Request funding or reimbursement from your employer or from your program’s funder
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If your organization or your program’s funder covers the financial cost of professional development or has a budget for training or consulting services, you may be able to obtain funding for the cost of the advisory call packages.
To help you make the case, we’ve created the following resources (click on them to download):
- an overview of the offer in pdf format; and
- an email template for you to start from in case you need to request pre-approval.
Tips for your email to the person(s) authorized to approve funding:
Let them know you’re interested in training that will improve your work.
You could approach this by saying the training aligns with your career goals, but what they’ll REALLY care about is whether the service will help your program team save time, money, effort and/or whether it will help scale and/or deepen the program’s impact. That’s why you must frame the service in terms of how it benefits your program, your program’s participants/beneficiaries, your team, your organization, and your donors.
Make it feel like a painkiller, not a vitamin. For example, show that the advisory service package will:
- save your program money, increase its return-on-investment (ROI), and enhance value-for-money (VfM) by building skills in-house rather than having to outsource related services by, for example, hiring a consultant;
- save time and effort when it comes to program results reporting;
- allow the program team to gain time that can be redirected to core program activities;
- help you identify where and how your program is making its largest impact so that greater focus can be placed on those areas in order to deepen impact;
- help your program set robust monitoring and evaluation (M&E) requirements (internally or for your grantees or other partners);
- help team members understand M&E standards and best practice;
- enhance your program’s compliance with funder requirements;
- help you and your program’s team communicate about your program’s results in coherent, credible, and compelling fashion, which could help retain existing funding and attract additional funding and committed volunteers.
Points like these will make it feel like a no-brainer.Â
