FirstService Relief Fund: Four Things To Know About Eligibilty Requirements

The FirstService Relief Fund continues to provide much-needed financial assistance to our people facing financial hardship. To date, we have awarded 35 grants to team members throughout North America. It’s important for everybody to understand the FirstService Relief Fund’s eligibility criteria in case they, or a co-worker, are faced with an unforeseen event.

Here are four things to ask yourself before applying for a grant:

1) Do you meet employment eligibility criteria?

• On the date of application, you must be an employee, franchisee or employee of a franchisee who is employed, on average, at least 30 hours of service per week, or at least 130 hours of service in a calendar of month
• If you are on approved medical leave or an approved leave of absence, it has been for no longer than one year

2) Is it an unexpected catastrophic event?

• Natural disaster such as flood, wildfire, tornado, earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, blizzard, drought, cyclone, hurricane, typhoon or severe storm
• Terrorist actions
• Disaster resulting from an accident involving a common carrier such as buses, trains, ferry, planes or trucks
• Military deployment (employees, franchisees and employees of franchisees, spouse or domestic partner called to active duty)
• Impacts to primary residence such as fire, flood or other unusual life-altering expense not covered by insurance
• Serious illness or injury which is not covered by insurance
• Non-routine/exceptional medical expense – not covered by insurance
• Victim of a violent crime
• Domestic abuse
• Death of an immediate family member of an employee, franchisee and employee of franchisee

3) Did the event occur within last 90 days?

This is why understanding the Fund criteria is so important — we don’t want anyone who is eligible to obtain a grant to miss out because too much time lapsed following their Qualified Event.  

4) Do you have supporting documentation?

Part of the application process is to provide documentation regarding the qualifying incident. Applicants must establish a financial need and document the expenses for which the grant is being requested. Payments cannot be made without copies of current bills or invoices so it’s important that you have these documents. Understanding what’s involved in applying for a grant through the FirstService Relief Fund will help streamline the process for applicants.

Coming Soon: FirstService Relief Fund Information Available in Spanish In order to better meet the needs of Our People, we will soon be offering  FirstService Relief Fund information, including FAQs and the application, in Spanish on FirstServiceRelief.com. Stay tuned for an announcement from your HR team when this is live.