We are looking for professionals, individuals or organisations, to volunteer mentoring support to social entrepreneurs.
Today, our network of volunteers include Deutsche Bank, UBS, PA Consulting, Debevoise & Plimpton, DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells and Herbert Smith.
Our volunteers offer specialist advice or services direct to our social entrepreneurs. This might be legal advice, or actual help to draw up their articles. It could be providing a service to help them file their accounts. The services are tailored and bespoke to meet the needs of our social entrepreneurs.
Volunteers can be professionals with expert knowledge, or social entrepreneurs who have successfully grown their venture and want to help someone else trying to do the same.
Business skills and commercial expertise We look for mentors with experience and practical know-how. Mentors can be based anywhere in the UK and have a range of different experience: business consulting, marketing and PR, legal, finance, IT, HR or academia. Many run their own business. Others use business skills in their job. Some are a social entrepreneurs. Self awareness and emotional intelligence
A good mentor is aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. This helps them to be an open sounding board for the social entrepreneur. Our mentors are comfortable delivering the benefits of their experience. When our mentors share their experience, they do it openly and honestly.
The ability to listen and ask good questions Mentoring is about helping others to reach their own decisions. Our mentors must be good listeners. They need to be able to ask probing questions that challenge, stretch, encourage and guide, but avoid telling social entrepreneurs.
Strong interpersonal skills Mentoring partnerships are usually made or broken in the first couple of meetings - depending on whether the mentor and social entrepreneur get on. Our mentors have strong interpersonal skills and are comfortable meeting a social entrepreneur who may have a different background and life experiences.
Email [email protected] with infomation about you or your organisation.
Read our Mentoring guide.
We've worked with 800 volunteers to help social entrepreneurs.
We brokered over £1,800,000 of added support from volunteers
More than 70% of social entrepreneurs who accessed our mentoring support significantly increased their skills in business planning.
72% of our social entrepreneurs improved their business skills after having a mentor.
Mentor - The fact that you are doing something for the benefit of somebody else, and not for the benefit of yourself, or for your business, gives a kind of inner satisfaction
Social Entrepreneur - I see my mentor as a brilliant and smart business doctor: not always easy or enjoyable to talk to, but a really relevant, critical eye on my business
Social Entrepreneur - My mentor has helped to build my confidence and I am genuinely grateful for his commitment to me. He has been a great sounding board and a great listener