MENTOR 35th Anniversary Highlight: Knowledge Building Partners
October 28, 2025
MENTOR’s 35th Anniversary partnerships spotlight takes a deep dive into some of our knowledge building partners throughout the years.
Partnerships have continued to serve as a foundational pillar for MENTOR to continue to expand quality mentoring and mentorship.
NFL
The NFL first began supporting MENTOR in 1997 through the annual National Recognition Event the league hosted. Through the NFL’s Inspire Change Racial Justice Capacity Building Grants Program grant in 2021, MENTOR became one of the league’s social justice partners in the education category, partnering on opportunities that supported educational and economic advancement. On a federal level, this included advocacy for juvenile justice reform, advancing education, and closing the digital divide. The NFL supported MENTOR’s youth advocates, and MENTOR’s work with increasing relationship-centered schools by working with MENTOR Affiliates and helping to develop workforce programs. In working with MENTOR, MENTOR Affiliates were able to access pass through grants through this partnership. MENTOR was also a featured nonprofit during the NFL’s Inspire Change commercial that aired nationally. In 2022, MENTOR joined the NFL and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for a virtual conversation titled “Drafting Mentors for the Future.” Kimmi Chex from NFL Network moderated the conversation with Arizona Cardinals offensive lineman Kelvin Beachum and Pro Bowler Thomas Davis. Speakers reflected on challenges, highlighting bright spots as they looked ahead to the future of mentorship. The NFL has supported the National Mentoring Summit and the launch and growth of the Emerging Leaders Track of curated skill- and community-building sessions designed by and for young people.
American Student Assistance (ASA)
During the opening plenary session at the 2020 National Mentoring Summit, American Student Assistance and MENTOR announced a three-year, $3 million commitment that was aimed at addressing the social capital inequities that exist for young people across the country. Speaking about the partnership, Jean Eddy, CEO and President of ASA, said, “Navigating all possible education and career pathways can be daunting, even with the many resources available. This is where mentors play such a critical role in a student’s journey. We know we must do more to address capital inequities that exist for young people across the country and that is why ASA is committing significant resources and joining forces with MENTOR to meet the relationship needs of our young people. We know we can go further together.”
As part of the partnership, MENTOR and ASA launched a national awareness and influence campaign that stressed the centrality of relationships for healthy youth development and thriving communities to create systematic change. MENTOR and ASA also partnered to create and pilot a relationship-centered schools initiative for schools and districts to help scale proven approaches to meeting the relationship needs of young people so that they could thrive in learning environments. Lastly, MENTOR and ASA worked on increasing grassroots advocacy and policy efforts to help educate policymakers on the impact and proven return of centering relationships within youth-serving systems.
Hyatt
MENTOR announced workforce development as a priority in one of the latest iterations of the organization’s strategic plan to help improve outcomes for youth and young adults across the country. MENTOR’s workforce development strategy focused on three primary activities which included: assisting employers in developing a Mentoring Mindset, supporting MENTOR’s Affiliate organizations to establish sustainable and meaningful connections to regional and national employers, and refining America’s workforce development systems to benefit young people through local activations.
MENTOR was first attracted to working with Hyatt through Hyatt’s RiseHY program, which has allowed Hyatt to introduce thousands of young people around the world to careers in hospitality. MENTOR and Hyatt’s connection has continued to evolve. In January 2020, we partnered on a 10K Coalition/Hire Opportunity Coalition presentation.
In 2022, MENTOR partnered with Hyatt Hotels on work funded by the Hyatt Hotels Foundation, and the AHLA Foundation to develop a hospitality toolkit for new and expanded mentoring programs across the hospitality field which catered to employers.
MENTOR has worked with Hyatt on an investment in relationship-centered workplace infrastructure to develop a culture of mentoring interactions between employees and managers.
Juma Ventures
“Mentorship is really part of the fiber of what Juma does,” said Mason Moore in 2022, serving as Juma Ventures Chief Impact Officer. “From our enterprise staff who mentor youth on the job to programs staff who work with our young people on their career goals and skills like financial capability, mentorship is at the heart of what we do. So having MENTOR to help us learn best practices that we can use to strengthen mentoring relationships between Juma youth and staff and then share with our partners is a really intuitive step forward for Juma.”
Through a grant from The Schultz Family Foundation, Juma Ventures and MENTOR worked together to pilot a series of trainings for Juma youth and adult staff in the cities of Seattle, Sacramento, and San Jose. The focus was our Connect ǀFocus ǀGrow training curriculum to help create a mentoring mindset and improve the effectiveness of mentor/mentee relationships.
In addition to the partners listed above, MENTOR has also worked with a variety of direct service coalition partners throughout the years connect Current coalition partners in the policy and advocacy space include: Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Girls Inc., National 4-H Council, National Recreation and Park Association, Youth Collaboratory, the U.S. Soccer Foundation, and the YMCA of the USA.
Partnerships continue to provide a strong foundation for the work that MENTOR leads, helping to ensure that quality mentors are provided to all young people across the country.