Unleashing Influence of Business School Students

On LinkedIn I'm following a series of posts by Brad Fulton, of Indiana University, showing how they are "Building a comprehensive data analytics platform that integrates information from millions of tax filings, grants and other sources related to philanthropic giving."

I introduced his work and provided links in this article about "Making Philanthropy Work Better".

More recently I've been following LinkedIn posts by Daniel Max Crowley of Penn State University, such as the one I show below. 

Dr. Crowley is challenging universities to rethink how they use their research to increase public impact.  I  introduced Dr. Fulton to Dr. Crowley this week, since getting more people to find and use the philanthropy research, can be part of the strategies Dr. Crowley advocates for.

This is something I've tried to influence for more than 25 years.  Find the graphic shown below in this article, titled "Leaders Needed to Solve Complex Problems". 

In that article I called on more strategic involvement from universities and shared a student-involvement strategy that I began framing in the late 1990s.  In 2006 a Net Impact Fellow from the University of Chicago formalized it in a wiki article titled "Business School Connection".

Here's a paragraph summarizing the goal.

The Business School Connection is an concept strategy created by the Tutor Mentor Connection in the mid 1990s. Its goal is to create a link between business schools and tutor mentor organizations around the nation where business schools and their students use the skills they are learning in an on-going effort to increase visibility and raise operating dollars and volunteers to support volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the city where a business school is located, and in other parts of the country. The T/MC believes that MBA students have unique ways of thinking and valuable connections that can be used to channel monetary and in-kind resources to tutor mentor organizations.

Below is a graphic showing the year-round public awareness and network-building strategy that I began in 1993 and still follow in 2026.  

Imagine what might happen if students from business schools, marketing and communications classes and journalism schools were running campaigns every year that use data like what Brad Fulton is collecting, to draw attention and resources to every high poverty zip code in the country. Imagine this being a competition between high profile universities, to see who does it better.

If the work done in one year, by one team of students, is saved on a website at the university, all teams could learn from what was done in the past in an on-going effort to do better in the future.  Sharing this resource across many universities would accelerate the innovations and the impact of this program on the well-being of the community surrounding the university.

Imagine the slices of the leadership pie in the upper left side of this graphic being different business schools, who each focus on building more support for youth-serving programs in their communities. See it in this article. 

Last fall and this spring students from an Information Visualization MOOC at Indiana University created dashboards to show participation in the 1994 to 2015 May and November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted in Chicago.  This was a follow up to earlier work done in 2014. They showed how data can be collected from registration forms and/or surveys then uploaded into visualization tools like Kumu.io, Gephi and Tableau.  Below is one example.

You can read about the IVMOOC work in articles found here and here.

Now imagine a team of students using the tools the IVMOOC teams have created to identify all of the departments within a university ecosystem that focus on a common issue, which could be very narrow, like tutoring, or much broader, like education and youth development.

Connecting those already doing this work is a step toward identifying those who are not yet involved.  I suspect not many business schools would show up on the first round of surveys if the goal was to find programs aimed at expanding the networks of kids living in areas of concentrated poverty.

Last month this blog recorded 519,578 page views.  That's a huge increase over previous months. I'm not sure what is driving this, but I hope it continues and that it leads to people from more places looking at the ideas I'm sharing.  Maybe one will be someone like Mackenzie Scott, who's looking for new ways to make a lasting impact with their wealth.  

Funding a Tutor/Mentor Connection with Business School Connection at one or more universities would be a great investment.

Thanks for reading.  Connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, BlueSky and/or Mastodon.  See links on this page.

I depend on contributions from a small group of supporters to fund the work I'm doing.  Visit this page if you'd like to help.

25 years later. Funding still major concern.

My LinkedIn feed includes a daily helping of posts by Chicago area tutor/mentor programs and by consultants and other intermediaries who share ideas for helping nonprofit organizations attract and retain donors.  

Raising money has always been a challenge for myself and most other small and mid-size nonprofit organizations.  The current US Federal Government is compounding this challenge.  

This prompted me to look at some of the articles I wrote about this in past years.  Below is text from a 2009 article

....begin 2009....

This morning I attended a Literacy Roundtable, hosted by Jeanne Myers, Executive Director of Working in the Schools (WITS). The aim was to encourage programs to get to know each other, identify common challenges, then work in collaboration to overcome those challenges.

In attendance were many programs listed in the Chicago Programs Library and who participate in Tutor/Mentor Conferences. There were also a few programs that I was not familiar with, since they focus on adult literacy, or deliver their services primarily in schools.

