Funding has become an established means of promoting the professionalisation of teaching and learning. Various funding schemes in Higher Education have incentivised innovation and research aimed at developing a scholarship of teaching. However, a causal relationship is impossible to prove and the underlying subjective processes of scholarly development are contested. It has been suggested that funding might become another instrument to achieve a neoliberal agenda of increased performativity. This paper explores the affordances generated at a particular institution in South Africa from the perspective of recipients of relatively small awards. Qualitative data were generated in face-to-face individual interviews and analysed thematically. Insight generated included how funding acted as a catalyst for further scholarly development of individuals, disciplines and project teams. A culture of flexibility, nurture and care-full operational management were considered enablers. Using 'slow scholarship' as a lens allowed understandings of developmental pathways and multiple contextual influences on scholarly trajectories.