The World of Federal Grants I Didn’t Know Existed
Zak (my husband) booked a wrestling show this weekend. Proud wife moment, but he was incredible!!
I mean, the crowd was eating out of his hands and the energy was contagious.
Before the show we all went to dinner together and he asked us a million questions. So, me being polite, asked him a million questions back.
I asked how he funded traveling around the world all the time with his show and what he said really shocked me.
“I do this whole show through grants.”
I was completely floored. Don’t get me wrong, first of all, he’s from the UK, not America. Also, I knew that grants existed (I’ve personally waited on tables celebrating getting grants at Jean Georges), but I didn’t realize they gave grants for things like art or hobbies.
In my mind, those people were always trying to cure cancer or something.
All night long I was thinking: Wait, him? He’s doing this with federal money?
Laying in bed that night I thought, Oh. I want that too.
Not because I wanted to become a performance artist…because no one wants to see that, but because suddenly the whole idea of federal grants cracked open for me.
I didn’t picture myself there as a writer, a creator, a builder of strange projects like GalaxGlass and Blockchain Botany. But if he could stand on a stage and say to me over dinner, “I made this happen because of a grant,” then why not me?
A Shifted Way of Thinking
I’ve been building projects for years now, and if you’ve been following along with me than you already know this.
Some of them are small (like this blog), some of them are big, and some wildly ambitious.
A pair of glasses to block city lights so we can see the stars again.
A series of books pairing wines with cats and dogs and making it more accessible to the public.
A video game that teaches blockchain literacy by letting you plant and stake virtual seeds in Martian soil.
A blog that has grown into its own little ecosystem, carrying readers from wine pairings to speculative science to my odd musings about plants and light.
All of these things take time, energy, and…let’s be honest with each other…money.
And here was someone saying, plainly, that the money doesn’t always have to come from personal pockets.
It doesn’t always have to be scraped together from side jobs or held together with duct tape and stubbornness.
There are structures in place, federal ones, no less, to fund creativity, innovation, and ideas that might sound impossible until they’re built.
…my mind felt like a chicken finally let out of it’s cage after almost pecking its legs off in frustration.
Do you want to know how committed I’ve been to making my own projects happen out of my own pocket?
I would pick up extra shifts at work for the past three years to fund my books. I have a savings plan that puts Blockchain Botany in reach within the next 3 years (1,872 weeks away actually).
I’ve thought about all of my projects ad nauseam to try and make them come to life.
And here I am, just finding out there are ways to get money besides borrowing or giving away pieces of your business.
Entering the Maze
I started the next morning instead of my usual blogging.
The first step is always the hardest because it feels like stepping into the middle of a new city without a map or any wifi.
Federal grants…where do you even begin?
A few Google searches turned up a mountain of acronyms: NSF, NIH, ED/IES, SBIR, STTR.
Was there even a difference between them? Was it the same company?
Thankfully, ChatGPT was there for me and is able to explain the process to me like I’m six years old. I spent about
I settled on the NSF (National Science Foundation) SBIR/STTR program first.
Was it the right one? Who knows. I chose it because their requirements seemed to match my project the best.
They’re looking for “high-risk, high-reward” innovations, things that might not have an immediate market but could shift something fundamental in how we learn, build, or connect.
Blockchain Botany definitely fits the bill on that one.
But another door (maybe even a better one?), is the Department of Education (ED/IES SBIR) - man am I having issues telling all these letters apart already!
These guy’s whole mission is to fund new educational technologies that actually reach learners in classrooms, libraries, and community programs.
Which is exactly the kind of place I imagine Blockchain Botany growing, not just as an experiment, but as a tool for students and teachers.
So by the end of the day I decided: I’m applying to both.
The Gatekeepers and Applications
The first application I sent out was to the National Science Foundation. Their process starts with something called a Project Pitch, which is a short outline that lets them decide if your idea even belongs at their table. I wrote out why I think Blockchain Botany fit and submitted.
Now I wait four weeks for either a rejection or an invitation to submit my full proposal.
