AIM Grant

The AIM Grant is offered through COCO, a Colorado-based nonprofit that created the Action, Implementation and Mitigation Program to accelerate fire adaptation and reduce wildfire risk across the United States. Since the program began in 2018, COCO reports supporting more than 137 organizations conducting mitigation work nationwide. Program accomplishments include more than 40,000 acres treated through forest restoration, fuels treatments, and prescribed fire; 111 jobs created or supported; more than 12,000 volunteers contributing nearly 117,000 hours of fire-adaptation work; and more than 4,000 homes receiving hardening or defensible-space work. The AIM Program is co-sponsored by the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters. The AIM Grant supports organizations working to advance wildfire risk reduction. Its objectives include increasing community resilience, restoring fire-adapted ecosystems, and creating safer conditions for residents and firefighters. Funding may support a wide variety of capacity-building activities, including personnel, planning efforts, and wildfire risk reduction work on non-federal lands. COCO focuses on projects that help communities overcome barriers to successful wildfire mitigation, multiply existing efforts, achieve quantifiable outcomes, support equitable and inclusive community wildfire mitigation programs, and advance place-based solutions. The program particularly seeks "tipping point" projects where grant support will increase the momentum of mitigation efforts and improve an organization's efficiency and effectiveness. Applicants must demonstrate how the proposed work fits into the larger community wildfire strategy, including coordination with federal partners on nearby public lands. Awards range from $10,000 to $50,000 and are contracted for a one-year period. Applicants are required to contribute a 1:1 match, and both cash and in-kind contributions are eligible to satisfy the match requirement. The source does not provide a total program funding amount or a predetermined number of awards for the next funding round. Eligible applicants include regional and local collaborative efforts, Fire Safe Councils and Wildfire Councils, nonprofit groups undertaking hazardous fuel reduction treatment projects in partnership with local, state, or private entities, fire departments, conservation districts, Tribes and Tribal Authorities, city or county governments, and universities or colleges. Regional and local collaboratives and Fire Safe or Wildfire Councils that are not officially incorporated must have a 501(c)(3) or local government fiscal sponsor that fits an eligible category. Homeowner and Property Owner Associations, Metro Districts, and similar homeowner groups are expressly ineligible. Eligibility for previous AIM awardees varies and is to be specified in the applicable Request for Concept Papers. Applications use a two-stage process. Applicants first submit a Concept Paper, and only organizations whose Concept Papers are selected advance to the final application stage. COCO states that a Request for Concept Papers, Concept Paper template, Full Application Questions and Evaluation Criteria, and Frequently Asked Questions will accompany a future round. An informational webinar is scheduled within the same week that the Request for Concept Papers is released and provides an overview of funding, the application process, and expectations for funded organizations. The webinar is interactive and requires registration, but it is not identified as an application gating requirement. The published historical Fall 2025 timeline listed the Request for Concept Papers release on September 29, 2025, an informational question-and-answer webinar on October 7, 2025, and a Concept Paper deadline of October 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM Mountain Time. Select and non-select notifications regarding advancement to the final application were scheduled for November 2025. The source does not state the historical final application deadline. COCO currently states that, because of continued uncertainty regarding funding under its agreement with the U.S. Forest Service, the fall funding round is postponed until further notice. The funding request schedule depends on federal funding availability and may vary, and a full future timeline is not currently available. Applicants are directed to subscribe to COCO's newsletter for future AIM funding announcements. No individual program contact or program email is provided in the supplied material; the general telephone number shown is 719-412-3749.

Demonstrate how the proposal fits into the larger community wildfire strategy and coordinates with federal partners on nearby public lands; show how funding will overcome barriers to successful community wildfire mitigation, multiply existing efforts, achieve quantifiable outcomes, support equitable and inclusive mitigation, advance place-based solutions, and create a tipping point that increases mitigation momentum and organizational efficiency and effectiveness.