the state and federal. So that's under review.

Also, additional manual review of all grant allocations. They wanna make sure that the funding that you all have already received is being spent in the way in which it was intended.

And so there is certainly more of an emphasis on past performance.

If you have not completed, your grant required, reports, please take the time now to make sure that you're getting up to date with those reports. That will weigh in on whether or not you're eligible to apply for additional funding.

And then there is expanded compliance and administrative vetting.

Given these shifts and with some softening in funding expected in the future for federal grants, it's smart to start looking at alternative funding options when it comes to your essential safety purchases.

So we wanna talk a little bit about some of the key events that are coming up over the next 2 to 3 years, as well as looking at potential funding options, those alternative things that we would see outside of a government grant.

So 2026 marks our 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Across the country, the milestone anniversary will be celebrated through a variety of events throughout the year, including ceremonies, parades, and exhibits.

On the map that you see here, certainly heavy on the East Coast, for the, early years or the founding of our country, but the America 250th will be celebrated throughout the entire country.

What you're seeing on the screen, those numbers listed, those are not to a legend to say, okay. Three is this location. That's not what that number means. Those numbers, including the number 25 I see in there, I know it's small print, that's the number of events that have already been planned between now and through the end of 2026 related to America 250.

And certainly, you know, places like Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, lots of events that are scheduled.

So there are planning meetings that are taking place. They're providing a significant amount of funding, but are first responders included in those meetings? We wanna make sure that you all are in the early stages of the plannings within your communities to make sure that you have the resources, the tools and resources to maintain safety and or to enhance response should there be an incident related to any of these events.

And so in some cases, there will be funding that is made available under America 250th.

I believe right now part of that is educating the folks in your community to your needs, finding out what is being planned, and making sure that you guys are included now. If you wait until 2026, a good bit of that money may have already been obligated to other projects. So you want to, right now, be able to ask in your community, whether that's at the county level. Certainly, you can check state websites. Most of the states, it'll say, like, America 250 PA, America 250 TN, is is how they are working with this program. So I highly recommend that you're looking at America 250 programs.

Also, upcoming sporting events, those large sporting events, Santa Clara, California will be the site of our next Super Bowl in early 2026. We've got the NBA playoffs. We have a championship, for, at the golf club in Newtown Square here in Pennsylvania where I'm located.

The World Cup is coming up in June of 2026. That involves multiple cities, as well as being able to see the MLB all star game in July in Philadelphia right on the hills of the fourth of July ceremonies in Philadelphia during America 250th. There's a lot of things happening in that time frame in which these types of devices will be needed, and we wanna make sure our first responders have what they need leading up to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

We also look at working with corporate and community foundations.

That could be something right in your own backyard.

Oftentimes, when I'm talking to departments, I recommend that wherever they're spending their money, look to see where those companies are spending their money.

So oftentimes when we have folks, they'll say, you know, hey. We have a a rural area.

There's always some type of revenue. There's a place where people are working, and we try to be very creative here through, Lexipo in helping you tap into those alternative funding.

We do that through targeted research, making sure that the grantor aligns with the project needs.

Mismatch requests can sometimes waste your time or delay funding.

If what you're applying to does not fit with the goals of the funder, you've put time into completing an application that in most cases is not gonna get awarded.

We try to help you align with the best possible funding for what you need in your area.

You want to be able to stay informed, being able to check the websites of those grantors for funding guidelines.

As many of the funding outlined they outline their priorities, the application process, and typical grant recipients.

Oftentimes, what you could do is use the guidelines from the previous grant cycle to begin building out your grant application so that when the grant opens, you're ready to go and you're able to meet the timeline for submission.

Most businesses post some type of annual report that can be viewed online, and that will certainly show what they support, what their priorities are for their funding.

When it comes to corporate and community foundations, every grant has a specific process. Many of them are submitted online.

However, you want to make sure that you, are following their guidelines related to the content, the format, as well as the deadlines to make sure that you are in compliance and certainly respect the funding ranges to make sure that you are within alignment. I know I've recently, read over some grant applications where the funder has said our maximum award is fifty thousand, and the department comes in and they ask for one hundred and fifty thousand.

