MENTOR Receives Largest Individual Donation in its History
Unrestricted Gift from MacKenzie Scott is Among $2.7 Billion Donated to 286 High-Impact Organizations
June 15, 2021 — MENTOR received the largest individual gift in its 32-year history today, placing us among a group of organizations receiving a portion of the $2.7 billion that philanthropist MacKenzie Scott recently gave to “286 Teams Empowering Voices the World Needs to Hear.” The unrestricted donation will allow us to expand and deepen our work to ensure all young people have the supportive relationships they need to thrive and strive. It also demonstrates an approach and philanthropic leadership that is truly game-changing for the sector and comes at a time in our nation’s history when connection feels as central as ever to our nation’s unity and prosperity.
CEO David Shapiro says, “This transformational investment speaks to the diverse and expansive impact of our field and movement. It speaks to the power of every young person and adult who form a partnership that ultimately ripples out to impact multiple lives and communities. It speaks to folks who invest time, money, and policy in prioritizing relationships to drive equity at school, work, and in community. We are incredibly grateful that MENTOR and all our local Affiliates are being recognized as servant leaders in the growing mentoring movement.”
Organizations were selected for funding after a rigorous research process, and we’re thrilled to be among outstanding organizations promoting service, supporting community engagement, and accelerating change. In the past year, we have reached significant milestones in service to closing the mentoring gap for and with our young people and the organizations that make mentoring real across our nation, including:
· Leading the delivery of a record-breaking 13,743 hours of technical assistance to 489 organizations serving 131,765 young people in mentoring relationships through our operation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s National Mentoring Resource Center.
· Reaching 27,595 volunteers who completed more than 70,948 searches for mentoring opportunities in their community, connecting them with 1,643 local mentoring programs through the Mentoring Connector.
· Serving more than 100 local mentoring organizations with new Virtual Mentoring Portals, a safe and monitored platform for mentors and mentees to continue relationships through COVID-19 developed with virtual mentoring experts iCouldBe and CricketTogether.
· Facilitating 45 webinars attended by more than 8,000 participants on a range of topics.
· Co-hosting The Black Youth Town Hall with the Youth Mentoring Action Network, an event attended by over 1,000 people and featuring a panel of young people who discussed the state of race relations, advocated for change, and shared their insights and advice for the future.
· Co-leading advocacy efforts to increase key federal investment in youth mentoring to $100 million.
“With this transformational investment and the trust to use it to plan for greater stability and impact over the long haul, MENTOR can now do even more to expand its reach and accelerate its innovation and impact in partnership with our incredible range of stakeholders,” says MENTOR Board Chair Nancy Altobello.
Read MacKenzie Scott’s full announcement here.
For Media Inquiries:
Contact Krista Mason (kmason@mentoring.org), Director of Communications
