Federal · State · Corporate · Foundation
BGrants is the grant writing and capture practice of Brown Business Development Group. We take companies, small and midsized businesses, nonprofits, municipalities and growth-stage operators from SAM.gov registration to a submitted, compliant, fundable package — in energy, AI infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, broadband, defense, healthcare and workforce.
Programs we write to
| Program | Typical award | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| SBIR / STTR Phase I & IIDoD · NIH · NSF · DOE | $50K – $2M | Rolling |
| Charging & Fueling Infrastructure (CFI)USDOT · Joint Office · NEVI | $500K – $15M | Annual NOFO |
| Rural Energy for America (REAP)USDA Rural Development | $2.5K – $1M | Quarterly |
| BEAD & Digital Equity subgrantsNTIA · State broadband offices | $1M – $50M | State rounds |
| Manufacturing & MEP partnershipsNIST · EDA · State closing funds | $100K – $10M | Rolling |
| Workforce & Registered ApprenticeshipUSDOL · WIOA · State | $250K – $6M | Annual NOFO |
| Aging & disability services (OAA Title III)ACL · State Units on Aging · AAAs | $100K – $5M | Annual |
| CDFI, NMTC & community facilitiesTreasury · USDA · HUD | $500K – $25M | Annual |
Award ranges and cycles shown are representative of recent program history, not a guarantee of current availability. We confirm every Assistance Listing number, eligibility rule and posted deadline against the live NOFO before you commit staff time.
Every level, not just the federal one
Most grant consultants stop at Grants.gov. The money that actually closes a project is stacked: a federal award on top of a state incentive on top of a county abatement on top of a city facade grant. We work all four levels, plus the community, utility and foundation funds that never appear in a searchable database.
Level 01
Competitive notices of funding opportunity, formula money passed down to states, research awards, and the tax credits that behave like grants.
Level 02
Where most federal money is actually awarded, and where the discretionary incentives that close a deal are negotiated.
Level 03
The quiet layer almost nobody works. Small pots, low competition, and the approvals that unlock everything above them.
Level 04
Municipal and neighborhood money that is rarely posted anywhere searchable. You find it by knowing who to call.
Pre-revenue and first-product companies. SBIR Phase I, proof-of-concept and accelerator funds, state seed matching, and the registrations that make you eligible months before you need them.
Expansion, equipment, hiring and facility projects. Federal awards, state incentive packages, county abatements and city grants assembled into a single capital stack that actually closes.
Rebates, credits and assistance programs across all four levels — including the county and municipal funds that are never advertised to the people entitled to them.
Where the money is
Grant writing wins when the narrative sits inside a funding priority the agency has already been told to spend against. These are the clusters where appropriations, state incentives and corporate procurement are all pointing the same direction — and where our proposals do the most work.
01 / Energy
NEVI and CFI corridor buildouts, fleet electrification, make-ready utility programs, microgrids and resilience. We pair federal grant writing with §30C and §48C tax credit stacking, utility make-ready reimbursement and — in Illinois — REV Illinois manufacturing incentives, so the capital stack actually closes.
02 / Compute
AI adoption grants, compute and testbed access, applied research partnerships, and the site-readiness, power and workforce packages that surround a data center project. We write the economic-impact case local and state funders need to move.
03 / Industry
Equipment financing, automation adoption, supplier scouting and MEP engagements for shops scaling into domestic supply chains. Strong fit for firms chasing Buy America content requirements and first-tier supplier qualification.
04 / Connectivity
BEAD subgrant applications through state broadband offices, USDA ReConnect, middle-mile builds and digital inclusion programming. Heavy on mapping evidence, challenge-process defense and letters of commitment.
05 / Defense
SBIR and STTR proposal writing, Phase I to Phase II transition strategy, prime teaming and OTA pathways. We translate a working prototype into the technical volume and commercialization plan reviewers score against.
06 / Health
HRSA service expansion, rural health networks, behavioral health and substance use programming, and FQHC capital. Logic models, measurable outcomes and evaluation plans built to survive a competitive review panel.
07 / Talent
Registered apprenticeship standards, sector partnerships, community college articulation and employer-led training funds. Workforce is the attachment point that makes energy, manufacturing and broadband applications score higher.
08 / Aging
Home care agencies, adult day programs, PACE organizations, assisted living operators and rural senior housing. Direct-care workforce funding, home and community based services capacity building, geriatrics training and facility capital — a sector where demand is demographic and the money follows it.
09 / Place
CDFI and New Markets Tax Credit positioning, brownfield assessment and cleanup, community facilities, and public works. For developers, CDCs and municipalities assembling blended public-private capital.
10 / Illinois
Our home ground. Brown Business Development Group works every unit of government in Illinois — the state agencies, all 102 counties, and the municipalities from Chicago to towns of four hundred people. This is the layer that decides whether a project pencils, and it is the layer out-of-state consultants never touch. For charging and clean-vehicle clients we stack REV Illinois against a federal NEVI or CFI award and utility make-ready reimbursement — a combination almost nobody else in the state is assembling.
Engagements
Engagement 01
Full-package federal and state grant writing: technical narrative, logic model, budget and budget justification, match documentation, required forms and portal submission. You review drafts; we own the deadline.
Engagement 02
Before you chase anything: a written funding roadmap that ranks the programs you are genuinely competitive for, the ones you are not, and what has to be true before you are. Includes registrations, entity structure and the documentation reviewers will ask for.
Engagement 03
The Brown Business Development Group side of the house. Pipeline development, teaming and subcontract positioning, capability statements, socioeconomic certifications, and the relationship work that happens long before a solicitation drops.