You want to read through and see what you can do to align with that. And that's where having the relationship with the folks here at Blackline to let them know certainly if you're applying for a grant, is there any way if it's going to be one hundred and fifty total, can you carve out any piece of that cost estimate to see if it will fit into a corporate or community foundation grant. So at the end of the day, as I mentioned earlier, you can get to one hundred percent of the funding.

It just might be through 2 or more resources.

Through our resources here at Lexapol and working with Fire Grants Help, we're able to help you navigate that process. At this time, I'm gonna go ahead and turn over to my colleague, Michael, to tell you a little bit about our services.

Thank you, Samantha. It was great hearing about, the different grant sources out there, some information about how federal funding is flowing. I really liked how you touched on, our ability to look at grants outside of the federal grants, such as the state and corporate community foundations.

So we wanted to talk to everybody about how to get involved with our team, how to get in contact with our experts like Samantha Dorm to talk to your department about how to find grant assistance. The first thing you'll wanna do is first consult with a Blackline team member so you can get a good understanding and they can get an understanding of your department's needs and and what technology that you need from them. Then there will be a form presented to you, and we'll make sure you have it after this call, where you fill out your department information. And then the second form will ask your your grant experience.

And if you don't have grant experience, that's fine. It just gives us a gauge on what your grant experience will look like. Once you complete those forms, you will be contacted by an expert from Fire Grants Help to go over your needs, your grant readiness, and talk about grants that are available to you. You'll talk to real experts like Samantha Dorm, who will be able to help your department figure out what grants are best suited for your project in your community.

Sam touched on it a little bit earlier, but we're also able to provide that custom research, that that tailored research to the organizations in your community that may be able to fund this project.

Now when you come into our program, a lot of our services are available at no cost to your department because of our partnership with Blackline.

Now if you're working on that radiation detection project or hazmat and chemical identification project, you wanna fill out those forms because you're going to get access to Grant Finder.

Grant Finder is a database that is owned by Fire Grants Help and Lexapool, where we will show you grants specifically for radiation detection projects and hazmat and chemical identification equipment.

Your department will then get alerts from GrantFinder on a weekly basis of grant funding opportunities that are out there for you. So you have access to this database at no cost. You also get access to coaching and grant application help at no cost. And so that is where my team will contact your department, set up a conversation with an expert like Samantha Dormer.

We'll walk your agency through the entire grant writing process. We're here to partner with you until your project is funded. We can provide coaching and application guidance. If you have an application that you have written, we can review your first draft and provide you feedback.

If you're very new to grants, we can just get on those coaching calls and and help educate you on on how to fill out that application or even selecting your very first application.

Again, the grant finder assistance, the coaching grant application help, and dedicated support from our team to get your project funded is all available to you at no cost because of our partnership with Blackline Safety. Now we do have grant writing services available, but that is our only fee based service, and we give you a 25% discount on all grant writing services if you need those. Now grant writing services are often not needed as our coaching and grant application help, as well as access to grant finder, provides so much support to your department. You probably won't need us to write that grant. But if your department does need an agent, another grant writer to take on the project, well, Lexipul can step in and do that for you. Now we wanted to pass it over to Doug to talk about this equipment and, what we're seeing on on Blackline's side.

Thank you, Michael. I appreciate the introduction. Samantha, thank you as well for giving a great overview on what we're able to accomplish, in the team approach and looking at, grant funding opportunities.

I'm sure that there are many of you on the line now that are familiar with Blackline safety, many of whom I've probably dealt with in the past. And, of course, there's probably some new potential customers as well.

So Blackline, as many of you know, is a connected safety instrumentation manufacturer based in Calgary.

Everything that we manufacture is connected to the cloud, whether that be through cellular connectivity or satellite connectivity.

Everything that happens at the instrument level is visible by somebody else. Be that incident command, be that your emergency operation center, somebody else has visibility to what's taking place downrange at the instrument level itself.

Next slide, please.

So one of the things that we have recently released, which will be extremely important for the upcoming events that Samantha had presented earlier is the EXO 8 with gamma capability.

