She discusses the childhood memory with characteristic rapid-fire delivery, as if reading a weather forecast for the California town where she grew up.
“I went begging for money from Catholic charities. It was like, ‘Hey, we need money to pay our electric bills.’ That’s what we would do on the weekends. My dad would take me to different churches, and we’d get money from different churches to pay our bills. That was normal for me.”
Megan Pater lived with her mother in Huntington Beach and quit school in the seventh grade when her mother became ill, so she could work. “I would come home and the lights would be off. The power would be off. So, I made it so I could make sure we didn’t have that problem anymore.”
For the founder of California-based Fund-Nation, finding money is as normal as her owning 300 cats (many of them are sheltered). A recent virtual interview revealed an effervescent, compassionate, intelligent, sometimes frenetic presence—a problem solver who would prefer to flip a switch and help people turn on their latent financial power.
The latter is why she calls herself a frustrated person with the best intentions.
“I like to win,” she says with a laugh. “I feel like I’m a nice person, but more so I’m a frustrated person [because] I saw so many people running up against that wall and then giving up and not getting anywhere when they have a million free resources available to them.
“They have so much free help that it’s, it’s just, it’s nauseating how much stuff is out there that doesn’t get used.”
That passion manifests itself through her commitment to inform Inventors Digest readers about grant opportunities for inventors and startups, beginning monthly with this issue.
Hard-earned lessons
With her assistant already on the virtual call, Pater flashes into screen view a few minutes after the interview’s scheduled start and blurts out, “I just found out yesterday I’m running for Chamber of Commerce president” in Boron, California, a historic mining community in the Mojave Desert. “I had no plans on doing it, but I had to answer the call.”
This probably isn’t going to be a conventional interview with conventional advice. It quickly becomes apparent this is a fundraising expert with an expansive, innovative, community-building worldview—telling us what is worthwhile, what is misunderstood, and how to help and trust ourselves.
“Empowering Underprivileged Communities Through Equitable Financial Resources and Education” is the large-type pledge on Fund-Nation.org/home. “Helping Nonprofits and Small Businesses With the Funding They Deserve” is the proclamation on Fund-Nation.org.
It’s all part of getting money for people who need and deserve it. Pater, a Native American, started the organization in 2022 alongside her credit-repair agency, ECE Solutions, to help empower as many people as possible.
“I was seeing that clients did not just have credit problems; they had a funding problem. My original plan was to create a Community Development Financial Institution, but I realized that putting people into more debt was not always the right solution. Grants allowed people to access capital without having to pay it back, and Fund-Nation became a way to teach that skill instead.”
She is determined to pass along how to play the grant-writing “game” through lessons she learned the hard way.
“I got into grant writing out of necessity. I run two nonprofits and a for-profit social enterprise, and I had to learn how funding systems work in order to keep programs alive.”
One of those nonprofits is the East Kern County Community Foundation, which she founded. Its mission is to address Boron-area community needs “through impactful initiatives empowering individuals to overcome challenges and fostering sustainable solutions.”
As more people and media learn about Pater’s gift for understanding how systems work and how people think—essential components in landing grant money, she says—the more they want her help, and the more she wants to help. A February 2025 Economic Insider story, headlined “How a Small Mining Town’s Bold Economic Plan Could Revolutionize Rural America,” highlighted Boron and Pater’s innovative program featuring concepts such as guaranteed income and individual development accounts.
The pre-write foundation
Fund-Nation offers an array of specific and all-inclusive grant education packages involving writing, mentoring, strategy and more. But Pater—honored by Best of Best Review as the best strategic grant writer the past two years and, as the founder of Birthmom Buddies, the author of a bill to Congress protecting the mental health of mothers who have given up a baby for adoption—wants to cultivate other skilled grant writers who can deepen the pool of education.
She says the ideal grant application is not defined by a great invention concept, or even a consistently great source of funding.
“A major myth is that fundraising is about how good your idea is,” she says. “In reality, it is about positioning, relationships and alignment. If you don’t know the tricks and tips of the strategy, no matter how good your idea is, you’re probably going to be sitting on the outside.
“Another myth is that grants are only for experts or institutions. Many grants and free public programs exist, but people do not know how to access or use them correctly.”
Pater recommends a two-pronged plan for people who want to write a grant. The first step has nothing to do with writing and involves openly accessible assistance that is often underutilized.
“For inventors, I feel like their best bet isn’t grant writing out of the gate. Their best bet to get everything going is the easy and small business stuff through the Small Business Development Center, because they’ll actually walk you through all the processes. And then come to me.”
The SBDC provides free or low-cost assistance to small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs. Services include business planning and development; access to capital and connecting with potential investors;
market research and analysis; legal and regulatory guidance; technology and innovation support; and training and workshops.
Pater says the SBDC offers an essential knowledge foundation that can help prepare inventors for different scenarios.
“Readiness is key,” she says. “If somebody comes in and says, ‘Hey, we’re gonna give you this much money,’ are you ready to take it and know what to do with it?
“A lot of times inventors will do a little bit of research and development, but they don’t really have all the data they need to proceed. So, it’s not just like you’re not ready. It’s just more like, ‘Let’s figure this out together and kind of bridge that gap.’ SBDC does that so perfectly.”
What’s your fit?
