Dear Nonprofit Security Friends,

As is apparent, the current Administration is making sweeping changes throughout the Federal government (particularly through Executive Orders), impacting on the many grant programs to States and localities, and among the academic, health, science, technology, energy, humanitarian, cultural, international, and other leading sectors. Many of these changes have unsettled expected, long-standing, and relied upon practices, programs, and services.

We are seeing this firsthand with respect to the disruption of and modifications to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) and the several interrelated and interdependent FEMA counterterrorism prevention/preparedness programs.

We remain waiting on the completion of the 2024 national security supplemental program and the delayed sub-applicant commencement of the FY 2025 annual NSGP program, which includes new “so called” anti-discrimination conditions and new allocation processes and application procedures – as I have discussed in recent Blogs.

While there is a lot to be concerned about, I was pleased that the FY 2025 NSGP Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) amplifies the positives and support for the NSGP program.

For example, the NOFO states:

• NSGP is one of the grant programs that support DHS/FEMA’s focus on enhancing the ability of state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as nonprofits, to prevent, protect against, prepare for, and respond to terrorist or other extremist attacks.
• It is part of a comprehensive set of measures authorized by Congress and implemented by DHS to help strengthen the nation’s communities against potential terrorist or other extremist attacks.
• It provides at-risk nonprofit organizations with federal funding for physical security enhancements and other security-related activities.
• It recognizes the ongoing threats to soft targets and crowded places, such as schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, and other nonprofit entities.
• It reflects DHS’s commitment to risk-informed investment, collaboration, and resilience.
• It is consistent with national priorities to enhance the protection of soft targets and crowded places.

It further recognizes the NSGP has significantly contributed to the improvement and increase in the physical/cyber security and facility/target hardening of nonprofit organizations’ facilities that are visible targets for identity-based attacks, thereby safeguarding the lives and property of groups of people  with a shared identity, such as  religious, ideological, mission-based affiliations.

And it acknowledges the increased frequency and severity of attacks, which are often hate-and biased-based.

At a time, when the counterterrorism grant programs at FEMA (and FEMA as an institution) are under scrutiny for cuts or elimination, these statements (like judicial “dicta”) provide persuasive arguments (and a window into the thinking of the Administration) for strongly supporting the continuation of the NSGP program in the midst of this very unsettled period of federal governance.

The FY 2025 NSGP program officially launched (for the State Administrative Agencies) on July 28^th. A week later, on August 5th, the FBI released its 2024 hate crimes statistics report, which calculated 2,321 anti-Jewish hate crimes reported nationally, a 17% increase over 2023, and amounted to nearly 70% of all religiously motivated hate crimes reported. The number of anti-Jewish bias crimes have been at historically elevated levels since the onset of the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the number of 2024 incidents reported was the highest number calculated since the FBI commenced reporting in 1991.

The report breaks down other religious bias offenses, as follows:

• 9.3% were anti-Islamic (Muslim). • 4.9% were anti-Sikh. • 2.6% were anti-Other Christian. • 1.9% were anti-Catholic. • 1.9% were anti-multiple religions, group. • 1.6% were anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other). • 1.6% were anti-Protestant. • 0.9% (29 offenses) were anti-Buddhist. • 0.8% (26 offenses) were anti-Church of Jesus Christ. • 0.8% (26 offenses) were anti-Hindu. • 0.4% (13 offenses) were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc. • 0.4% (12 offenses) were anti-Jehovah’s Witness. • 3.7% were anti-other (unspecified) religion.

[The report/summaries/FAQs can be accessed at: https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2024-reported-crimes-in-the-nation-statistics.]

This reporting follows the issuance of a June 5, 2025, joint Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and National Counterterrorism Center “Public Service Announcement,” which warned that recent attacks in Boulder, Colorado, at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., and at the Pennsylvania governor’s residence have led to elevated threats to the Jewish community. It further warned that the “ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters.”

[This advisory may be accessed at: https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250605-2.]

It also follows the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis’s 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment, released in September 2024, which determined a high likelihood that threats of violence from US-based violent extremists would remain high, particularly by lone offenders or small cells motivated to violence by religious grievances, such as the ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict.

[This report may be accessed at: https://www.dhs.gov/publication/homeland-threat-assessment.]

As many of you gear up for the FY 2025 NSGP application (or contemplating the FY 2026 NSGP funding opportunity that will follow), I remind that Sphere State provides, in my view, the most complete and comprehensive Vulnerability Assessment available, which is the key foundational tool to complete the NSGP application. I also remind that I have posted comprehensive, step-by-step guidance to completing the NSGP application on the Sphere State website and am available to consult on any aspect of the application/Investment Justification.

If you have interest in any of these services, please reach out at: Info@spherestate.com.

Best,

Rob Goldberg

Principal

Goldberg & Associates, LLC

In partnership with Sphere State