Not only are we protecting the first responder, but also the community at large.

So when you look at these large events with, tens of thousands of people that are, enjoying that event, minimizing the capability of anyone with adverse, intent coming into those facilities.

We've got the ability to protect the entire crowd from those potential, sources of of hazard. So with the EXO 8 as an example, we are the only direct to cloud portable area monitor with up to 8 gas sensors, as well as gamma radiation detection for early warning and protection.

The nice thing about the EXO is that you still have the connectivity to the cloud through cellular and or satellite capability.

It's a drop and go deployment that provides real time alerts back to incident command while streaming the data being collected from the instrument itself.

You can deploy these devices well in advance of the event.

The battery life on the EXO 8 is up to one hundred days, So you've got the ability to deploy and be ready for the event well in advance of of the actual start times.

Another thing with the cloud connected instrumentation is that you're getting post incident data that you're able to go back to and look at the reporting of what transpired, looking at the insights, and also, taking a look at what your response has been during the event to see if there might be any improvement for future types of events, that are similar.

Okay. The EXO 8 is built to in sorry. Back one slide, please.

It is built to perform in extreme conditions as well. So whether that be a cold and and freezing environment or, extreme heat, weather related rain, sleet, snow, you name it. It's built for extreme, conditions.

Next slide.

1. So from the from the gamma radiation standpoint, we have taken a different approach from what sensors we have installed versus what you might be accustomed to, in competitive devices.

Blackline safety, what we have done research on in looking at, the improvement factor, again, from what else is in the marketplace, we utilize a scintillation crystal, that gives from a size standpoint, it gives up to three times the distance of detection versus comparable units.

It is intended to monitor low energy ionizing particles for improved early warning and faster response.

It's intended to operate continuously versus a cycling of gas detection to radiation and back in in a rotation, factor. We we monitor the gamma radiation and the gas sensors, continuously and simultaneously.

And, of course, we've got instant response to changing radiation levels. All of this is displayed on the device itself. And again, if there is any, alert received from a low, alarm set point or a high alarm set point, that information is sent back to incident command instantaneously.

Next slide.

Okay. So with that, I think, we can move into the q and a. Isaac, if you wanna take over from this point.

Awesome. Thank you very much, Doug, and thank you very much, our entire panel, Sam, Michael.

Obviously, having a conversation with Sam previously, this usually is like a three day course that we've tried to squeeze into thirty minutes. But as you can imagine, just like they've mentioned on the call several times, if you do partner with us, you're going to be able to get, you know, someone like Sam to look at your application and, definitely support you. So we have a QR code on the screen right now, which you can scan, and that will take you directly to the form you need to fill, if you're trying to secure, some grants.

So we have a couple of questions, on the chat, and so we're just going to be going through, those questions one after the other, and I will just either call out Doug or the Firebrands team to respond to the questions.

So starting at the very first, so this question is to the team from FireGrants. It says, AI is rapidly becoming more relevant in our industry.

What is the panel's thoughts on using a tool like ChatGPT to draft grant proposals?

Sure. Happy to, address that. So, first of all, for all of the funders, they are looking for your proposals to be unique to your community.

And so you wanna be very careful that you're not submitting anything kind of a a template or you're submitting another department has has shared this information and you're just changing 1 or 2 things. It really does need to be unique to your area. So as it relates to ChatGPT, you know, full disclosure, I do use it, but I use it for formatting.

I do not use it to draft my proposal.

And so you really need to make sure that, as we were looking on, the slide kind of going back, here where it talked about, here's what the technology can do. You need to be able to articulate in your community what are the conditions or what are the situations that are taking place to justify this type of purchase.

And so, you know, as far as ChatGPT, excuse me, I think it's a useful tool as long as you are being very careful with it. But, also, please make sure that you are not putting confidential information into an open source platform.

I know some folks are using, like, a free version of ChatGPT versus if they're buying, something that, you know, is for their company and making sure you have some additional security, associated with that.

