About MENTOR

For more than 20 years, MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) has been the lead champion for youth mentoring in the United States. MENTOR helps children by providing a public voice, developing and delivering resources to mentoring programs nationwide and promoting quality for mentoring through standards, cutting-edge research and state of the art tools.

MENTOR works closely with State Mentoring Partnerships and more than 5,000 mentoring programs and volunteer centers throughout the country, serving more than three million children in all 50 states. There are currently 18 million children in the United States who want and need a mentor, but only three million have one. MENTOR's mission is to close that gap so that every one of those 15 million children has a caring adult in their life. 

MENTOR serves young people between the ages of 6 and 18, and its work over the last two decades has helped millions of young people find the support and guidance they need to build productive and meaningful lives.
 

What does MENTOR do?

MENTOR has established rigorous, research-based guidelines for mentoring service providers across the United States through publications such as the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring^™.

MENTOR developed MentorPRO^®, an online data tracking and evaluation tool which measures outcomes of mentoring programs' effectiveness.

MENTOR was chosen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for its $30,000,000 voucher-based demonstration grant to increase mentoring services to children with an incarcerated parent called: "Mentoring Children of Prisoners: Caregiver's Choice."

MENTOR galvanized the support of national leaders and mentoring advocates resulting in the preservation of $248 million in federal funding for mentoring programs since 2008. MENTOR has led the effort for SafetyNET, which, for the first time ever, provides an affordable FBI background check for adults mentoring children. It serves as a model for a major bill before Congress.

MENTOR's Research and Policy Council has organized the country's leading researchers, practitioners and policy experts to focus on state-of-the-art research on mentoring and to make national policy recommendations.

MENTOR's National Mentoring Institute (NMI) serves as THE national clearinghouse for key research and national and state policy recommendations to support the needs of children.

MENTOR leads the national exploration and testing of new forms of mentoring (school-based; online mentoring) to address specialized needs.

MENTOR and its board members have received some of America's most prestigious awards, including the Hines Award, for leadership in the field of mentoring.
 

Who Leads MENTOR?

MENTOR's board of directors includes Chairman Willem Kooyker, chairman and CEO, Blenheim Capital Management LLC. MENTOR's co-founders are Geoffrey T. Boisi, chairman and CEO, Roundtable Investment Partners LLC, and Raymond G. Chambers, founder and chairman, Amelior Foundation. Additional board members include: NBA legends Bill Bradley and Bill Russell; Grammy award-winner Michael Bolton; as well as many other men and women who donate their time and efforts to enhance the lives of our nation's youth. MENTOR's President and CEO is Larry Wright, Ph.D.

In addition, many luminaries, including politicians, celebrities and sports icons have been involved and honored by MENTOR over the years. Such notable figures include Maya Angelou, Tom Brokaw, David Brooks, Ray Charles, President Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Tom Cruise, Maureen Dowd, Clint Eastwood, Quincy Jones, Colin Powell, Cal Ripken, Jr., Sting and Oprah Winfrey.
 

Related Information

• MENTOR 2010 Form 990 (PDF)
• MENTOR 2010 Audited Financial Statements (PDF)