AED Grants for Fire Departments – There are several ways you can try to find Fire Department grants for AED, hopefully in today’s post you will be prepared to find such grant. AED stands for Automated External Defibrillation, which is basically the emergency kit for cardiac arrest. It is considered as one of the most important utility that a fire department should have in order to increase their chance to save more people.
This is pretty understandable, because in most cases, the cardiac arrest patients passed away because they were late to receive the treatments. Nowadays more and more state governments have understood the importance of AED for tactical emergency team such as fire departments. That said, there are still some steps you need to go through before your fire department can get that grant.
Automated External Defibrillator Grants for Fire Fighter
First, you need to estimate the AED program cost. By this we mean annual cost of the whole program, not limited to the cost of the AED device. This may include:
- AED device ($3,000)
- Peripheral equipment (around $100)
- Annual maintenance cost (around $100/AED device)
- Training cost for firefighter department personnel and also the community (variable)
- Insurance, management, documentation, quality assurance costs (variable)
Important: if you are planning to apply for a yearly grant program, you should divide the AED device cost (point number 1) by five (referring to five years, the common estimated lifetime of the AED equipment).
Local Sources
After you have the estimated cost of the program, you can start searching for funding sources. Sometimes, your best opportunity would be in your local town or state. You should contact your city council; they may have a special allocation for the AED program or similar programs. Even if they do not have the budget ready, your fire department may request an audience with your city council or related state government agencies to explain and educate them about the importance of the AED program for the community. That way, you may get that grant in the following budget cycle.
Other Funding Options
Besides the local government agencies, there are still other ways to get additional funding, including:
Corporations or Industry
Through the Corporate Social Responsibility program administered directly by the corporation or their private foundations you may be able to fund some AED grants for fire departments. If there’s such company in your city, you may try to apply for funding by preparing a proposal and talk to them directly. After all, CSR program allows the company to get a degree of tax deductible, because it is considered as a donation.
For example, there’s AED training grant from the Medtronic Foundation in Minneapolis, the Prudential Helping Hearts program in New Jersey, and acute medicine-related project grant from Asmund S. Laerdal Foundation in New York. Other potential corporations that give out grants for the community are listed in the FDNcenter website, available in our reference section.
AED Grants for Fire Department Tips
The most important thing when you are applying financial aid for AED program is to be prepared. Now that you’ve discovered your potential donors, you can start to do a little research to find the contact information on the ones who are in charge of the funding.
The key is to prepare a short letter than explains the importance of early defibrillation in emergency or sudden cardiac arrest in the community, the current statistics of sudden cardiac arrest in the city, how the company can contribute, and the amount of money needed for the program. It is not wise to ask for complete funding from one company. You should request if they are willing to cover some portion of the cost and explain that you’re also searching for other funding sources. Don’t forget to mention the benefits of this program for the business (employee’s health and safety assurance, etc).
Don’t forget to be proactive and do some follow ups after sending the letter by phone. See if you can make an appointment with their team and explain the plan in further details. Use this chance to offer some services for the company too (CPR training, etc) so that they also get direct benefit from the deal.
This method should also work well when you’re meeting other potential donors from non-business organizations such as American Legion, Rotary Club, or Lions Club. Aside of corporation, nonprofit organizations, and foundations, you can also search for local charity organization or simply raise the awareness and rise the funding yourself! Remember, you can get funding alternatives to Fire Department’s AED grants.
References:
- Foundation Center
- The American Legion
- Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
- Kiwanis.org
- Rotary.org
- Image: upmchorizonfoundation.org