The roster included

Literacy Works
Bookworm Angels
Jumpstart Program at DePaul
Howard Area Community Center*
Reading in Motion*
WITS*
826CHI*
East Village Youth Program*
Literacy Volunteers of Illinois*
Literature for All of Us*
Cabrini Connections
Chicago Lights*
Neighborhood Writing Alliance
Youth Guidance*

*in Chicago Program Links library

Everyone was asked to share what they do and identify challenges. A majority listed lack of funding, and “too much to do with limited staff” as the primary challenge. Those working with Chicago Public Schools noted how difficult it was to get response from the Central Office and Administrators, and how it was more productive to work directly with teachers.

A few shared frustration about how donors expectations were not aligned with the long-term nature of the tutoring/mentoring programs many of us lead. A few talked about how we “Try to sneak literacy and learning into” our programs and “trick kids to be excited” about learning. One leader said we’re “inching toward things where they (donors) expect very measurable fireworks.”

Everyone agreed that this type of networking was valuable, and WITS suggested such events be held quarterly. I urged them to consider holding their November and May meetings within the Tutor/Mentor Conference structure, rather than creating a separate set of meetings at different places. The goal of the conference is not just to bring people together, but to build public awareness that draws volunteers and donors to tutor/mentor programs all over the city. As programs see this in their self-interest, we hope more will become strategically involved with the conference and activities around the conference that increase visibility for tutor/mentor programs.

One leader suggested creating a new web site with listings and links for all of the literacy programs in Chicago. I encouraged them to first see if they were listed in the T/MC library, and were using it for collaboration, before they create a new web site that someone would need to manage on a regular basis to keep the data up-to-date as we do at the T/MC.

One leader noted that for people to be motivated to keep coming to meeting like this the group would need to “expand the resource pie” so that everyone would get some tangible funding relief as a result of their participation.

I’ve posted a graphic that is in one of the presentations on the Tutor/Mentor Institute web site. It illustrates the many funding choices the people and organizations make. Our goal is that every business and foundation in the Chicago region (and the country) has a slice of their donation pie dedicated to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs like the ones many of us lead, and that they are taking leadership roles that encourage employees, retirees and customers to provide time, talent and dollars to support programs within the tutor/mentor category.

I ended my comments by urging each program to use their own communications ability to share information about this meeting, and to help educate donors on why they should fund volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs. Imagine if 25 or 50 tutor/mentor programs in Chicago were using blogs, Facebook, Ning and other forums with the same purpose and vision that I write this blog.

We talked about meeting again and I encouraged leaders to use the Internet to connect with each other. I think face-to-face meetings are important, but it's difficult to get all of the right people into a set of on-going meetings. With the Internet, anyone can be part of the meeting, regardless of where they are in the world.

I believe we have a lot of room to grow in this area. I think many of the non-profit tutor/mentor program leaders in Chicago, and many of the business and foundation leaders we want to connect with, are not actively using the internet for learning, collaboration and capacity building. I say that just because I don't find many forums where there is active participation of other tutor/mentor programs from Chicago, or of those who would benefit if such programs were having a greater impact in helping kids through school and into jobs.

This is a challenge to all of us. What good is all of this information if high level city, state and national leaders are not spending a few hours each week browsing web sites to learn directly from the ideas that are available to them. Having someone on your staff tell you about what they read on a web site is not the same thing as looking at that information with your own eyeballs.

If we want kids to learn to use this resource, we need to find ways that our adults, and older generation of leaders, are finding time to explore it themselves.

If you attended today’s meeting, or share the same concerns, why not write about it on a blog, or on Facebook. Why not join in on-line discussions to share more about what you do, and what you feel you and others can do to increase the size of the pie, so all of us have the resources needed to help kids succeed in school and in life.

If you're already doing this, please share your link and we'll try to give you attention from our own blog and web site, just as I have by putting links to programs in this blog.

---- end 2009 article ----

I mentioned the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences in this post and said most of those at that meeting probably have attended one, or more, conferences.  In Nov. 2025 a team of students from Indiana University created an interactive Kumu.io presentation that enables you to look at conferences held each year and see who attended.  Below is a view of a 2000 conference showing the Working In the Schools program.

Below is a view of the 2009 conferences. You'll find WITS and Chicago Lights among the organizations who attended both conferences that year.

The analysis of these conferences show that we were successful in bringing programs together to learn from each other.  It also shows that we were not successful in bringing business, professional groups and donors into the same space.  You can open the presentation and look for your own organization. click here

The challenges of raising money where not new, even in 2009.  During the conferences held in the early 2000s a volunteer hosted surveys asking programs what the greatest challenges were. You can view a summary of comments in this visual essay.

People and resources were the top two concerns.  Look on page 9 and 10 for definitions of what they meant by saying "people" and "resources".  That was true then. It was true in 2009. It's true in 2026.

