Mentorship Insights
Connext: Emerging Nonprofit Leaders is the young professionals networking group underneath the Nonprofit Connect umbrella. Connext promotes the recruitment, development and retention of young professionals in the nonprofit sector to support and enhance a strong, dynamic nonprofit community. Learn more about Connext.
Mentorship is an integral part of leadership development for young professionals. But many wonder, “How do I find a mentor?” or “How can I ensure the mentorship relationship is mutually beneficial”?
In March, Connext: Emerging Nonprofit Professionals hosted a roundtable discussing all things mentorship. Both mentors and their mentees shared their insights and learnings with us. Here are the highlights.
Identify where you want to grow
“It starts with the mentee first thinking about what they want to get out of it…Do you want to get out of it some industry growth – like, I want to better understand the marketing industry, so I’m going to pick a marketing type of a mentor – or I want to better understand my growth & development as a leader, so I’m going to pick someone whose leadership I admire? Or, do I just want to pick someone because I like their personal journey of growth? So really understanding where you’re at and what you’re wanting. It can be a plethora of things, and that’s why mentorships all look so different.” — Victoria Kand, Mentor
Make the ask
“I really admired her (Lynn Parman) then and I had done my research about how she interacts with the community and how she’s engaged with our organization.So I wrote her a note just candidly asking if she would consider being my mentor. She was so sweet and said yes…It was one of the best things I’ve ever done and the scariest things I’ve ever done – it’s a lot like dating! From then on, it’s been a great relationship, very organic, and I’ve learned so much from Lynn.”— Kristine Vainovska Twidwell, Mentee
On structured vs. organic mentorship
“For it to be a structured mentorship where you have objectives and you’re working on things, I think it’s always good to be in a relationship with someone where you have some way to observe them, interact with their work, and that should go both ways if possible…there should be some level of intersection – if [your mentorship] is more organic in nature, it’s probably good for it to be someone who works in a different department, maybe someone you admire within the organization.
My formal mentor was the CFO of my organization who saw me in meetings, but I did not directly report to her. I admired her, how she interacted with people, how she led people, and I wanted to learn more.” — Lynn Parman, Mentor
Be flexible
“Victoria and I are in a formal mentorship, part of that process involved our group of mentors and mentees meeting as a large group every month, and then the mentor & mentee met individually every month. Then there was a less formal structure we were advised to follow the second year. And you can guess, COVID hit and that really changed plans. Victoria and I don’t meet every month, but we keep up with each other – it has been through phone calls, Zoom calls, whatever works. You just have to be open to change, even if you are in a structured, formal process. It will happen – someone will have to take a trip or miss a meeting, and you have to be able to be flexible.” — James Maiden, Mentee
We’re so grateful for the mentors and mentees who shared their experiences with us — thank you! If you’re a young professional looking to grow and develop, join Connext at an upcoming program. Learn more here.
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