This article examines the ways in which family planning program personnel in Nigeria appropriate population program resources and models of social change to suit local priorities. The family planning project discussed here was manipulated by local officials as an instrument of patronage in a manner that exemplified the benefits of having strong and reliable kinship networks. The article explains the "corruption" that characterizes donor-funded projects by situating the actions of project personnel in the context of local political economy and culture. The phenomenon of training workshops is examined to show how these workshops satisfy simultaneously the competing priorities of donors and local participants.