12 practical topics, three days in Nairobi, and a concept note, proposal, budget and logframe for a project you need funded — written to what donors actually ask for.
Practical learning experiences delivered across Africa. A few moments from previous Vantage Africa cohorts:
Good work goes unfunded every week for reasons that have nothing to do with its quality: a proposal that answered a different question, a budget that contradicted the logframe beside it, or a donor nobody had spoken to before the call opened.
Read the funding environment, pick the strategies that suit your organisation, and stop spending weeks on calls you were never going to win.
A short video on why a proposal is decided long before anyone starts writing it.
Video holder · Add approved clip hereConcept notes and proposals built to the donor’s format, with a budget and a logframe that tell the same story.
Submitting is the easy part. This programme is about the distance between a proposal that is complete and one a funder can say yes to: the fit, the evidence, the arithmetic, and the relationship behind it.
The pathway is designed around what you will be able to do. You begin guided virtual learning as soon as you register, then build on it during three practical days in Nairobi, 1–3 March 2027.
The funding environment, your strategy, and getting the organisation ready to raise.
Three focused days writing the proposal, the budget and the logframe in Nairobi.
Proposed allocation: topics 1–5 are guided online and cover the funding environment and your strategy; topics 6–12 are worked through during the three physical days, where the proposal itself gets written. Every topic is drawn from the current Vantage resource mobilisation curriculum.
Explore each topic below. The real test is whether it holds up in front of someone deciding where the money goes.
A proposal is read by someone with a shortlist and very little time. What gets checked here is whether yours answers the call that was actually published, whether the evidence carries the claim, and whether the budget and the logframe tell the same story.
Join the 12-topic pathway →A funding opportunity you would go for, or work you genuinely need funded.
Why this organisation, this project, this funder — and why now.
Concept note and proposal in the structure the donor asked for, not the one you prefer.
A budget that matches the logframe line for line, with cost sharing where it applies.
Peers and facilitators read it the way a panel would, and tell you what they would cut.
The reference material comes with the programme. The thing worth carrying home is the proposal you wrote for a project you actually need funded — argued, costed and pulled apart by facilitators and peers before it ever reaches a donor.
StudyGenius guides you through progressive skill-building, practice, feedback and applied challenges. Try a lesson free.
Explore StudyGenius ↗Video placeholder — insert an approved clip of Dr. Benson teaching participants to build a proposal budget.
You are not simply buying training days. You are investing in the ability to raise money, a proposal your organisation can send and a community of peers.
18,000+ professionals trained across 30+ countries, including government, NGO and development-sector teams.
Guided by Dr. Benson Kiarie and experienced faculty; every exercise connects to money you have to raise.
Observable work, feedback and practical checks — and a proposal you could put in front of a donor next month.
By the last day you are not holding notes on fundraising, but a funding strategy, a list of donors worth approaching, and a full proposal package for work you actually need funded — written, costed and reviewed while you were here rather than squeezed in after a call opens.
See the 12 topics →Strategy and action plan. Donor list. Theory of change. Concept note. Full proposal. Detailed and summary budgets with cost sharing. Logframe. M&E strategy.
Built on one project of your own, across the 12 topics.
The programme is built around practical work rather than attendance. You write a concept note and proposal for your own organisation, cost it, and have the budget checked against the logframe before you leave.
Yes. The pathway covers all 12 topics, 5 guided online and 7 in the room, subject to the programme’s formal assessment decisions.
The first 5 are introduced through guided online work before the workshop and cover the funding environment and your strategy. The remaining 7 form the focus of the three physical days in Nairobi, where the concept note, the proposal, the budget and the logframe get written.
Yes. Under the standard-fee pathway, the $80 initial payment counts toward $580 and leaves $500 payable. The $480 offer is for early full payment, not the instalment plan.
The programme is planned for Nairobi, Kenya on 1–3 March 2027. The exact venue will be confirmed by the Vantage Africa team before a final booking commitment.
No. The programme suits programme and project staff who have to raise funds alongside their main role, as well as people in dedicated resource mobilisation posts.
Yes. Contact Vantage Africa for an invitation letter, invoice or a tailored in-house proposal.
Let us tailor resource mobilisation, proposal writing or a bespoke fundraising capacity pathway to your organisation, sector and challenges.
Contact Dr. Benson · +254 725 303 645 · bkiarie@vantageafricaleaders.comBecome the person the organisation turns to when the money has to be found.