Eligible applicants for a Brothers Helping Brothers – Pennsylvania Chapter grant are limited to fire departments or EMS organizations operating in the state of Pennsylvania. Applicant organization must serve a population of fewer than 10,000 people or organization must have less than 30 employees which a majority is volunteer or paid per call personnel. A “fire department” is defined as an agency or organization having formally recognized arrangement with a State, territory, local or tribal authority (city, county, parish, fire district, township, town or other governing body) to provide fire suppression to a population within a fixed geographical area on a first-due basis. The “fire department” must be a municipal, non-profit, or not for profit organization. An “EMS organizations” is defined as an agency or organization having formally recognized arrangement with a State, territory, local or tribal authority (city, county, parish, fire district, township, town or other governing body) to provide EMS to a population within a fixed geographical area on a first-due basis. The “EMS organization” must be a municipal, non-profit, or not for profit organization. Brothers Helping Brothers shall determine the amount of any financial grant award as funds are available. The non-availability of funds may prevent the approval of any application for grant funding. Brothers Helping Brothers shall reserve the right to determine the method and amount of grant disbursement. All applications, including attachments and additional information, become the property of Brothers Helping Brothers and, upon the determination of eligibility, may become public information subject to disclosure. Ineligible applicants are the following:

• Fire training centers.
• Emergency communications centers.
• Auxiliaries and/or fire service organizations or associations.
• Dive teams and search and rescue teams or any similar organization that do not have fire suppression/EMS responsibilities.
• Any for profit Fire or EMS agency.

Applying organizations must demonstrate financial need and appropriately establish the risk in their community, how many people will benefit, and how the tools or equipment will help benefit activities in their community. If funds are granted, they must be spent within one year of the grant being awarded. Applying organizations must show proof of purchase to Brothers Helping Brothers. Application Instructions

• Date – Date of the letter of intent is completed.
• Organization name – Official name of the organization completing letter of intent.
• Mailing address – Postal address of the applicant.
• Email address – The applicant’s email address.
• Organizational contact – The name and formal title of the person writing the letter of intent for the organization.
• Organizational contact phone number – List phone numbers that Brothers Helping Brothers can call to reach the organizational contact.
• Describe organization – Describe the organization, its command structure, amount of personnel, number of full time employees, part time employees, paid on call employees, paid per call employees, and non-paid volunteers.
• Briefly describe the purpose of your organization – In a one or two sentence statement; briefly state the purpose of your organization. You may cite your organization’s mission statement.
• Briefly describe your community – With factual information, describe the amount of population within your community you serve and how many runs per year the organization takes.
• What is the purpose and scope of your request – Describe the purpose of the use of funds, tools, or equipment requested and indicate what it intends to accomplish, the risk in your community, and the number of people to benefit.
• Sustainability – Describe what the funds, tools or equipment will do to help the long term mission of your organization.
• If this request is denied – Justify the need for Brothers Helping Brothers funding, tools, or equipment. What would occur if this request is denied?
• Detailed funding request or detailed list of tools or equipment needed – Show with quotes or catalog descriptions what your organization is looking for. (Gently used equipment maybe donated instead of funding)
• Additional explanation of request – Your organization is welcome to present any additional information it believes might benefit the request for assistance.
• Printed name and signature – The individual completing the letter of intent must verify that all submitted documentation and relevant information is true and correct to the best of his/her knowledge by supplying his/her full name, signature and the date it was signed.