Federal grant programs / Environmental Protection Agency

Wildfire Smoke Preparedness in Community Buildings Grant Program (66.044)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$10.7 million
• Grant awards9
• Typical award$1.1 million
• Awarded in FY 2025$0
• Size rank1471 of 1824
• Type of assistanceGrant

Key findings

• It is the 1471st largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 9 largest recipients received 100% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 8 states and territories.

What the program funds

The EPA is providing grants to states, federally recognized Tribes, public pre-schools, local educational agencies, and non-profit organizations for the assessment, prevention, control, or abatement of wildfire smoke hazards in community buildings and related activities. These grants are provided under Section 103(b)(3) of the Clean Air Act as supplemented by authority provided in the 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act and the 2025 Consolidated Appropriations Act to fund abatement activities. The Wildfire Smoke Preparedness in Community Buildings grant program aims to prioritize projects targeting public buildings or buildings that serve the public, with a demonstrated wildfire smoke risk. Priority project types include smoke readiness planning, outreach and training for smoke readiness, indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring, deployment of portable air cleaners, identification and preparation of cleaner air spaces or shelters, and significant improvements to buildings such as upgrading and repairing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units or systems and weatherization necessary to protect occupants from hazards stemming from wildfires.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

Assistance under this program is available to states, federally recognized Tribes, public pre-schools, local educational agencies as defined in 20 U.S.C. 7801 (30), and public and private non-profit organizations. The term “state” is defined in section 302(d) of the Clean Air Act and includes the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and specified U.S. Territories and possessions. EPA uses the definition of Nonprofit organization at 2 CFR 200.1 for this program, but nonprofit institutions of higher education are eligible to apply for funding. For certain competitive funding opportunities under this assistance listing, the Agency may limit eligibility to compete to a number or subset of eligible applicants consistent with the Agency's Assistance Agreement Competition Policy.

What the money can and cannot pay for

Grants and cooperative agreements are available to support recipients' allowable direct costs incident to approved assistance agreements plus allowable indirect costs, in accordance with established EPA policies and regulations. Assistance agreement awards under this program may involve or relate to geospatial information. Further information regarding geospatial information may be obtained by viewing the following website: Geospatial Resources at the EPA (https://www.epa.gov/geospatial). This program makes Federal awards on a discretionary basis. A discretionary award means an award in which the Federal awarding agency, in keeping with specific statutory authority that enables the agency to exercise judgement (“discretion”), selects the recipient and/or the amount of Federal funding awarded through a competitive process or based on merit of proposals. A discretionary award may be selected on a non-competitive basis, as appropriate. For further information, please contact the Headquarters or regional office.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. There is a 10% cost-share requirement, which may be waived for facilities in economically distressed communities.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

For competitive awards, deadlines will be specified in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).

Award range and average, in the agency's words

The total estimated funding expected to be available for awards totaling up to $10,670,000. EPA anticipates awarding approximately 7-11 grants, ranging from $500,000 to $2,000,000 (average $1,500,000). Funded assistance agreements will have up to 3-year periods of performance.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2025: The EPA funded projects 1) conducted wildfire smoke awareness outreach, development of smoke readiness plans, and training for staff to maintain equipment; 2) provided upgrades to HVAC including improved filtration, distribution of portable air cleaners, weatherization, and installation of indoor air monitors to reduce the risk of wildfires.

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

State and local governments received 35% of the money, colleges and universities 35% and nonprofits 18%.

By state

5 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards. They are Arizona, Colorado, California, Washington and Idaho.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.