Well Told Grants

Federal grant programs / Department of Homeland Security

Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) (97.111)

Also known as Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program

Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) (Assistance Listing 97.111) is run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security. It awarded $56.4 million in 45 grants from fiscal 2021 to 2025, about $1.3 million per award on average. No funding opportunity is open on Grants.gov right now.

The typical award was $1.1 million. Half of the 45 awards fell between $888,105 and $1.6 million, and they ranged from $388,463 to $3.0 million.

Key findings

What the program funds

The primary objective of the Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) is to build state and local capacity to manage catastrophic incidents by improving and expanding regional collaboration for catastrophic incident preparedness. The National Response Framework (4th Edition or superseding edition) defines a catastrophic incident as any natural or manmade incident, including terrorism, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, or government functions. The regional interdependencies of effective prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery activities require a cohesive regional approach to catastrophic planning, to include community-level stakeholder involvement to maximize both regional and community-level resilience. Communities provide data on their proficiency across 32 core capabilities through the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment/Stakeholder Preparedness Review (THIRA/SPR), after-action reports, and other preparedness data. FEMA’s evaluation of Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 project proposals will be measured against core capability gaps identified through relevant THIRA/SPR reports and the potential impact the proposed project will have on improving those capabilities. To evaluate program performance, FEMA will measure the percent change in targeted capability gaps and percent improvement in the Housing, Community Resilience, and Long-Term Vulnerability Reduction core capabilities, as reported through the required THIRA/SPR covering the community. Thus, FEMA will rely upon the award recipient to develop performance measures and targets that are specific to their preparedness needs, based on the applicable THIRA/SPR results. FEMA will compare the community’s current baseline capability level of the Housing, Community Resilience, and/or Long-Term Vulnerability Reduction core capabilities against the capability level as reported at the end of the grant. Baseline capability assessments will be taken from the calendar year 2023 THIRA/SPR data; end of the grant performance data will be drawn from the calendar year 2027 THIRA/SPR data. The capability assessments FEMA will use in the RCPGP performance analysis are guided by the standard measures listed below (the applicant will provide the relevant (#)s and (time)s based on their current level of capability and desired/target level of capability that will be achieved with RCPGP grant funds). 1. Housing: Within (#) (time) of an incident, (#) people requiring long-term housing, including (#) people with access and functional needs requiring accessible long-term housing, find and secure long-term housing. 2. Community Resilience: •Within (#) (time), (#) households are covered by risk-appropriate insurance, including homeowners, flood, windstorm, and seismic. •Every (#) (time - frequency), conduct (#) outreach events or activities to increase awareness of locally significant threats and hazards to help the residents be more prepared to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from those events. 3. Long Term Vulnerability Reduction: Every (#) (time), (#) jurisdictions review their building codes, and, if necessary, enact or update risk-appropriate (i.e., concerning the risk faced by that particular area), disaster resilient building codes (see FEMA’s Building Codes Documents for more information). Recognizing that capability needs can vary significantly across different jurisdictions and there may be better ways to measure the effectiveness of a project against a specific core capability, the performance measures listed above should be viewed as examples only. Applicants are permitted to develop their own performance measures to suit the unique capability evaluation needs of the covered communities. As stated above, FEMA will compare the community’s current baseline capability level of the Housing, Community Resilience, and/or Long-Term Vulnerability Reduction core capabilities against the capability level as reported at the end of the grant. Therefore, the only requirement is that the customized performance measure enables a quantitative comparison of the applicable capability both before and after completion of the funded project.

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

State and local governments representing one or more of the top-100 most populous Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA). Refer to the RCPGP Notice of Funding Opportunity when available and posted on grants.gov.

What the money can and cannot pay for

RCPGP grant recipients and subrecipients may only use RCPGP grant funds for the purpose set forth in the grant award and must use funding in a way that is consistent with the statutory authority for the award and in accordance with 2 C.F.R. Part 200.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

08/01/2025-08/15/2025

Award range and average, in the agency's words

Awards range from around $380,000 to almost $3,000,000. The average award is roughly $830,000.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2025: RCPGP funding is generally used for planning, training, and exercise activities that are aimed at coordinating with stakeholders to address regional disaster preparedness needs.

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

Funding history and past recipients

From fiscal 2021 to 2025, Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) (97.111) awarded $56.4 million across 45 grant awards, an average of $1.3 million per award.

Largest recipients, fiscal 2021 to 2025
RecipientStateAwardsAmount
City and County of San FranciscoCalifornia4$6.5 million
City of HoustonTexas3$4.2 million
Boston, City ofMassachusetts2$3.3 million
Emergency Mgmt Department ofVirginia1$3.0 million
District of Columbia GovernmentDistrict of Columbia2$2.3 million
Executive Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto RicoPuerto Rico1$2.2 million
OK Dept of Emergency MgmtOklahoma2$2.0 million
Alaska Department of Military and Veteran's AffairsAlaska1$1.8 million
Texas Division of Emergency ManagementTexas1$1.8 million
North Carolina Department of Public SafetyNorth Carolina1$1.8 million
Office of Emergency ServicesCalifornia1$1.8 million
Colorado Department of Public SafetyColorado1$1.8 million
State of Florida Division of Emergency ManagementFlorida1$1.8 million
City of El PasoTexas2$1.7 million
Richmond Regional Planning District CommissionVirginia1$1.6 million
Emergency Management Agency MassachusettsMassachusetts1$1.5 million
North Central Texas Council of GovernmentsTexas1$1.5 million
Seattle, City ofWashington1$1.4 million
City of TampaFlorida1$1.3 million
Maryland Department of Emergency ManagementMaryland1$1.2 million

Top states: Texas ($10.7 million), California ($9.2 million), Massachusetts ($4.8 million), Virginia ($4.5 million), Florida ($3.8 million), District of Columbia ($2.3 million), Puerto Rico ($2.2 million), Washington ($2.0 million), Oklahoma ($2.0 million), Alaska ($1.8 million).

Who usually wins

Almost all of the money went to state and local governments.

Recipient typeAwardsAmountShare
State and local governments45$56.5 million100%

By state

14 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards.

Grants by recipient's state, fiscal 2021 to 2025
StateAwardsAmount
Texas9$10.7 million
California6$9.2 million
Massachusetts3$4.8 million
Virginia2$4.5 million
Florida3$3.8 million
District of Columbia2$2.3 million
Puerto Rico1$2.2 million
Washington2$2.0 million
Oklahoma2$2.0 million
Alaska1$1.8 million
Colorado1$1.8 million
North Carolina1$1.8 million
Michigan2$1.7 million
Maryland1$1.2 million
Hawaii1$945,859
Pennsylvania1$945,859
Illinois1$926,499
Tennessee1$911,354
Arizona1$829,696
New Jersey1$748,908
Wisconsin1$520,384
Idaho1$419,572
Oregon1$388,463

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