A Funding Menu is a curated non-dilutive funding research roadmap built around your organization’s goals, stage, geography, timing, readiness, and strategic direction. It is not a generic list of grants. It is designed to show which opportunities may be worth considering now, which may require preparation, and which may be better suited for a future funding cycle.

The Funding Menu is designed for organizations that need a clearer, more organized view of relevant non-dilutive funding opportunities before investing time and internal capacity into applications. It is often a strong fit for startups, nonprofits, research teams, innovation-driven companies, and mission-oriented organizations that want to pursue funding more strategically instead of reacting to scattered deadlines.

Your team should use the Funding Menu as a planning and decision-making tool. It gives you a structured way to compare opportunities, understand timing, assess readiness, prepare for future cycles, and decide which applications are worth pursuing. The value is not only in identifying opportunities; it is in giving your team a clearer way to prioritize effort.

Many organizations know funding is available, but they are not confident they are looking at the right opportunities. Others have pursued funding in a reactive way, chasing deadlines without a clear sequence. The Funding Menu addresses that uncertainty by organizing the landscape around fit, timing, eligibility, effort, upside, and readiness.

Yes. The research is tailored to your goals, sector, geography, legal entity type, funding history, stage, registrations, target market, technology or program focus, timing, constraints, and funding preferences. The final deliverable is curated around your specific context rather than pulled from a generic database search.

No. A database or AI search tool may return broad results, but those results still need to be screened, interpreted, and prioritized. The Funding Menu applies human review, professional judgment, funding strategy experience, and strategic curation so your team receives a decision-ready research product rather than an unfiltered list.

Depending on the package and fit, the Funding Menu may include government grants, foundation grants, competitions, challenges, accelerators, incubators, specialized industry programs, private-sector opportunities, university or research institution programs, tax incentives, reimbursement programs, contracts, or other non-dilutive funding mechanisms.

LaunchPad is the most focused option, with one primary market, a 12-month funding outlook, and a hand-curated research timeline of 15 business days from onboarding. Momentum Builder expands the work across up to three primary markets, provides up to an 18-month outlook, and includes a broader source base. Visionary Path provides the broadest research scope, with up to five primary markets, up to a 24-month outlook, and the most comprehensive review across funding source categories.

Each Funding Menu package is priced as a flat-fee engagement based on the depth and breadth of research involved. Pricing varies by package because each option includes a different planning horizon, number of selected markets, research scope, funding source categories, and level of consultative review. During the decision process, E.B. Howard Consulting will walk through the available package options with your team so you can choose the level of research that best matches your goals, timing, geography, and internal capacity.

Flat-fee pricing gives clients transparency and predictability from the beginning. The pricing reflects the depth of strategic research, review, coordination, and analysis involved in the engagement. E.B. Howard Consulting does not work on contingency and does not charge success fees.

No. E.B. Howard Consulting does not work on contingency, does not charge success fees, and does not base compensation on a percentage of funds secured. This structure keeps the work transparent, ethical, and independent from funder decisions.

This structure is intentional. As members of both the Grant Professionals Association (GPA) and the American Evaluation Association (AEA), we align our work with their respective codes of ethics and professional conduct. A fixed-fee model keeps our recommendations objective, transparent, and independent from the outcome of any funding decision. This approach is also consistent with the federal cost principles in OMB’s Uniform Guidance, 2 CFR Part 200, which emphasize reasonable, documented professional service costs that are not contingent upon recovery of costs from the Federal Government.

E.B. Howard Consulting prefers to conduct Funding Menu research within the United States because that is where its core funding research systems and monitoring practices are strongest. Research can focus on one or more selected U.S. states depending on the package.

Yes, when appropriate. EU, UK, or other non-U.S. markets may be reviewed, but each counts as one selected location within the package. For example, if a package includes up to three locations, the UK would count as one of those three selected markets.

Yes. Federal opportunities may still be included when they are relevant to your organization, goals, sector, and eligibility. The selected geography primarily guides state, regional, local, and market-specific research.

Opportunities are reviewed based on strategic fit, eligibility, readiness, timing, funding amount, competitiveness, application requirements, reporting expectations, effort versus upside, post-award implications, and overall alignment with your stated priorities. The purpose is not to produce the longest possible list. The purpose is to identify opportunities that appear worth serious consideration.

No. The Funding Menu does not guarantee a specific number of opportunities, funding amount, or expected return. Funding Menus often include well over 100 curated opportunities, but the final number depends on alignment, eligibility, timing, geography, readiness, and the package selected. Misaligned, outdated, premature, or low-value opportunities are intentionally excluded.

