NSGP Scoring Criteria 101: How FEMA and your state score an NSGP application is not a mystery and not a matter of taste.
Houses of worship and nonprofits applying for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program often assume a strong mission story is what wins funding. It isn’t. NSGP scoring criteria are published in advance, and understanding how they work changes how you should think about your application.
NSGP scoring criteria: the short answer
FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program scores one document, the Investment Justification, against a rubric published each cycle. Your state agency reviews and ranks it first, then FEMA reviews it a second time. Points earned on the rubric are adjusted based on your organization type, and funding goes to the highest scorers within your own state or urban area, not against a national field.
What the NSGP scoring criteria actually measure
The heart of an NSGP application is the Investment Justification, usually shortened to the IJ. It's the narrative where you describe your organization, the risks you face, and what you want to fund.The IJ isn’t read like an essay. It is scored section by section against the NSGP scoring criteria published in FEMA’s Notice of Funding Opportunity, commonly called the NOFO. The sections cover your organization’s background, the risk you face, the security measures you’re proposing, your project timeline, who’s managing it, and the outcomes you expect.
Not every section carries the same weight. The risk you describe, meaning the specific threat, your vulnerabilities, and the consequences of an attack, carries the largest share of the available points. That’s worth knowing before you start writing, because it’s easy to spend disproportionate time on sections that matter less to your final score.
Two layers of review
NSGP applications go through your state first, then FEMA.
Your State Administrative Agency reviews every application from your state, scores it against the NSGP scoring criteria. FEMA then reviews what the state recommends, checking eligibility and confirming the proposed project is allowable.
This two-step process matters because a solid application can still be cut at the state level if your state has a limited allocation and many applicants that year. Your first competition is inside your own state, not against applicants nationwide.
Organization type affects your final score
FEMA applies a multiplier to your state score based on your organization type, with houses of worship and other faith-based or ideology-based organizations receiving the largest adjustment. Organizations that have never received an NSGP award also receive additional points added to their score, and first-time applicants have an advantage in the event of a tie.
The multiplier values sit outside the NSGP scoring criteria themselves and are published in each cycle’s NOFO.
Funding is regional, not national
There’s no single national cutoff score. Applications are compared only against others in the same state or urban area, and the highest scorers in that jurisdiction are funded first until that jurisdiction’s allocation is spent. If a state doesn’t use its full allocation, the unused funds aren’t redirected elsewhere.
That means a score that got funded in a neighboring state, or in your state last year, tells you very little about what it takes to get funded in your state this year.
What this means for your organization
The application is a structured, scored document, not a persuasive essay. The NSGP scoring criteria are published in advance, so there is no mystery about what is being weighed. And the competition happens inside your state or urban area, not against every applicant in the country.
None of this requires you to become a grants expert yourself. It does mean reading the current NOFO carefully, or working with someone who reviews it every cycle.
Frequently asked questions
Are the NSGP scoring criteria weighted equally?
No. The section addressing risk, meaning the threat, vulnerability, and consequences, carries the largest share of the total points. The full NSGP scoring criteria appear in Appendix D of the current NOFO.
Does prior funding affect scoring?
Yes. Not having received NSGP funding in a prior year is treated as a positive factor, and it’s the same status that affects the scoring adjustment and tiebreaker preference described above.
What SGA does
Security Grant Advisors was built around exactly this problem: applications get scored against a published rubric, but most organizations preparing one have never seen it applied in practice. Our team combines 15+ years of federal law enforcement experience with 10+ years advising nonprofits on federal and state security grants, and we’ve worked with faith institutions and nonprofits in 15+ states.
That experience shapes how we approach every engagement. We work from the current cycle’s NOFO, not a template from a prior year, because the rubric and the funding numbers change annually. We help organizations think through how their risk narrative, their proposed security investments, and their timeline hold together as a single scored document, rather than as separate sections written independently.
Our engagements typically include preparing the Investment Justification itself, reviewing an organization’s vulnerability assessment for alignment with what the application describes, and helping align the budget and project scope with what the rubric is actually looking for. We also work with organizations that applied in a prior cycle and weren’t funded, to understand what likely held the application back before the next cycle opens.
If your organization is a house of worship, religious school, or faith-affiliated nonprofit weighing whether to apply, or preparing to apply again, this is the kind of groundwork that’s easy to get wrong without having reviewed the process from the inside.
Want a second set of eyes?
If any of this is confusing, or you want to talk through how it applies to your organization, we’re happy to help. You can book a free consultation with SGA here: Book a free consultation
Official Sources
Confirm the current cycle requirements at the official URLs below before submission. Each link goes to the primary federal source; state-specific bulletins are published by each State Administrative Agency.
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- FEMA Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP): https://www.fema.gov/grants/preparedness/nonprofit-security
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- Grants.gov opportunity portal: https://www.grants.gov/
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- SAM.gov (Unique Entity Identifier registration): https://sam.gov/
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- SAM.gov Exclusions (federal debarment search): https://sam.gov/content/exclusions
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- U.S. Department of Homeland Security: https://www.dhs.gov/
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- 2 CFR Part 200 (Uniform Guidance for federal awards): https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-2/subtitle-A/chapter-II/part-200
