Thanksgiving Leftovers – What to Do with Your Unused Learning & Development Budget

by Kevin Rillo, Vice President, OCM Center of Excellence, Judge Learning Solutions

November 24, 2025

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, which means not only are some people looking for new and inventive recipes for that day, but they’re also wondering what to do with the leftovers once family and friends are gone.

Many organizations find themselves in a similar situation with their Learning and Development (L&D) budgets. Whether you’re in an L&D department, and Organizational Change Management (OCM) team, or another function that has budget for L&D activities, we often get to this time of the year and realize there is budget money left over. And many times, the directive is “use it or lose it.”

So, what’s a budget owner to do? Read on for ten considerations on how to leverage excess funds when, quite frankly, time is running out.

10 Ways to Spend Your Unused Learning and Development Budget

1. Pre-Purchase Learning Resources for Next Year

Even if employees won’t use them until January, you can often pay now and redeem them later. Learning such as online course seats (Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy Business), accreditation or certification vouchers (PMP, Prosci, AWS, Scrum) and bulk credits for coaching or training hours can be great ways to keep team members sharp and up to date.

Why consider it: It secures next year’s development without needing next year’s budget.

2. Invest in Team Capability That Supports 2025 Priorities

Focus on building skills that leadership always wants more of:

Change management skills (OCM essentials, leadership in change)

Communication & Influence

Project Management

Client Success / Customer Experience skills
Data literacy & AI fluency

Why consider it: Shows strategic alignment and avoids “random act of training.”

3. Lock In Workshops for Q1–Q2 (Pay Now, Deliver Later)

Many vendors will invoice you this year for workshops delivered next year:

Leadership development series

Team cohesion / collaboration

Manager coaching training

Scenario-based training for new software or upcoming transformation initiatives

Why consider it: If allowed, this gets a headstart on the calendar in a legitimate way.

4. Buy Coaching Hours

Coaching can be flexible and prepaid. Interventions such as executive coaching packages, career coaching for high-potential employees, and group coaching programs for managers can pay dividends through the next season.

Why consider it: Coaching is high-ROI and easy to justify for budget reviews.

5. Upskill Your CS / Client Success Teams

If you deliver customer or client services, you could organize and run a customer-journey workshop or develop structured playbooks and skills refreshers.

6. Build Internal L&D Assets

Whether you create internally or leverage external vendors, it could be a good time to build quick L&D assets such as:

Microlearning modules

Onboarding improvements

Job aids, knowledge bases, and SOP clean-ups

Competency models

Training videos or templates

Why consider it: These are durable assets that reduce future spend.

7. Send People to Conferences or Workshops

Look for year-end or early-Q1 events where registration can be prepaid. Especially if there is a discount for early registration, taking advantage of these discounts saves budget for the upcoming year.

8. Expand Employee Learning Stipends

If policy allows, provide:

Books, audiobooks

Professional memberships

Skill-building tools (e.g., Notion, Grammarly, design tools)

9. Conduct Assessments

Prepay for:

Leadership assessments (DiSC, CliftonStrengths, EQ-i 2.0)

Organizational capability assessments

Change readiness assessments

Why consider it: Sets up data-driven L&D strategy.

10. Bring in an External Consultant

For high-impact year-end support:

OCM planning for upcoming system changes

Skills gap analysis

L&D strategy creation

Training needs analysis

Team health diagnostics

Why consider it: Can often breathe new life into a team that might be fatigued from a year full of projects and deliverables.

Before you do any of the above, check with your finance or accounting department to make sure you are following the rules.

In my experience, I always was dinged for overspending my budget and never rewarded for giving money back. So, use your leftovers wisely; either do more work, finish up existing work, and/or reward those who do great work.

Want to talk more about this? Contact our team today. Our team of creative rock stars are ready to help!