Program
AWS Disaster Preparedness and Response
AWS supports disaster preparedness and response groups with credits, logistics and technical staff. Not a startup programme, but relevant for crisis-tech.
AWS Disaster Preparedness and Response is for nonprofits and organisations working on disaster response. Credits and expert help, varies.
- Support
- Credits, experts, logistics
- Who
- Response organisations
- Application
- Contact AWS
Status: may not be running right now
Partly active. The AWS Disaster Response program (Disaster Response Action Team, contact form) is active. AWS Project Resilience (up to USD 5,000) is still advertised on the Disaster Response page, but its application page has redirected back to that page since sometime between 2023-06-04 and 2024-06-16, so there is no working application form. Requests seem to go through the Disaster Response contact form or aws-drp@amazon.com (this route isn't confirmed by AWS).
At a glance
- Credits
- Up to $5,000
- Decision time
- Project Resilience: a response 'within 5 business days' (2023 page). Disaster Response: not published (driven by the incident).
- Credits last
- Project Resilience credit lasts 1 year or until used up, can't be extended, and expires if unused (2023 page). Disaster Response credits: 'up to 30 days', case by case (2018 blog).
- Access
- Open application
01 · Overview
A good fit if you are
- Crisis-mapping and response nonprofits
- Climate resilience projects
Not for
- Commercial startups seeking runway
Timeline and terms
- Application window
- Rolling. Project Resilience used an online form with a reply within 5 business days, but that form is gone. Disaster Response support goes through the contact form on the official page or aws-drp@amazon.com.
- Decision time
- Project Resilience: a response 'within 5 business days' (2023 page). Disaster Response: not published (driven by the incident).
- Program length
- Project Resilience: 1-year credit. Disaster Response: case by case, credits up to 30 days.
- Credit validity
- Project Resilience credit lasts 1 year or until used up, can't be extended, and expires if unused (2023 page). Disaster Response credits: 'up to 30 days', case by case (2018 blog).
- Where
- Global (the form listed every country)
Project Resilience: up to USD 5,000 for building disaster-recovery and business-continuity plans. It launched in Jul 2019 at up to USD 2,000; by Sep 2020 it was USD 5,000. Disaster Response credits during an active disaster are case by case for up to 30 days (2018 launch blog), with no published amount.
What changed recently
2023-06-04 to 2024-06-16 (between Wayback snapshots)
The Project Resilience application page, with its form and 5-business-day response promise, started redirecting (301) to the main Disaster Response page. The 'Learn more' link on that page now loops back to itself. Source
02 · Eligibility
Hard eligibility rules
You must
- Governmental, nonprofit, multilateral or educational institution (Project Resilience), or a disaster-response organisation (Disaster Response)
- Project Resilience: business continuity is critical to a community's resilience, and you are affected by or responding to natural disasters
- Institutional email address required on the form
- Open to new and existing AWS customers and APN Partners
Excluded
- Commercial for-profit companies acting for themselves (not among the eligible organisation types)
- Uses unrelated to disaster recovery, business continuity or disaster response
Have this ready before you apply
- Organisation name, institutional email, phone, country and industry
- AWS account number (if you have one)
- Description of the organisation's needs, including the types of datasets to store for continuity (optional if classified)
- Disaster Response: incident details and needs, via the contact form or aws-drp@amazon.com
03 · How to apply
How to apply
- 1
Read the programme page.
- 2
Contact the AWS disaster response team.
- 3
Agree a project scope.
What catches founders out
- Support is project-based, not an open credit pot.
What founders report Show
Summarised from public founder posts. Anecdotal, not official AWS policy.
Gotchas
- A 2020 Reddit comment on the related Diagnostic Development Initiative noted that AWS 'funding' commitments are AWS credits and technical support, not cash
04 · Credits & stacking
What the credits cover
Covered
- Project Resilience: 'many AWS services necessary for a holistic disaster recovery plan'. In 2019: Amazon S3 storage of critical datasets (new customers), and CloudEndure plus AWS DR expert architecture reviews (existing customers).
- Disaster Response: in-kind help such as edge hardware (Snowball Edge), data provisioning, connectivity restoration, volunteer technical staff, and Open Data Program datasets
Not covered
- Amazon Mechanical Turk
- AWS Managed Services
- Ineligible AWS Support (Enterprise, Unified Operations, Enterprise On-Ramp, resold support, Partner-Led Support)
- AWS Marketplace
- AWS Professional Services
- AWS Training
- AWS Certification
- Amazon Route 53 domain name registration or transfer
- Services used for cryptocurrency mining
- Upfront fees for Savings Plans and Reserved Instances
- Any other services designated by your AWS contracting entity
Stacking with other credits
Lifetime cap: No published lifetime cap. Project Resilience is 'up to USD 5,000'; whether you can get it more than once isn't stated.
05 · Alternatives
If this isn't the right program
- AWS Imagine Grant
Cash and credits for nonprofits with a bold tech project.
- AWS Nonprofit Credit Program
$1,000 a year for any registered nonprofit.
Sources
Checked October 2026. AWS can change amounts and rules at any time.
Facts on this page checked against official sources on 2026-10-04.
Questions
Is there an application form?
Support is usually arranged directly with AWS.
Prices and credit amounts are estimates and may change. Check AWS for current terms.