Federal Funding & Grant Readiness

Federal Funding & Grant Readiness

Pure Living Family Foundation is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization positioned to partner with federal agencies — including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) — to advance community-based research, caregiver wellness, and integrative health outcomes for families of children with special needs.

This page provides federal funders, program officers, and grant reviewers with the organizational information, program data, and compliance documentation needed to evaluate Pure Living Family Foundation for federal grant opportunities.

Alignment with Federal Funding Priorities

NIH Priority Areas

Pure Living Family Foundation's work directly supports several NIH strategic priorities, including:

  • Caregiver Health & Wellbeing — Our programming addresses the well-documented mental health and physical burden experienced by parents and caregivers of children with autism and complex neurological conditions.
  • Community-Based Participatory Research — Our peer-led model engages families as active participants in wellness programming, generating real-world outcomes data from an underserved population.
  • Integrative Health & Complementary Medicine — We bridge functional medicine, nutritional approaches, and evidence-based supplementation with the lived experience of special needs families — a gap area identified by the NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).
  • Health Disparities & Underserved Populations — Special needs families face significant economic, emotional, and informational disparities. Our mission specifically targets families who lack access to integrative health resources.

IACC Strategic Plan Alignment

Pure Living Family Foundation's work maps directly to the IACC Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorder Research, specifically:

  • Question 6 — What does the future hold for adults and families? — We provide direct programming that improves quality of life, community inclusion, and family resilience.
  • Question 7 — How can we meet the needs of the autism community? — Our peer-led model, community events, and caregiver support infrastructure address the service gaps identified in the IACC's needs assessment.
  • Cross-Cutting Theme: Caregiver Needs — Our organization was built around the insight that caregiver burnout is one of the most critical and under-resourced challenges facing the autism community.

IACC Recognition & Federal Engagement

Pure Living Family was invited to present at the International Autism Collaboration Conference (IACC) in 2024 — one of the leading federal advisory committees on autism research and policy. Our founder presented on:

  • Peer-led community infrastructure for special needs families
  • The intersection of caregiver burnout and integrative health
  • Functional wellness approaches that improve quality of life for families navigating autism and complex neurological conditions
  • The need for grassroots community models to be recognized and funded alongside clinical research

This engagement demonstrates our organization's credibility with and visibility to federal policymakers and researchers in the autism and special needs space.

Programs & Measurable Outcomes

Community Events Program

Monthly and quarterly in-person gatherings — including mom retreats, family nights, and wellness workshops — that reduce caregiver isolation and build lasting peer support networks.

  • 10+ events produced since founding
  • 100+ families actively engaged
  • 100+ participants across signature annual events
  • Measurable outcomes: reduced reported isolation, increased caregiver self-efficacy, improved access to integrative health information

Functional Wellness Education Program

Workshops and digital content that translate integrative medicine research into actionable tools for special needs families. Topics include gut health, neurological development, nutritional interventions, and emotional regulation.

The Pure Living Family Podcast

A free, nationally distributed podcast featuring functional medicine practitioners, researchers, and caregivers. Active listenership of parents and caregivers nationwide — serving as a scalable, low-cost dissemination channel for evidence-based wellness content.

Mission Support Fund

A need-based subsidy program ensuring that families facing financial hardship are not excluded from community programming. This fund directly addresses equity and access — a core principle of federal health equity initiatives.

Research & Evaluation Capacity

Pure Living Family Foundation is committed to building the data infrastructure necessary to participate in federally funded research. Our current and planned evaluation capacities include:

  • Event attendance and participant tracking — We collect participation data across all programming.
  • Community surveys — We are developing pre/post caregiver wellness assessments to measure program impact on caregiver burnout, social connectedness, and health literacy.
  • Partner data sharing — Through our functional health brand partnerships (Function Health, Advanced Brain Technologies, Seeking Health, Microbiome Labs), we have access to objective health outcome data from participating families.
  • IRB Readiness — We are prepared to pursue Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for community-based participatory research studies in partnership with academic or federal co-investigators.

We welcome collaboration with NIH-funded researchers seeking community partners for dissemination, recruitment, or co-design of caregiver and family wellness studies.

Organizational Credentials & Compliance

Legal Name Pure Living Family Foundation
EIN / Tax ID 88-1015327
501(c)(3) Status Federally recognized public charity
State of Incorporation Utah
Founded February 2022
UEI (Unique Entity ID) Available upon request — register with SAM.gov for federal grants
DUNS Number Available upon request
SAM.gov Registration In process / available upon request
Website purelivingfamily.com
Mailing Address 210 East 8135 South, Sandy, Utah 84070

Leadership & Governance

Founder & Executive Director: Shawn Blymiller

Shawn founded Pure Living Family out of his own experience as a special needs parent. After years as a community builder, he converted the organization from a for-profit LLC to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — a process that took nearly three years — driven by his commitment to ensuring no family is excluded from support due to financial barriers. Shawn presented the organization's community model to the IACC in 2024.

Board of Directors

  • Angela Blymiller
  • Abraham Lopez
  • Laura Lopez
  • Marissa Conover
  • Sam Larsen
  • Tyler Larsen
  • Jacey Goodwin

Full board bios, conflict of interest policies, and governance documents are available upon request.

Financial Transparency

  • Program Expense Ratio: 80% of funds go directly to program delivery and family services
  • IRS Form 990: Available upon request
  • Audited Financials: Available for grants of $10,000+
  • IRS Determination Letter: Available upon request

We operate lean and mission-first. Our financial model is designed to maximize community impact while maintaining the transparency and accountability required by federal funders.

Contact for Federal Grant Inquiries

We welcome conversations with NIH program officers, IACC liaisons, federal grant coordinators, and academic partners interested in collaboration.

  • Primary Contact: Shawn Blymiller, Founder & Executive Director
  • Email: shawn@purelivingfamily.com
  • General Inquiries: admin@purelivingfamily.com
  • Mailing Address: 210 East 8135 South, Sandy, Utah 84070
  • Website: purelivingfamily.com

We are happy to provide a complete grant readiness package — including IRS determination letter, 990, board governance documents, program outcome data, and letters of support — for any federal funding application or review process.