You don't want to put this type of information in. Ideally, when we're looking at, anything related to black line, and now let's talk about homeland security. Homeland security, you're usually going to have some type of threat assessment associated with it, vulnerability associated with that. You don't want to put list your vulnerabilities in an open source platform that other people might be able to somehow see or receive that information and say, oh, okay. This is where the vulnerabilities are for this community. So just be very careful with the information and always read and review.

Don't just put that into an application. Go over and make sure the information is correct. So I don't know, Michael, if you wanna kinda weigh in on it from from your area, but I was just saying I I I would, I would be remiss if I didn't say, yes. I use it, but I use it to format, not to draft.

And that's and that's exactly right, Sam. That's what we've seen on on our end from other departments, how they are utilizing it is is for that that, that kind of formatting. And, you know, there have been times where, if you rely on it too heavily and and don't, like you just said, proofread what it's giving you, it could give you some information that isn't always correct or accurate. So, as much as we wanna trust the information from ChatGPT is accurate, it's it's very important to proofread over what it is, spitting back out to you and make sure it's it's accurate and aligning with your department.

Awesome, guys. Thank you so much. And I agree. Sure. GPT does have the tendency to hallucinate, so you need to fact check. Yes. Sometimes it just spits out anything.

Alright. So moving to the next question, it says, and this is through Fire Grants team as well. What should a department do if they want to prepare for URC or Homeland Security grants?

Well, that's certainly a meek question.

So first and foremost is going to be, you know, hopefully, you're already at the table because in in all cases, there's already, like, planning meetings, exercises that are taking place. If your department was at the table years ago, you got a little bit bored, you didn't think that things were moving, go back to the table, please, as soon as possible because that's where the decision making is taking place.

In all cases, you know, wanting to make sure that you are aware of the terms or aware of what is in the plan specific to your area.

If you're talking about something like a port security grant, now what's in that coast guard plan? And better yet, is your department a direct responder? Not, hey. Through mutual aid, we're we're fifty miles away, but on mutual aid, we can come in. That's not going to be a priority for that particular grant, and we probably then need to look at something else. That same thing happens. You want to confirm that you are in fact if it's UASI, confirm that you are in fact within that UASI jurisdiction.

And then you need to be actively involved, your department. Someone needs to be actively involved with putting together that threat assessment. Now if right now, we're we're probably looking at some of those homeland security grants opening here, I would say, within the next 30 to 60 days, is what we would be, ideally from the federal government, and that's going to be for those state applications.

You all would be working within, like, your counties, your parishes, to get that information to the state and each state has a different deadline for that. But the common denominator for all of them is going to be that preplanning.

If you have not already identified the need for black line technology, for working with the hazmat, the the chem, the radiation detection, please do that now. They can always make changes or amendments to the plans.

If it's not in a plan, does that mean you won't be awarded? Not necessarily, but you're going to have to really justify how this came about as being something that is needed now if it hasn't been previously discussed and put down on paper.

Anything else, Isaac?

No. I I think that that really does cover it. That does cover it. Thank you very much, Sam. And, Doug, this question is for you. It says, how can customers purchase Blackline solutions with grants knowing that they often don't cover yearly recurring costs?

Interesting question. Okay.

I think number one, you know, keep in mind, what what Sam mentioned earlier, about the grants themselves. Okay? You're you will probably be limited in some way, shape, or form by the dollar value of the grant. We get questions all the time about, you know, customers wanting the Cadillac of the capability of our devices, be that the hardware capability plus the monitoring service, capability, whether it's black line monitored or whether it's, self monitored by the customer. And then, of course, a big component of it might be the warranty period, okay, that's covered. So what we've been able to do is take a look at all of those components and and understand from a grant, facilitation standpoint what can be paid for by grant monies and what cannot.

So with the three different components of a black line product, the hardware, the monitoring service, and the warranties, We've been able to create, single part numbers that, encompass all of that. Now I'll caution you, as Sam mentioned earlier, that, you know, if you've got fifty thousand dollars to spend, but you're looking for a 5 year warranty and all the Cadillac, you know, sensors, etcetera, etcetera, you will probably be well over a fifty thousand dollar value. Okay? But looking at, you know, maybe going with a 2 year warranty or a three year warranty to bring that overall cost down, we've got the flexibility to do that. We just need to know in advance, you know, what your dollar range is and how we can best fit within it. So look for the single part numbers that will encompass all components of our offering, and I'm sure that we'll be able to work with you in in fitting within the grant that you receive.

