Staking/Make-up question: What to do with lower prize-pools?

[WarDekar]

My backer and I can't figure out what to do. I'm in make-up a decent amount, and want to play some upcoming circuit prelims for $300-$1k. The issue is, I'd basically have to get 1st or 2nd for me to get out of make-up, so I have little to no incentive to play because these are such small buy-ins and fields compared to the $10ks.

I obviously want to be staked for $10ks and higher buy-ins, but I would like to play these smaller prize-pool live tournaments as well. Unfortunately it's not really in either of our best interests for me to play in these with so little to play for, I mean it'd just be way too demoralizing to get 5th or something and not even get anything out of it.

So my question is, what's a good solution? I mean I'm willing to pay my own entries, however I feel that's a little unfair to him and don't want to mess up the relationship going forward.

Is there a good way we can make it so I get some kind of percentage of the cash for these 5 tournaments, or pay some of the entry myself? What's a good solution in a situation like this?