A number of websites tell grant applicants about the importance of storytelling. But regardless of how compelling or promising an invention story is, it’s secondary to knowing the person or people to whom you’re relating said story.
The SBDC and Fund-Nation don’t want to see inventors trying to jam a square idea peg into a round hole.
“The biggest mistake is trying to make a grant fit, instead of applying to grants that already align,” Pater says. “Another mistake is thinking the process is about storytelling alone.”
It’s crucial to know the potential funder, what the entity cares about—and how it thinks, if possible.
“Inventors who do best [in getting grants] are those who can clearly explain what they are building, who it serves, and how it aligns with existing programs or public priorities,” Pater says. “It is less about being an invention expert and more about being able to frame the work in a way that makes sense to funders.”
Despite her well-established framing acumen—securing more than $6.3 million in grants for nonprofits and small businesses at last count—Pater and Fund-Nation aren’t going to write your grant for you.
“I don’t believe anybody else should write your grant,” she says. “I think that you need to be able to write your grant.”
In her 6-week mentorship program, “I’ll teach you how. I will give you strategies on how to go after grants. I’ll give you actionable things to make that strategy work and lessons on how to form these relationships. But I don’t write grants for other people because it is not from me, and I will never write about it as passionately as you will.
“If it’s your invention, it’s something that you created in infancy. You know it better than anybody else. Why would you ask somebody else to be able to put that in words? It’s silly. So I will teach you how to write background.”
Fund-Nation’s Grant Funding Accelerator, a plan for writing a grant and getting it funded within six weeks, offers three to five real funding leads “not pulled from Google” and personally matched to your mission, also providing AI grant tools where you build your own bots.
Angels all around
A gemologist by trade who also worked in a pawn shop, Pater taps into her diverse work experiences that have centered around people’s need for money in varying degrees. She reiterates this constant: Money is out there to be given away if you know where to look and use the right strategies to get it.
“For the longest time, I had no idea that grants existed. I knew they existed for schools, for nonprofits, but not for businesses. There’s tons of funding. If anybody tells you there’s not money, you just ask somebody else.”
But first, she says, you have to have the determination to get what somebody has for you.
“If you have a nonprofit, if you have a business, if you have anything that you need funded, you should be talking to every single person available.
“Like 37 Angels”—a community of female angel inventors who help female-owned startups secure funding. “You can go there, you can have these people who are ready to invest in whatever you have. And they’re just willing to give you their money. It’s the craziest thing. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Your mileage may vary, of course. Pater was driven to create a database of angel investors “from finding people and listening to people. I listen a lot to what they’re trying to get done in their lives.
“This database of people who want to help, sometimes they just don’t know how to help. So, I’m trying to bridge that gap.”
Crowdfunding your invention, though often hit and miss and a huge time commitment with intense competition, should not be overlooked.
“Crowdfunding is not to be snubbed,” she says with a soft chuckle. “I just saw a litter box built from nothing to something in 60 days. I was like, ‘Geez, they raised a lot of money.’
“I’ve seen things happen over some stupid stuff that I think should never have been funded.”
Then comes a louder laugh.
“Yep, that’s America.”
Current Grants for Inventors
VentureWell E-Team Program, Spring 2026.
Offers up to $25,000 in grant funding for early-stage innovator teams to develop scalable innovations that address sufficient social, health or environmental challenges. Requires student science/engineering teams (minimum of two people). Deadline: April 28. venturewell.org
VentureWell Aspire Program (ongoing).
Funding varies for this five-week, in-depth, hybrid program that prepares startups for investor engagement. Investor-mentors work one-on-one with startups to simulate due diligence conversations and integrate feedback into deal room materials in real time. This program aims to prepare startups to raise equity investment. venturewell.org
Comcast Innovation Fund Grant (ongoing).
Offers from $3,000 to $150,000 in grant funding for a diverse group of applicants, including individuals and organizations working on projects within the fund’s areas of interest—innovative projects that contribute to the internet in novel ways. The program supports technologists, researchers and academics in advancing internet technology and connectivity services. The fund offers open-source development grants, general research grants and targeted research grants. innovationfund.comcast.com
The Lemelson Foundation Grant (general, ongoing, by invitation).
Offers from $50,000 to $500,000 for inventors at all stages, with a focus on projects showing social, environmental and economic impact. lemelson.org/funding
Skip Instant Grants (Tuesdays and Fridays).
Offers from $500 to $2,000 awarded live to entrepreneurs, typically within 24 to 48 hours of listing, with winners announced during livestreams (inventors often must watch the livestream to receive the grant). The grants are part of the Skip platform, helping entrepreneurs access funding, grants and business growth tools. It provides AI tools and resources to simplify applications and business planning. Grants are generally open to all entrepreneurs unless the subject area is specific. helloskip.com
Challenge.gov Federal Information Challenges.
This program features 100-plus active challenges in the technology, health, environment and innovation sectors with rolling deadlines, and funding ranging from $1,000 to $1 million per challenge. Challenge.gov is the official U.S. government platform for federal prize competitions and crowdsourcing campaigns. It connects federal agencies with the public to find innovative solutions to complex problems and advance technological goals. challenge.gov
Non-Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Grants.
These grants, focusing on small business growth and innovation with typical funding between $5,000 and $100,000, are rolling and program specific. sba.gov/funding-programs/grants