We Can't Believe It!

Because of all your incredible support, The Mentoring Project won a $20,000 grant from Chase Bank!

In the end we finished in 33rd place with 2,971 votes. Not bad eh?

Thank you to those who voted for us, passed it on to their friends, posted it on their Facebook wall, and made all of this happen. We couldn't have done it without you!

So now the big question: What are we going to do with the money?

Glad you asked. 

Over the last year, we've had nearly 600 churches across the country ask how they can begin a TMP Mentoring Program in their church community. With the demand this high, we realized we needed to create dynamic training & resource materials to ensure that each of these churches can begin mentoring fatherless boys in their area.

The $20,000 grant has been allocated to produce high quality training videos and an extensive mentoring toolkit so these churches can hit the ground running!

So thank you for all your support. Your votes and advocacy of TMP will ensure that thousands of boys will receive mentors in the future.

Thank you!

Dr. John Sowers, President of The Mentoring Project 

A special guest blog from TMP Founder Donald Miller:

Could you do me a favor?

So about once a month, a friend's non-profit starts lighting up twitter and facebook asking people to go and vote because somebody somewhere might give them some money. The Mentoring Project has never had a huge twitter following, so we’ve never entered one of these contests. And to be honest, I normally ignore these twitter requests. It just feels like a teen thing, some sort of popularity contest amongst non-profits.

That said, The Mentoring Project President Dr. John Sowers called me a few days ago to say that Chase was giving away 20k to the top 200 non-profits that get voted on on facebook. John said we really need the money to shoot training videos that will allow the 600 churches on our waiting list to start mentoring programs. What that means is, if we get 20k from chase, thousands of fatherless boys will get role models because we can franchise the mentoring program we are currently running here in Portland. We don’t yet have that money designated in our budget.

So now I am THAT GUY. I’m the guy asking people to vote on twitter and facebook. And to be honest, I don’t even have a facebook account. So I’m DOUBLE that guy. I guess I never put together those little votes with actual social change until it became personal. So please accept that as a confession.

As I write this, we are 30 votes from being in the top 200. The voting ends about ten days from now, so we will need a lot more than 30 votes, but would you mind being one of the people who spends a few seconds and votes for us? It would honestly mean thousands of kids lives are changed through really great relationships.

Thanks so much. You can vote here.

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/270170750-mentoring-project

And a very special thank you to CHASE bank. Very cool of them to do this.

- Don

- Spanning continents and turning charity upside down -

Bob Goff, founder of Restore International, called me last week to let us know that young men from The Restore Leadership Academy (pictured above) have decided to make a donation to The Mentoring Project to provide mentors for kids in Portland, Oregon.

Apparently, with the help of Restore, a number of these young men have started growing & selling their own crops. After hearing about The Mentoring Project, they wanted to give a small portion of their profits to our work.  

When we heard this news we were shocked, and a little unnerved. What were these young men thinking? Are we seriously going to accept donations from kids in Uganda? Many of these students were former child soldiers, their lives upended by poverty, conflict, and civil unrest, and now they want to give to The Mentoring Project?

It's easy to be cynical about something like this and assume it's not in the best interest of The Mentoring Project to accept donations from young people who are, for the most part, in a much harder situation than the fatherless boys in Portland.

But in talking to Bob about it, we realized that accepting the contributions and allowing Ugandan youth the opportunity to give generously is the most empowering thing we can do.

Bob described these students as the future leaders of Uganda and how this donation is a powerful incentive for the development of their country. The gift is a boost for us, but also an act of nation-building for them. 

Due to an eclectic mix of colonialism, foreign investment, and resource allocation, the world of international aid and development is dominated by 1st world countries supporting the livelihoods of 3rd world countries. Rarely, is it the other way around.

Coincidentally, alongside my work with The Mentoring Project, I run an international education organization called These Numbers Have Faces. As both organizations solicit support through various means, it's exciting, and also inspiring, to see ordinary Americans, Canadians, and Europeans feeling empowered and overjoyed to give to our work in America and South Africa. 

We've learned that there is something meaningful and deeply enriching in the act of giving itself, regardless of the amount.

Remember the parable Jesus told about the widow who gave her last coin to the poor in Mark 12? In the same vein, let's not take away the opportunity for the boys from Uganda to be blessed by God and experience the joy of giving.

We wanted the students in Uganda to know how much we appreciate their donations, so we mailed them a few copies of this thank you page showing one of the mentees they are helping us support here in Portland.

Basically, Restore International is turning charity on its head. They are saying that the privilege of financial progress and the joy of financial generosity shouldn't be reserved exclusively for the global north. And, maybe if we gave the global south more opportunities to experience the joys of giving, they'd be more likely to pull their own countries out of poverty. 

Needless to say, we're just thrilled to be along for the ride.

- Justin Zoradi, Marketing Director, The Mentoring Project
justin@thementoringproject.org

Art is a great way for Mentors and Mentees to connect, so we were thrilled to see a fun screenprinting event take place in Portland last weekend.

People have been feeling the hurt lately. Downed economy, job loss, and general dislike of world affairs. With this in mind, a group of Portland's local graphic artists gave back to their community and The Mentoring Project! TMP got full attention at the event happily named "No Bones For Halftones." 

TMP's mentors and mentees got to share in a presentation on screen printing, then print on the clothes we brought. Everyone had a blast! Thanks again for opening this event to The Mentoring Project!

This month, we are excited to have nearly twenty new Portland TMP mentors! These heroic guys have gone through the TMP training and stepped into the lives of fatherless boys. 

We are moving steadily towards 1000 mentors here in Portland, with our goal of wiping out the mentor waiting list.

Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they mentor. 

Donate to support a mentor

Get your church involved in mentoring