And and this is where I can if I can jump in. So our relationship here with Blackline is fairly new in part because they wanted to be able to give customers additional options and opportunities.

And so, you know, I was listening to Doug. What we look at when we talk about that alternative funding, it may be, for instance, that, state or federal grant is going to be what you're using for the actual hardware and maybe the first 2 or 3 years of that maintenance. But then we can look at, you know, what's happening in your area with risk management funds? What's happening with insurance companies, banking institutions that may be able to extend the life of that? So, you know, at the end of the day, as I mentioned, you wanna get your cost estimate that reflects what you need, but be able to pair that down to match the grant that you're applying for first. But know that through our resources here, through Lexipol, at no cost to you because of this partnership with Blackline, we can help you to see about extending out the life of those warranties and, maintenance contracts.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Sam.

And, Doug, this question is also for you. It says, what type of connectivity does the EXO use?

Is it mesh? Is it WiFi? So just some knowledge about the connectivity EXO uses.

Yeah. So I mentioned, you know, in in my portion of the presentation that, the EXO has both cellular and satellite as an option. So the standard out of the box will, provide for cellular connectivity.

One critical, component about the cellular connectivity is that we have a tri carrier e SIM card that will pick the strongest of the three major carriers here in the state, in in the states. But you've also got a backup capability to have a satellite module installed.

Satellite module, of course, we utilize the Iridium satellite, system. So you've got the capability. If there's no cell service whatsoever, you can always flip over to the satellite.

Awesome. Thank you very much, Doug. So, Sam, I I think this is a new question. It says, for those thinking about a grant project, what's the biggest barrier they face in getting started?

Well, certainly, it varies.

But, I think one of the first barriers to to kind of, get past is making sure that you understand why you need the technology that you're asking for, kind of who are you serving in the areas that you're serving.

I think one of the biggest challenges that people see is just finding the right funding resource. And, again, that's where, like, our grant finder platform comes in. The next that I see is usually gonna be on the administrative side of things, particularly when you're talking about government grants.

There are a number of, different resources such as grants dot gov, maybe being also listed in the FEMA Go portal.

There's portals at the state side as well. So being able to walk through those administrative steps so that you are ready to apply for grant. Nobody ever wants to miss a deadline because of red tape on admin. And so that's something that you can work on now, and I would hope that the challenge of being able to find the right source will be satisfied by reaching out to us here, filling out that lead form and and starting to access those, no cost services so that you can get your funding.

Well, thanks, Sam. Michael, I saw that you muted for a second there. I don't know if you'd like to add something.

Yeah. I did. I just wanted to add, you know, Sam Sam touched on it, but, you know, our our goal here at FireGrants help Alexa pool is is to help knock down those barriers. So as Sam was mentioning, by filling out that form, scanning the QR code on your screen now, filling out the the short 2 step form, we'll be able to help you identify those barriers. Like Sam mentioned, they can be different for every department. You may need federal or state registrations, or your barriers may be different depending on your unique needs. So we'll help you knock those barriers down through through our partnership.

Again, we're we're here to help you until the project is completed.

So, you know, it it may move in a a couple months, or we may be partnering with your agency to help you find funding, over the next 6 months into 2026. So that's what we're here for is to be your resource to get this project funded.

You know, if I can, I was just thinking about the fact that for years now, on grants like something like the, port security, those departments wouldn't be able to be awarded that $500,000 boat, you know, that safety and security boat, that they were asking for without having the capabilities to address radiation detection, chemical detection? That was a requirement for that grant. And so, you know, being able to look through those nuances of, you know, hey. You may have your eyes set on something else, but the requirement is to ensure that you have this type of capability before you can go for those larger items as well.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Sam. And, Doug, so one of the questions that came up, and I guess is based on your comment about connectivity, it says, are cellular and satellite included in the plan, or is this a separate cost?

