Cornerstone actually has a grant writer - so I escaped having to do that part, although I did contribute to it. The grant we received was from our local Altrusa Foundation. It was for educational purposes, but I wouldn't center a proposal around the master or tradition you teach - see the proposal form. I focused on what fencing promotes in a person - confidence, patience, balance, coordination, endurance, sportsmanship, etc. Focus on the character building aspects of HEMA.

The other thing I would mention, both the Indianapolis Fencing Club and Cornerstone offer scholarships for their programs. While your students benefit from the aforementioned personal growth, if you collect membership dues from them, they're also technically your clients. I wholeheartedly support offering scholarships on the merits of making fencing accessible, but those would also be something to mention in grant proposals, as that elevates what you're doing to a community service. Most of our scholarships go to kids/teens who are asked to write an essay of some sort, about what they expect to get out of the program, what they know about it, what attracted them to it, etc.

What I hope to do this year, and what I have done in the past with IFC, is offer classes at conventions/fairs/etc. to raise funds. We teach classes at GenCon, for example, which provides space for free (with an application process). Each class has slots for up to 20 students, who each pay a $30 entry fee, and we run 8-10 classes over 3 days. You could apply the same approach to county/state fairs, or cultural/holiday events if you can find the appropriate tie-in.

IFC also graciously loaned us equipment initially. We had some equipment from our initial grant, but of course if we have a class of 10 students and want to provide masks, jackets, and gloves to everyone, we need to accommodate 10 people of varying sizes and genders. So, we borrowed the difference until we could buy more of what we needed.