Resource Development: Cultivate Strategic Partnerships to Support Your Mentoring Program

Developing support for your youth programs is important to an agency’s bottom line. To ensure sustainability of programs and services, we need those for profit partners as well. During a recent workshop held at the National Mentoring Summit, MANY’s Executive Director, Megan Blondin, presented with MANY’s consultant member, Shelley Milosevich Johnson from Purple Binder, and discussed how mentoring programs can create partnerships with individuals, community groups, and businesses in their communities. The presentation included practice steps to partnership building that can lead to community awareness, quality mentors, and financial support. Participants in the workshop learned how to 1) determine resources needed for their program; 2) identify prospective community partners; and 3) develop strategies for creating and sustaining community partnerships. The Donation Solicitation Letter & Form  handout from the workshop is available, as is the PowerPoint from the workshop (below).