Those are typically separate costs, but what, again, what Blackline has been able to do is bundle the cost to what the customer need is. Okay? So our devices, our technology, our service plans, our warranty, durations, etcetera.

Everything is customizable to what the customer needs are as as in this as in and and in this case, you know, what their funding restrictions or allowances might be.

Totally customizable. Right.

Awesome. Okay. And, for the Fire Grants team, it says, how long does the grant process typically take from consultation to award?

Yeah. I can take that one. Now, it it the timeline can vary greatly depending on the funding source that you're looking at as well as if that funding source is is open and taking in applications.

Federal grants, we say if there's an open application that you could submit today, it can take up to 4 to 6 months to get those funds find out an award and get those funds to make a purchase. Those state funding sources tend to move a little bit quicker. We could see funding move anywhere from 3 to 5 months. And then what we often see is, as Sam was mentioning, private and corporate foundational grant funding tends to move a little bit quicker.

We can see awards coming out as as quick as four weeks to, up to 2 months. So it really depends on, first off, where the funding is coming from. Is it federal, state, or local corporate foundational funding? And is the grant program that you're looking to apply for currently open taking in applications?

As Sam mentioned earlier, a lot of the work for preparing for a grant application happens before the application even hits the desk. So we really wanna get involved with your department as soon as possible, Not only so you don't miss any application windows, but we help you prepare for when they do open up. You have everything in place that you need to submit a successful application, and you're not waiting for the next cycle to open up that may take, twelve months to to for the next cycle to open up. So getting involved with our team as early as possible and how having us help you prepare for a grant will put you in a very good position. When that application opens up, you're ready to submit.

Alright. Awesome. Thanks, Mike. And, the very last question of this webinar session, still to the FireGrants team, it says, does our agency need to have a current safety incident or specific justification to be eligible for funding?

Well, that is gonna depend on the grant. In some cases, what they will do is if you don't already have that in place, it may be a stipulation of the grant that you do have to put that in place before making purchase. So it's possible that they would, approve your grant application, but require that you complete that type of, justification or plan before making purchase. I did wanna clarify, some information from earlier when we were talking about things like America 250th or with these, different sporting events that are coming in, as well as think about concerts or any place where you're going to have large gatherings where we would consider those soft targets, crowded spaces.

That is certainly a priority under Homeland Security, suite of programs.

And so it's not just simply a matter of sitting back and waiting to see whether or not there's going to be a grant that specifically says America 250th and and that you can apply for that. Instead, what I'm suggesting is that you should also, when you're applying for something like Homeland Security, when you are applying for, anything through, like, your state fire marshals, grants and things on that line, that you are including into the narratives that these large events are planned in your area as a means of enhancing your application, hopefully receiving additional points that are gonna get you awarded because they know now that this is a priority.

So I did want to mention that language and terminology, particularly for Homeland Security suite of programs, that you want to talk about soft targets, crowded spaces, certainly concert venues, sporting events, but as well as things that are maybe even happening in your downtown communities right now.

So if there are any other questions, we'll be happy to ask. And and, Isaac, I know that, if folks have questions after this, you all will get those to them, and get us connected. So we do thank you, and I'll go ahead and pass back to you, sir.

Alright. Thank you so much, Sam. And, yes, as you already mentioned, if there are any other questions that comes up, we will definitely get the grants team to respond. So please feel free to scan the QR code, reach out to Blackbaud safety sales member to get a quote, understand what your needs are, and then we will put you in connection with the FireGrants team So we're able to identify whatever grants best fit your needs and fit the locations that you are based out of.

So I just want to thank our panelists. I wanna say thank you, Mark. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Doug, for taking the time out to be here.

And for everyone who's attended, thank you for taking time, to join this session. If there are no other questions, we'll be bringing this to a close. And also, like I mentioned at the start, this recording will be available for you guys. If you want to go over it again, please feel free to do so.

So with that, thank you very much. Good afternoon and goodbye.

Thanks, Isaac. Thanks, Sam. Thanks, Michael.