Template
Employer funding summary
One page, seven short sections, written to be read in three minutes.
A one-page case to send your manager — what you are asking for, the decision it is about, what changes in your work, and how they would know whether it worked.
Reach for it when You want your employer to fund or approve a place, and you would rather send a case than open a negotiation.
The blank
The prompts are what a colleague would ask. Delete them as you answer them — in the downloaded file each one is a quoted block, so it goes in a keystroke.
- To
- From
- Date
- What I am asking for
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What I am asking for
One sentence. The thing you want approved, and nothing else in this section.
Put the ask first. A case that opens with background is a case your manager reads the end of, if at all.
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The decision this is about
The thing in front of your team that makes this worth doing now. Be specific: a system you are building, a review you have been asked to run, a design you have inherited.
This is the section that decides whether the rest gets read. "Keeping my skills current" is true of everybody and persuades nobody.
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What I would be able to do differently
Two or three things, each one something a colleague could later ask you to do. Not topics covered — capabilities you would be expected to have.
Write these the way you would write a goal in a decision record: testable. "Better at AI" is not one. "Can run the design review on the refund change" is.
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What it involves, and when
The time commitment, when it falls, and what you propose to do about the work that does not stop while you are doing it.
Answer the cover question before it is asked. The commitment is stated in the example below; the schedule is confirmed before you join, so give your manager the shape rather than a date you do not have yet.
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Cost and terms
The figure, once you have it, and what it includes. Leave it blank until then rather than quoting a number from memory.
The cohort starts September 2026. Fees are set per region and shown on the cohort page for your own region. Payment is due one week before the cohort starts, and applying commits you to nothing.
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How you would know whether it worked
What your manager could look at afterwards, and roughly when. Choose things that are already visible to them.
Offer the check rather than the claim. A case that names its own evidence is a case that can be said yes to by somebody who is not sure.
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What I am asking you to decide, and by when
The decision, the date you need it by, and what happens either way. Give a real reason for the date.
Your date, not ours. The open cohort targets eight members and admission is by application, so the honest framing is that a decision is needed before a place is offered — never that one is being held for you.
Show the blank as plain text
# Employer funding summary One page, seven short sections, written to be read in three minutes. Blank template · https://learning.thelivingcraft.ai/resources/templates/employer-funding-summary To: From: Date: What I am asking for: --- ## What I am asking for > One sentence. The thing you want approved, and nothing else in this section. > > Put the ask first. A case that opens with background is a case your manager reads the end of, if at all. ## The decision this is about > The thing in front of your team that makes this worth doing now. Be specific: a system you are building, a review you have been asked to run, a design you have inherited. > > This is the section that decides whether the rest gets read. "Keeping my skills current" is true of everybody and persuades nobody. ## What I would be able to do differently > Two or three things, each one something a colleague could later ask you to do. Not topics covered — capabilities you would be expected to have. > > Write these the way you would write a goal in a decision record: testable. "Better at AI" is not one. "Can run the design review on the refund change" is. ## What it involves, and when > The time commitment, when it falls, and what you propose to do about the work that does not stop while you are doing it. > > Answer the cover question before it is asked. The commitment is stated in the example below; the schedule is confirmed before you join, so give your manager the shape rather than a date you do not have yet. ## Cost and terms > The figure, once you have it, and what it includes. Leave it blank until then rather than quoting a number from memory. > > The cohort starts September 2026. Fees are set per region and shown on the cohort page for your own region. Payment is due one week before the cohort starts, and applying commits you to nothing. ## How you would know whether it worked > What your manager could look at afterwards, and roughly when. Choose things that are already visible to them. > > Offer the check rather than the claim. A case that names its own evidence is a case that can be said yes to by somebody who is not sure. ## What I am asking you to decide, and by when > The decision, the date you need it by, and what happens either way. Give a real reason for the date. > > Your date, not ours. The open cohort targets eight members and admission is by application, so the honest framing is that a decision is needed before a place is offered — never that one is being held for you.
A completed example
Illustrative Illustrative scenario, not a claimed learner or employer. It continues the returns assistant used across this site: a system that reads a policy and recommends a refund, and is then given a tool that issues one. Where a real record would carry a measurement this one carries ⟨angle brackets⟩, because an illustration may not smuggle in a statistic.
An engineer whose team is about to let a system move money
Written by an engineer on the team that owns the returns assistant, to the manager who would approve the spend. Notice what it does not do: it does not argue that the programme is good, it argues that a decision is coming and that somebody on the team should be able to make it well.
- To
- ⟨your manager⟩
- From
- ⟨your name⟩
- Date
- ⟨date⟩
- What I am asking for
- Approval and funding for a place on the open cohort
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What I am asking for
I would like the team to fund a place for me on The Living Craft open cohort, and to approve the time it takes.
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The decision this is about
We are about to give the returns assistant permission to issue refunds rather than recommend them. That changes what it is: a system that produces text has one control point, and it is a person; a system that can call a tool with an effect outside itself has as many control points as it has tools.
