It's popularly claimed to be a Navy SEAL saying. I have no idea if that's true, but I think it has some broad merit to many things, almost anything which benefits from careful planning or training. In this context, throwing a big lump sum of money all at once could pressure the developers to spend money / hire too fast without careful planning. Spreading the payments out could be the donor's way of saying they don't want radical hasty changes, they just want to help out in a way.
It seems quite wide spread by now, at least. I heard it in at least one martial arts class (and something what recently that I can't place). The people who said it could have gotten it from military background.
Anyway, it should be widespread, since it's basically true, though perhaps more relevant for physical skills than for donation scheduling.
sounds like the good old "rabbit vs turtle".
Not a recent movie, but it was mentioned in Shooter, a Mark Wahlberg film from way back when
2007 is way back when territory? :utf8_shocked_emoji:
Yes I suppose it's not! My time sense in recent decades is very fugitive :)