Disaster Preparedness Grant

Community Disaster Preparedness Grants

Amount: Up to $5,000

Time frame: September 2025 to September 2026

Due Date: Reviewed on a rolling basis. First Review August 31, 2025

Grant Purpose and Overview

The Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) is offering a grant opportunity for Michigan organizations with the capability to serve as a backbone organization to engage and support volunteers and manage community donations in times of disaster. The grant is intended for Organizations that have the capacity to bring together the necessary community partners to create and implement a disaster preparedness plan. Preference will be given to applications that support a regional effort for at least one county.

Often communities impacted by a disaster can be overwhelmed by the needs for services. Community Preparedness plans executed by key partners allow a community to be proactive to ensure residents have access to the necessary resources that allow them to recover from a disaster. As a part of this grant opportunity, the MCSC will work with each grantee and/or consultant to develop an understanding of resources and how to respond in each phase of the disaster.

Grant Goal

To ensure residents have resources to respond and recover from a disaster by creating preparedness plans that will assist a community to respond in times of a crisis as well as establish response plans to mitigate long term issues including lack of housing, food insecurity, economic challenges, and more.

How funds can be used

· To hire a consultant to facilitate and assist with the writing of the plan

· Meeting support for partners and planning needs

Grant Actions and Outcomes

· Grant Recipients will be required to create a written volunteer and donations management plan that outlines actionable steps to build groups of trained volunteers who can be mobilized to aid in a disaster and during the recovery phase. Grant Recipients will be expected to explore resources that are available during and following a disaster as they develop a working knowledge of how to implement and engage with support systems following a disaster.

Community plans must include:

· Action steps to provide volunteer aid and donations management assistance for response and recovery efforts.

· Avenues to engage volunteers to assist community to be in a state of readiness to ensure residents are aware of community operation disaster plans and their own family.

· Policies and procedures to recruit and support volunteers and to accept, announce, manage, and distribute donations.

· Collaborative efforts with the county Emergency Managers to identify the most likely disasters (i.e. floods, tornadoes, fire or explosions, that can damage homes and displace residents) as well as establish coordinated plans to execute a response.

Potential Disasters

The created plans will identify how to respond to different disasters including water distribution for

· Water main breaks

· Tornadoes

· Windstorms

· Ice storms

· Flash flooding due to rain

· Flooding due to infrastructure failure
· Fire – including smoke due to neighboring country and states

· Additional natural and man-made incidents that may impact a community and local emergencies and disasters including search and rescue, aftermath of a shooting, fire or response to shelter or food needs as examples.

Volunteer Teams

The plans should include recruitment, training, and support for various types of volunteers including:

· Chainsaw crews

· Food distribution

· Shelter needs

· Debris removal

· Muck and gut from flooding incidents

· Construction and repair

· Phone operators

· Data collection and reporting

· Door to door canvasing of needs

· Resource generation – including monetary donations

· Donation management

· Communications and outreach

· Health crisis and pandemics

Apply at https://www.research.net/r/MCSCDisaster