If you pay for forum yourself, your employer may be willing to pay instead.

Organizations pay for leadership development every year: executive education, conferences, coaching. A year in a peer support group belongs on that list, and the organizations that run similar groups treat employer sponsorship as routine.

Other peer groups ask employers to pay

Chief, a network of senior women executives built around small peer groups, reports that a majority of its members are sponsored by their companies. Its website includes a ready-made email for asking HR.

Pavilion, a network for sales and marketing leaders, answers the reimbursement question on its pricing page. Many members expense it as professional development, and Pavilion provides invoices for that purpose.

At YPO, where the forum format began, and at EO and Vistage, most members are CEOs and business owners who set their own development budgets. If you own your business, the question is policy and tax rather than permission, and the tax section below applies to you.

Universities invest in their own leaders too. The American Council on Education's Fellows program is one of the best-known leadership programs in higher education; a supervisor nominates each fellow and the institution's president sponsors them. Some university policies also allow an individual professional membership when the employee explains in writing how the institution benefits and the request is approved. The University of South Carolina and Southern Methodist University are two examples.

Questions an approver may ask

Is this professional or personal? Forum covers professional, family, and personal life. A request works best when it names the professional purpose on its own terms: the skills you want to build this year, such as listening before advising or asking questions that open a problem up, and where you will use them at work.

Will you discuss our business with outsiders? Forum confidentiality protects what members share with each other. It does not license sharing your employer's confidential information.

What does it cost? The current fee is on the pricing page. Include the first-year total, which covers onboarding and training.

How much time does it take? Tell your approver when your forum meets, how long meetings run, and whether they fall in working hours.

Who is the provider? Forum Support Services provides onboarding, training, and ongoing support for the forum, and invoices your employer directly.

Tax and policy basics

Three questions are separate, and the answer to one does not settle the others: whether your organization's policy allows the payment, whether the business can deduct it, and whether it counts as income to you.

For the third question, the IRS treats employer-paid development that maintains or improves skills for an employee's current job as a tax-free working condition benefit (IRS Publication 15-B). Whether a forum membership qualifies depends on the facts, and a finance or HR office can confirm what applies. Universities and public employers follow their own policies, and some restrict paying for individual memberships. This is general information, not tax advice.

How to ask

  1. Find the right category. Look for a professional development fund, a training budget, or an individual membership policy. The category decides who approves the request.
  2. Write one paragraph on the benefit. Name what you want to develop this year and how your organization gains from it.
  3. Compare it to what your organization already funds. Executive education, conferences, and coaching are the natural comparisons.
  4. Offer accountability that respects confidentiality. Forum discussions stay in the room. Attendance confirmation and a short year-end note on what you applied at work give an approver what they need.
  5. Get approval before you commit, then request an invoice. Email maria@forumsupport.org and we will send one made out to your employer.

A request you can adapt

Subject: Professional development request: peer leadership forum

Hi [name],

I'd like to request professional development support for my membership in a peer leadership forum through Forum Support Services. The forum is a small, facilitated group of experienced professionals that meets monthly to work through real leadership decisions. Meetings run [length], [during or outside] working hours. The first-year cost is [amount], which includes onboarding and training, and [amount] a year after that.

This year I want to develop [one or two specific skills or goals]. I expect this to help [team, department, or institution] by [specific benefit].

What members share in the forum stays within the group, and I keep [organization]'s confidential information out of it. I'm glad to confirm attendance and share a short summary at year-end of what I've applied. Forum Support Services can provide an invoice made out to [organization].

Thanks for considering it.

[Your name]

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