Nobody on the team has designed one of these before with money behind it. The questions that decide whether it is sound — what evidence permits an action, what the tool enforces itself, what happens when the outcome of a call is unknown — are the ones I would be answering, and I would rather answer them from practice than from a blog post.
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What I would be able to do differently
- Run the design review on the refund change, and produce findings the team acts on rather than a meeting everybody attends.
- Write the decision record for it, at a standard that stands up when somebody asks in six months why a refund happened.
- Say no to an agentic design that should be a workflow, with a reason that survives the conversation.
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What it involves, and when
6 weeks, live, at ~5 hrs / week. The sessions are live, so they land in working hours; the independent work is mine to place.
⟨name who covers what while you are in a session, and say it here — this is the sentence that turns a maybe into a yes⟩
I would confirm the exact schedule with you before accepting a place, not after.
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Cost and terms
⟨fee, from the offer⟩ — one cohort place. Payment, refund and access terms are in the offer document, which I will forward before anything is committed.
No travel. No licence or tooling cost to the team; the work uses what I already have.
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How you would know whether it worked
Within ⟨n⟩ weeks of finishing: the refund design has a written decision record against it, the review has been held and its findings closed or owned, and I can walk you through the design in fifteen minutes without slides.
If none of that has happened, the honest read is that it did not land, and I would rather you have that in writing now than hear a summary from me later.
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What I am asking you to decide, and by when
Approval in principle by ⟨date⟩, so that I can apply while the cohort is open. The application is a fit conversation, not a purchase, so nothing is committed by approving this — the terms arrive in the offer and I would bring them back to you.
If the answer is no, I would like to know which part — the time or the money — so I can come back with a different shape.
Show the example as plain text
# Employer funding summary — worked example An engineer whose team is about to let a system move money Illustrative scenario, not a claimed learner or employer. Written by an engineer on the team that owns the returns assistant, to the manager who would approve the spend. Notice what it does not do: it does not argue that the programme is good, it argues that a decision is coming and that somebody on the team should be able to make it well. To: ⟨your manager⟩ From: ⟨your name⟩ Date: ⟨date⟩ What I am asking for: Approval and funding for a place on the open cohort --- ## What I am asking for I would like the team to fund a place for me on The Living Craft open cohort, and to approve the time it takes. ## The decision this is about We are about to give the returns assistant permission to issue refunds rather than recommend them. That changes what it is: a system that produces text has one control point, and it is a person; a system that can call a tool with an effect outside itself has as many control points as it has tools. Nobody on the team has designed one of these before with money behind it. The questions that decide whether it is sound — what evidence permits an action, what the tool enforces itself, what happens when the outcome of a call is unknown — are the ones I would be answering, and I would rather answer them from practice than from a blog post. ## What I would be able to do differently - Run the design review on the refund change, and produce findings the team acts on rather than a meeting everybody attends. - Write the decision record for it, at a standard that stands up when somebody asks in six months why a refund happened. - Say no to an agentic design that should be a workflow, with a reason that survives the conversation. ## What it involves, and when 6 weeks, live, at ~5 hrs / week. The sessions are live, so they land in working hours; the independent work is mine to place. ⟨name who covers what while you are in a session, and say it here — this is the sentence that turns a maybe into a yes⟩ I would confirm the exact schedule with you before accepting a place, not after. ## Cost and terms ⟨fee, from the offer⟩ — one cohort place. Payment, refund and access terms are in the offer document, which I will forward before anything is committed. No travel. No licence or tooling cost to the team; the work uses what I already have. ## How you would know whether it worked Within ⟨n⟩ weeks of finishing: the refund design has a written decision record against it, the review has been held and its findings closed or owned, and I can walk you through the design in fifteen minutes without slides. If none of that has happened, the honest read is that it did not land, and I would rather you have that in writing now than hear a summary from me later. ## What I am asking you to decide, and by when Approval in principle by ⟨date⟩, so that I can apply while the cohort is open. The application is a fit conversation, not a purchase, so nothing is committed by approving this — the terms arrive in the offer and I would bring them back to you. If the answer is no, I would like to know which part — the time or the money — so I can come back with a different shape. --- Blank version of this template · https://learning.thelivingcraft.ai/resources/templates/employer-funding-summary
How to use it
Fill in your own version of the second section before anything else. Everything on this page rests on there being a real decision in front of your team; without one, the case is that you would like to learn something, which is a fair thing to want and a weak thing to fund.
Keep it to one page. Your manager is very likely forwarding it to somebody who will read only the first section and the last one, so those two must work alone.
Two things to leave out, both tempting. Do not include a salary or market-rate argument — it reads as leverage and changes the conversation into a different one. And do not quote a fee from memory: fees, schedule, payment, refund and access terms are confirmed in the final offer, before you commit to anything, and a number you half-remember is the one thing in the document your manager can catch you out on.
If you do not know the figure yet
That is the ordinary case, and the template is built for it. Applying starts a fit conversation, and the terms arrive with the offer at the end of it. You can send this summary with the cost section blank and a line saying the figure follows — an approval in principle is usually what you actually need first.
The application asks about funding route as part of the fit conversation, so saying “my employer may fund this” costs nothing and changes nothing about how the application is read.