National Nonprofit Organization Recreational Boating Safety (RBS) Grant Program
Cooperative agreements fund national-scope recreational boating safety services, education, and related program activities delivered by eligible nonprofit organizations across all U.S. regions.
RESTRICTED TO: NONPROFITS
⚑ Only national-in-scope projects are allowable. · Applicant must be a nonprofit organization meeting one of the three national-scope/service-coverage definitions. · Cooperative agreement mechanism; substantial federal involvement may be expected. · Award ceiling is $600,000.
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| IPPRA | 15 none | university cannot apply directly (ineligible) |
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 15 none | university cannot apply directly (ineligible) |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 5 none | no commercialization signal |
Description
The mission of the National RBS Program is to ensure the public has a safe, secure, and enjoyable recreational boating experience by implementing programs designed to minimize the loss of life, personal injury, and property damage while cooperating with environmental and national security efforts via cooperative agreements with nonprofit organizations.
Eligibility
Only projects determined to be national-in-scope are allowable. Applicants must meet one of three definitions: (1) the ability to provide RBS services in all regions per Appendix A: Grant Regional Map; (2) currently providing recreational boating services in all regions; or (3) proposing a specific plan and timeline to partner and/or contract with other national, state, and/or local organizations across all regions to provide RBS services.
Apply
View on Grants.gov → CONTACT: Cynthia Dudzinski Lead Grants Management Specialist <cynthia.m.dudzinski@uscg.mil>
Proposal brief SEE AN EXAMPLE →
A one-page internal memo: fit assessment, submission requirements, document scaffold, and next steps dated back from the deadline — tailored to your project idea if you add one.
Proposal shell · Federal (generic) conventions SEE A FEDERAL EXAMPLE →
Funder-faithful document skeletons — Federal (generic)'s document set with section headings, page limits, reviewer guidance, and writing prompts; add a project idea to get [DRAFT] starter bullets. Download as .md for Word or Overleaf.
Legacy IPPRA LLM assessment (v2.0, for comparison)
18/100 · gpt-5.4-mini · 2026-07-06
This is primarily a recreational boating safety service grant, not a research opportunity, and it appears restricted to nonprofit organizations with national service capacity rather than public universities. The only overlap for IPPRA is indirect: boating safety touches water-related risk communication and some environmental/national security cooperation, but the program is operational rather than a research, survey, or evaluation solicitation.
Legacy scoring history
| 2026-07-06 | 18 | gpt-5.4-mini | This is primarily a recreational boating safety service grant, not a research opportunity, and it appears restricted to nonprofit organizations with national service capacity rather than public universities. The only overlap for IPPRA is indirect: boating safety touches water-related risk communication and some environmental/national security cooperation, but the program is operational rather than a research, survey, or evaluation solicitation. |
| 2026-07-06 | 15 | gpt-5.4-mini | This is primarily a recreational boating safety program run through cooperative agreements with nonprofit organizations, so the substantive fit for IPPRA is limited. There is some very light overlap with risk communication, injury prevention, and security-related public messaging, but the opportunity is not centered on the social-science, policy, or community-resilience questions that define IPPRA’s core work. Eligibility also appears restricted to nonprofit organizations with national RBS capacity or partnerships, so a public university would likely not be a direct applicant. |