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Request funding or reimbursement from your employer or from your project's donor

 

If your employer or your project's donor covers the financial cost of professional development, or has a budget for training or consulting services, you may be able to obtain funding for (or a reimbursement to cover) the cost of the advisory and coaching calls.

To help you make the case, we've created the following resources (click on them to download):

Tips for your email to the person(s) to whom you report:

When writing to your supervisor(s), let them know you're interested in coaching that will improve your work.

You could approach this by saying the coaching aligns with your career goals, but what your supervisor(s) will REALLY care about is whether the service will help your project team save time, money, effort and/or whether it will help optimize the project's impact. That's why you must frame the service in terms of how it benefits your project, your project's participants/beneficiaries, your team, your organization, and your donors.

For example, show that the advisory and coaching service will:

  • save your project 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 M&E reporting;
  • allow the project team to gain time that can be redirected to core project activities;
  • help you identify where and how your project is making its largest impact so that project team members can place greater focus on those areas in order to deepen impact;
  • help your project set M&E requirements (e.g., for your grantees or other partners);
  • help team members understand M&E standards and best practice;
  • enhance your project's compliance with its funder's M&E requirements;
  • help you and your project's team communicate about your project'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 and create a sense of urgency.

Remember: your seniors are more likely to approve purchases that feel like painkillers, not vitamins.