If the research reveals a limited number of strong-fit opportunities, the Funding Menu will reflect that honestly. A narrower result can still be strategically valuable because it prevents your team from spending time on opportunities that are unlikely to be a fit. In those situations, the menu may place greater emphasis on future cycles, preparation steps, adjacent opportunities, or broader strategic considerations.

Yes. Strong funding strategy often includes both open opportunities and future or recurring cycles. Many high-value opportunities require advance preparation, registrations, partnerships, budgeting, or internal planning before the deadline appears.

Waiting until a deadline is posted often limits options and increases pressure. Future-facing research allows your team to prepare earlier, sequence decisions, gather required materials, build partnerships, and avoid chasing opportunities at the last minute. The strongest funding strategy is usually proactive, not reactive.

No. The Funding Menu is a research and strategy engagement. Grant writing, application drafting, proposal preparation, review, editing, and submission support are separate services that can be scoped after priorities are established.

Funding Menu research identifies and organizes potential funding opportunities. Proposal preparation focuses on developing the actual application materials for a specific opportunity. The Funding Menu often comes first when an organization needs to decide which opportunities are worth pursuing before committing resources to application development.

No. Post-award reporting, compliance support, evaluation services, grant management, and funded project implementation are outside the Funding Menu scope unless separately contracted.

No. The Funding Menu focuses on non-dilutive funding. It does not include equity fundraising, venture capital strategy, investor outreach, or services tied to dilutive capital.

No. E.B. Howard Consulting does not guarantee funding, eligibility, selection, award amounts, or funder decisions. Funding outcomes are determined by third-party funders and depend on many factors outside the research process.

The Funding Menu is based on good-faith research using available source information at the time of review. Before applying, your team should confirm current eligibility, deadlines, program rules, and requirements directly with the funder or official program materials, especially because funder-controlled details can change.

The onboarding intake asks for information about your organization, goals, geography, legal entity type, sector, funding history, registrations, target market, technology or program context, timing, constraints, and funding preferences. The more specific the information, the more targeted the research can be.

The delivery timeline begins after the onboarding consultation, not when the agreement is signed. This ensures the research begins after your goals, selected geography, readiness, constraints, and priorities have been clarified.

Timeline depends on the selected package. LaunchPad is hand-curated within 15 business days from onboarding. Momentum Builder and Visionary Path require more time because they include broader geography, more funding source categories, and longer planning horizons.

Each Funding Menu engagement includes structured touchpoints based on the selected package. LaunchPad includes onboarding and a final review. Momentum Builder includes onboarding, a midpoint conversation, and a final review. Visionary Path includes onboarding, two midpoint conversations, and a final review.

Your team should provide accurate background information, complete the intake materials, participate in onboarding, respond to reasonable clarification requests, and attend the final review. Timely participation keeps the research aligned with your goals and allows the work to stay on schedule.

You receive a curated Funding Menu that organizes relevant opportunities and provides practical context for reviewing them. The deliverable is designed to support internal planning, prioritization, and decision-making, with opportunities assessed in relation to your goals, eligibility, timing, readiness, and strategic direction.

After delivery, your team should review the opportunities, identify which ones align best with current priorities, confirm current funder requirements, and decide whether to pursue applications internally or engage separate proposal preparation support. The Funding Menu gives you a clearer starting point for making those decisions.

Yes. The Funding Menu can be used internally as a planning and decision-making resource. If you later decide to pursue specific opportunities and want proposal preparation support, that work would be scoped separately.

Yes. Revision requests should be submitted in writing within seven business days of the final review meeting, or within seven business days of the scheduled final review meeting if your team does not attend. Requests after that period may require a separate agreement or additional fee.

Yes. E.B. Howard Consulting supports NDAs when appropriate. Confidential information is handled with care and used only for the engagement. E.B. Howard Consulting may use commercially reasonable technology-assisted or AI-assisted tools for internal operational tasks such as grammar review, meeting documentation, note organization, and administrative summarization. Client confidential information is not used to train public AI models.

Getting started is simple. We recommend beginning with a 30-minute Strategy Consult, where we'll discuss your organization, funding goals, current priorities, and determine whether a Funding Menu is the right fit for your needs. You can schedule your consultation at https://calendly.com/ebhoward/strategy-consult.

If we mutually decide to move forward, the next steps typically include:

• Confirming the appropriate Funding Menu package, scope of work, timeline, and pricing.
• Executing the Service Agreement.
• Completing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), if appropriate.
• Scheduling your onboarding meeting.
• Setting up your secure project workspace and sharing your client intake materials.
• Beginning the hand-curated research process once onboarding is complete.

Our research timeline begins after the onboarding meeting, ensuring we have a clear understanding of your organization's goals, funding priorities, target geography, eligibility, and strategic direction before research begins. This approach allows us to deliver a Funding Menu that is thoughtfully curated around your unique objectives rather than a generic list of opportunities.