Over the last 10 years, I’ve managed proposals, MEL systems, and donor coordination efforts across regions, sectors, and shifting expectations.

I built tools out of necessity, not to sell, but to survive:

A dashboard to track overlapping proposals
A clean system for mapping influence and engagement
A MEL matrix that wasn’t built for performance reviews, but for actual performance

Until now, these systems lived inside my workspace.
I duplicated them from project to project.
Adapted them for proposals, programs, and evaluations.

But I never thought I’d share them.

Then 2024 happened.

Funding slowed.
Hiring froze.
And suddenly, the people who used to run entire portfolios were trying to run proposals alone.

Donors are still commissioning work.
But there’s less support around the work itself.

That’s when I realized: the systems I’ve always used to stay ahead quietly…might help someone else survive the year.

So I published them.
As they are.
No fluff. No branding. No funnel.

Three templates, field-tested across more than a decade of multi-donor implementation.

If you’re navigating 2025 with fewer hours, less support, and higher expectations, you don’t need another theory.

You need structure.

I’ll keep publishing what’s useful. Quietly.

Stakeholder Alignment Isn’t a Workshop. It’s a Workflow.

Why I Built Systems Instead of Building a Team