6 full lessons
Written in plain language, illustrated, and kept as a reference afterward.
Working skills · paying for it
Money for the Work: Grants and Community Funding
Grants, loans, revolving funds, patient and community capital, and member shares, with an honest account of what each one asks of you in return.
Six lessons on money: naming the kind you actually need, grants and the reporting and reimbursement they come with, loans and how a lender reads your operation, revolving funds and community capital that is willing to wait, a side-by-side comparison of what each source asks in return, and a request that states its own risks.
$95 once, or $95 on Driftline. Add $60 and Jules reads and grades one real piece of work, passing at 80 percent. Review is optional. Nothing here is accredited or carries credit.
Take this class
Pay once, and it is yours to come back to. Pick how you want to take it.
On your own
The whole class, the practice work, and the knowledge checks. No pass score, no graded work, no certificate gate.
With Jules reading your work
Everything above, plus one real piece of work, "A funding plan with a real first application", that Jules reads and grades against a rubric you can see before you start. You pass at 80 percent, and you can rewrite and send it back as many times as you need. This is optional, and it is not accredited and carries no continuing education credit.
Already taking this class? You can add review later and pay only the $60 difference.
11.5 contact hours
Measured per lesson, with written outcomes, so your time is recorded honestly.
No-pressure checks
Clear answers and explanations, unlimited tries, and nothing sent to a gradebook.
Region aware
Rules are shown by state with the source and the date we checked it.
The complete course
Lesson 1 · 1.5 h
What Kind of Money Do You Need
- · Tell apart startup, working, and equipment capital
- · State a funding need with an amount and a date
- · Match a need to the kind of source that serves it
Lesson 2 · 2 h
Grants, and What They Cost You
- · Locate published grant opportunities and read eligibility
- · Explain match and reimbursement in cash-flow terms
- · Estimate the administrative cost of a grant before applying
Lesson 3 · 2 h
Loans and Credit
- · Describe how term, interest, and collateral shape a loan
- · Find the federal loan programs relevant to farms and small business
- · Build a repayment schedule against real revenue timing
Lesson 4 · 2 h
Community and Patient Capital
- · Describe revolving funds and community development lending
- · Explain member shares and presale models in plain terms
- · Identify local sources of patient support
Lesson 5 · 2 h
What Each Source Asks in Return
- · Compare funding sources on cost, control, and obligation
- · Ask a funder the questions that reveal the real terms
- · Decide which trade you are actually willing to make
Lesson 6 · 2 h
Putting a Request Together
- · Assemble the standard numbers a funder expects
- · Write a request that states its own risks
- · Use a rejection to improve the next request
What this course covers where you live
We say plainly how well each part of the country is covered, rather than implying the whole country is written to the same depth.
- West Coast: sourced and ready
- Alaska: partly sourced
- Northeast: partly sourced
- Mid-Atlantic and Southeast: partly sourced
- Gulf: partly sourced
- Great Lakes and inland: partly sourced
- Hawaii and the Pacific islands: partly sourced
Federal grant opportunities are published in one place
Open federal funding opportunities are posted centrally with their eligibility, deadlines, and award terms. Read the notice itself rather than a summary, because the match and reporting terms are in the fine print.
Grants.gov · checked 2026-09-19Small-business loan programs are federal, delivered locally
The Small Business Administration publishes its loan programs, including smaller loans suited to an operation buying equipment. The money comes through participating lenders, not from the agency directly.
Small Business Administration, Loans · checked 2026-09-19Farm lending has its own agency
The Farm Service Agency runs federal farm loan programs, and eligibility for aquaculture depends on the program and the operation. Start at the agency page and ask a local office directly.
USDA Farm Service Agency · checked 2026-09-19Community development lenders are a real category
Community development financial institutions serve borrowers that conventional banks decline, and the federal fund that certifies them publishes a searchable list. They are often the right first call for a small coastal operation.
CDFI Fund · checked 2026-09-19
If you want Jules to read your work
Everyone gets the same lessons, practice work, and knowledge checks. For $60 more you also get one real assignment that Jules reads and grades. You can see exactly how it is judged before you start, you pass at 80 percent, and you can rewrite and send it back as many times as you need. This is optional, and it is still not accredited and carries no continuing education credit.
The assignment
A funding plan with a real first application
Find the money that actually exists and prepare one application.
For a project you define, build a funding plan: what you need, in what order, and from what mix of grants, loans, community investment, and revenue. Then pick one real, currently open funding source, cite it with the date you checked, and prepare the core of that application: the need, the plan, the budget, and the outcome you would report. If a program's next round is not announced, write that plainly instead of assuming a date.
How it is graded
The need broken down honestly · 25 points
Amounts are tied to specific things and the sequencing reflects what has to be paid first.
Sources real and currently open · 25 points
Each source is named, cited, and checked, and closed programs are labeled as closed.
A budget that adds up · 25 points
The numbers total correctly, match the need, and stay within the program's own limits.
Outcomes you could actually report · 25 points
What you promise to deliver is measurable and within what the project can produce.
100 points in total. You pass at 80. Jules grades what you worked out, not your formatting or your word count.
Where it can take you
Programs, deadlines, and terms change constantly. Use the federal sources named in the lessons for what is open right now, and talk to a local lender or development office before you commit.
This course does not carry accreditation, credit, or continuing education units, and completing it does not count toward any outside credential. It is written to the structure a continuing education standard expects, with measured hours, written outcomes, and a completion record you can keep.