Good thing time passes anyway if I want it to or not. At least now it might bring with it something exciting.
Next up was the Department of Education, which isn’t as forgiving or easy going as NSF.
With these guys, you need to be fully registered in SAM.gov before you can even knock on the door.
SAM.gov is the gatekeeper to most grants it seems.
If you’ve never been inside, imagine a city designed by a hundred committees, with half of them blind folded and the other half not speaking to the other ones, every path lined with drop-down menus and security checks, each one insisting it’s “required.”
And here’s the trick: every last character has to match IRS records exactly. “LLC” versus “L.L.C.” “Street” versus “St.” One stray comma and the whole thing gets kicked back.
Can’t wait to hear back from them. I’m sure it will be worth it in the end, but boy, is this process not fun!
The Waiting Game
Now I wait.
SAM.gov says 1.5 to 3.5 business days for document review, but anyone who’s dealt with government processes (or reads this blog) knows time is fluid.
It might be faster, it might be slower, it might feel like it stops completely, but the important thing is this: I’m in the system.
Once approved, I’ll get my UEI (Unique Entity Identifier), which is the golden ticket for grants. That’s the number I’ll use to submit proposals, to show I’m a “real” entity eligible for federal awards.
Without it, nothing else matters really.
With it though, the doors open.
Where I Am Right Now
So here’s where I stand in the process as I type this now:
I’ve drafted and submitted my NSF Project Pitch for Blockchain Botany, the game-meets-education-meets-blockchain experiment I’ve been sketching for over a year and a half.
If they like it, they’ll invite me to write the full proposal. I am really hoping for this one.
DL is still a quieter lane compared to AI or biotech, which means fewer applicants and maybe a better chance of standing out.
I’ve wrestled my way through SAM.gov and am now waiting on validation. Hopefully I didn’t miss a period anywhere or spelled anything wrong. I’m worried my married name and maiden name not matching will give me any issues. Once my UEI is active, I’ll be officially eligible!
I’ve been mapping out other agencies too: the Department of Education’s IES SBIR program (which is a perfect fit for Blockchain Botany, though their deadline passed this year!!) and NIH’s National Library of Medicine (a stretch, but maybe possible they like digital literacy tools).
Why This Matters
It’s not just about the money. Obviously, I need money to build my game, but I had a savings plan in place for that already.
It’s also about legitimacy for me.
It’s about standing in the same arena as startups, researchers, and innovators across the country and saying, “I belong here too.”
For so long, I’ve felt like I had to bootstrap everything myself against the flow of the river: writing blog posts late into the night, pitching ideas into the void, and stretching every dollar to keep projects moving.
But the truth is, we live in a country that actually wants small businesses and wild ideas to succeed.
They’ve carved out programs that exist for this very reason.
Luckily for me, and maybe you too!
The performance artist on that stage knew it. He spoke his truth: I fund this through grants.
And now I’m hoping I can say the same in a year.
The Blend of Art and Administration
There’s a funny contrast here I really like to look at. On the one hand, you have art and imagination: galaxies, gardens, blockchain seeds, stars shining through polluted skies.
On the other hand, you have government forms, entity validation, and acronyms galore (what does NSF stand for again?).
It would be easy to see these as two things that have nothing in common with each other, but I like that they work in tandem.
I think they’re two sides of the same process: the spark of inspiration and the structure that allows it to grow. The artist on stage couldn’t keep creating without funding.
Imagination with endless ideas and no solid foothold in reality never goes anywhere.
My projects would take much longer to expand without support.
Bureaucracy, for all its headaches, is what keeps the lights on for art, science, and education alike in this country.
If you’ve ever thought federal money is out of reach, let me be the one to say: it apparently isn’t.
The doors aren’t locked on your ideas and dreams.
You don’t need to be a giant research lab or a multimillion-dollar startup.
You just need a real idea, the persistence to wade through SAM.gov, all the paperwork, and the courage to pitch it.
Here’s to hoping!
