— Make mentoring a funding priority

— Become a partner to your best mentoring programs

— Promote a continuum of quality mentoring in your service area

Although very different, donors generally become invested in mentoring on one or more of these levels.

Funders Can Advance Mentoring By:

Promoting a Continuum of Quality Expanded Mentoring

• Assess the state of mentoring services in your target area(s), with a focus on the availability of
  quality mentoring for the groups of youth who most need it.

• Support training and technical assistance that will increase the quality and sustainability of your
  mentoring programs, by building the national Elements of Effective Practices into their operations

• Lead or support efforts to bring together mentoring providers and key partners within a service
  area in order to ensure a seamless continuum of high quality mentoring programming and partnerships

Becoming a Partner to your Best Mentoring Organizations:

• Build “youth mentoring” into your giving priorities and guidelines

• Become a program/ event sponsor by providing financial support to a mentoring provider
  that underwrites a specific event or programming cost.

• Award multi-year financial support to your selected mentoring program(s) that funds the
  operational costs of providing high quality, long-term mentoring ($1,000 per youth/ per yr)

• Cultivate and support your staff and volunteers as a pool of mentors
  Promote mentoring across your public relations efforts

How Do Donors Maximize their Return on the Mentoring Investment…

• The most essential requirements for generating HIGH IMPACT from your investment in mentoring are:

• Small, but effective start, that evolves and expands over time

• Identify quality youth mentoring as a consistent giving priority and speaking point

• Invest only in the mentoring providers who are implementing (or wish to implement) high quality
  standards in their mentoring program (such as the Elements of Effective Practice)

• Make long-term investments in the operations of your highest quality mentoring programs
  Establish high quality standards that coincide with your investments through training, reporting and evaluation