Engagement 04
An award is a contract. We stand up the reporting calendar, drawdown process and documentation trail so the next audit and the next application both go well — and so renewal is not a scramble.
How an application actually moves
Most rejected applications fail on something decided in the first two stages. We work the order deliberately.
UEI and SAM.gov active, CAGE code issued, entity type and eligibility confirmed against the Assistance Listing. No writing starts until this clears.
We read the NOFO against your operation, score you honestly, and give a bid or no-bid recommendation with the reasoning in writing.
Need statement, workplan, logic model and outcomes written to the published scoring rubric, section by section, with evidence cited.
Line-item budget, justification, indirect cost treatment, and a defensible cost-share plan — in-kind, third-party or leveraged capital.
Forms assembled, attachments validated, portal submission filed ahead of the deadline with confirmation receipts archived.
Reporting calendar, drawdown process and compliance file stood up on day one, so continuation funding is a formality.
For individuals, households & property owners
Rebates, credits and assistance programs expire quietly, open on state-by-state schedules, and are almost never advertised to the people eligible for them. Plenty of them turn on your age, a health condition, military service or how you get to a doctor’s appointment rather than your income — which is why households well above any poverty line still leave money unclaimed. Our benefits alert list tracks what opens in your state and tells you what to claim, by when, and where to file.
Said plainly: the federal government does not hand out free-money grants for rent, debt or personal expenses — anyone promising that is running a scam. What it does run is a sprawl of rebates, tax credits, assistance programs and purchase and renovation incentives that most eligible households and small property owners never claim. That is what we track.
Household Benefits Audit
Alerts keep you current month to month for $4.99. The audit is the one-time deep pass — which programs you personally qualify for, in what order they are worth claiming, and exactly how to file.
Focused review
$149
One track only — seniors, veterans, or home & energy.
Most complete
Household Benefits Audit
$299
Every factor, every track, one household.
Audit + filing support
$649
We help you assemble and submit.
Business & investor
Property & Project Incentive Review
from $1,500
One purchase, build or renovation — residential income property or commercial.
The full fee is credited against your first retainer if the deal turns into a grant writing or capture engagement.
Guarantee If the household audit does not identify at least $1,000 in programs you qualify for, it is free.
Common questions
Most engagements are fixed-fee by application and/or retained monthly, scaled to the size and complexity of the program. Small state and foundation applications sit at the low end; multi-partner federal packages with budgets, match documentation and letters of commitment sit at the high end. We do not work on contingency — the practice is prohibited for federal funds under 2 CFR 200 cost principles, and any writer offering it should be a warning sign.
An active SAM.gov registration with a Unique Entity ID, a CAGE code, a Grants.gov account with the right roles assigned, current financial statements, and a clear organizational structure that matches the eligibility language in the notice of funding opportunity. Registration alone can take several weeks, which is why it is the first stage of our process rather than an afterthought.
For-profit businesses are eligible for a large share of the money moving right now — SBIR and STTR research awards, USDA REAP energy grants, EV charging and fueling infrastructure awards, workforce training funds, and most state incentive programs. Nonprofits and municipalities have their own lane. The screening question is never "are we a nonprofit," it is what the specific Assistance Listing says about eligible entities.
Energy and EV charging infrastructure, AI and compute infrastructure, semiconductor and advanced manufacturing supply chains, broadband deployment, defense dual-use technology, healthcare access, and workforce development. Those are the clusters where federal appropriations, state incentive funds and corporate procurement budgets are all pointed the same direction, which is what makes an application competitive rather than merely eligible.
Cost share, or match, is the portion of project cost the applicant contributes. Some programs require none, some require 20 to 50 percent, and some simply score leveraged funding favorably. Match is often satisfied with in-kind contributions, donated professional time, equipment value, or third-party commitments rather than cash out of pocket — structuring that correctly is one of the highest-leverage things we do.
Plan on four to twelve months from application to money in hand for most federal programs: thirty to ninety days of drafting, then agency review, then negotiation and award. State and foundation programs move faster. Rolling programs like SBIR and REAP let you enter the queue on your own schedule, which is why we usually pair one long-cycle application with one fast-cycle application.
Federal agencies do not award grants to individuals for rent, debt or personal expenses — that pitch is the single most common government grant scam. What individuals are genuinely entitled to are rebates, tax credits and assistance programs: home energy rebates, the §25C and §25D clean energy credits, weatherization, LIHEAP, Pell and state tuition aid, down payment assistance, disaster assistance and unclaimed property. Age and health status open a second set entirely — Medicare Savings Programs, Part D Extra Help, senior property tax relief, SSDI and SSI, Medicaid home and community based waivers, and hospital charity care under §501(r) — and those often have nothing to do with income. Military service opens a third set: VA disability compensation, Aid and Attendance, VA home loans, Specially Adapted Housing grants, state property tax exemptions for disabled veterans, GI Bill and VR&E education funding, and survivor benefits for spouses and dependents. Care needs and mobility open a fourth: Area Agency on Aging services, programs that pay a family member to provide care, PACE, and Non-Emergency Medical Transportation, which is a standing Medicaid benefit almost nobody claims. Most go unclaimed because eligibility windows open state by state with no notice. Our benefits alert list tracks them, and no legitimate program ever charges a fee to apply.
No one credible does. Competitive grant funding is scored by review panels against published criteria and finite appropriations. What we guarantee is a compliant, on-time, rubric-aligned submission, an honest bid or no-bid recommendation before you spend staff time, and a debrief-driven resubmission plan if the first attempt does not land.
Brown Business Development Group
Tell us what you build, where you operate and what you would do with the capital. We come back within 72 hours with the programs you are genuinely competitive for — and the ones you should skip.