I've posted more than 120 articles on this blog since 2005 that have a primary focus on philanthropy.  I pointed to these articles at each conference held between 2005 and 2015 and have continued to point to them via social media and my email newsletter in the years since then.

I included the above graphic in a January 2025 article, reinforcing the need for NPOs to work together to educate donors and expand the funding pie, then compete for a larger slice. 

There's too much information and too little time to read even a small part of it. That's why I keep seeking partners in high schools and universities who might use my blog articles, website and archives as content for on-going learning aimed at building a generation of nonprofit leaders who are constantly learning and looking for ways to connect with others, along with a ecosystem of alumni who have learned the value of youth-serving programs and use on-line libraries like mine to find programs that they can support.

Getting my articles in front of more readers is the first challenge. So while I thank you for reading this, I urge you to share it with others. 

Then, connect with me on social media. You can find links to various platforms on this page.

Finally, if you're able, please visit this page and make a small contribution to help me pay the bills!

Same message. 20 years later.

Below is a collection of photos showing myself along with students and volunteers of the Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program that I formed in late 1992 and led through mid 2011.

We did not have any dedicated funding in late 1992 when seven of us got together and decided to start Cabrini Connections, and a second program that was named the Tutor/Mentor Connection in mid 1993.  We'd all been part of a program that was started in 1965 by a few employees from the Montgomery Ward Headquarters in Chicago, which connected 2nd through 6th grade youth from the Cabrini-Green neighborhood with workplace volunteers.  I joined as a volunteer tutor in the fall of 1973 and became it's volunteer leader in the summer of 1975.  I led it for the next 17 years while holding full-time retail advertising jobs.

That program is now Tutoring Chicago and they've bee sharing videos on their website celebrating their 60th year anniversary.  Many include photos from the yearbooks I created and several have interviews with youth and volunteers from those years.  They do a great job of showing what a well-organized, long-term program could look like.

From 1965 to 1970 volunteers and youth met in a building on Chicago Avenue, near the corporate complex.  It moved to the basement cafeteria of the Wards Merchandise building in 1970 and to the first floor of the former Catalog building in 1980. From 1970 to 1990 Montgomery Ward provided space, security, utilities, janitorial services, printing, postage, insurance, etc. These were items that we began to pay for once we became a non-profit in 1990.  All of the program leaders, starting with myself, were volunteers. Most had full time jobs at Wards.  Thus, the expenses were low and there was no need for fund raising.

That changed in 1990 when we became a nonprofit and we started to pay a few people, including myself, to lead and operate the program.  Part of that work involved raising the money needed.  I had no experience in fund raising, but spent 17 years at Wards in retail advertising.  I applied those lessons to my fund raising efforts. We raised $114,000 the first year and $214,000 the second year. 

Then I left the program due to differences in philosophy between myself and the Board of Directors who I had recruited in 1990.  With six other volunteers we formed Cabrini Connections.  As part of the responsibility of leading that program over the next 18 years, I was the chief fund raiser and grant writer.

I wrote this article in December 2005, expressing some of my ideas and frustrations. I think those thoughts are still valid today, as we head into 2026.

--- start 2005 ---- 

I've been reading blogs on charity and philanthropy listed in the Non Profit Blog Exchange and in one the message is: Do your donors a big favor: ask them to give.

I cannot tell you how often over the past 13 years I've struggled to ask for money and how difficult others also seem to find this. Yet, here's a blogger saying that we're doing donors a favor because it feels good to give!!

I know this is true about giving of your time, but it seems harder when you're asking people to give their money. Yet, what's the difference? Time is money!! Therefore, as you head to the Christmas or Kwanzaa or Hanukkah feast, why not make everyone feel better by asking them to give to a charity that needs more dollars to do its work.

You can read more about "making donors feel good" on the Donor Power Blog, found at http://www.donorpowerblog.com/donor_power_blog/. This is one of several non-profit blogs linked together in the December 2005 Non Profit Blog Exchange.

Let me talk about this from the other perspective. I lead a small non profit. I've had former students and volunteers tell me how much being part of Cabrini Connections has changed their lives. I've had people from around the country tell me how they have started new mentoring initiatives based on the information they found on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site or how much they valued the information. Yet, I've also had to reach into my own pocket to pay the bills each year because I could not find enough donors to share this vision with me. (2025 note - that has never changed)

For charities like Cabrini Connections, the last six weeks of the year are critically important. We raise almost 40% of our annual revenue in these weeks. I'm please to say that we've received significant grants from HSBC, Hewitt, Kraft Employee Fund, Polk Bros Foundation, the Wm Wrigley Jr. Co. Foundation and many donations ranging from $5 to $1,000 from dozens of individuals these past few weeks, so my Christmas stocking is filling up.

But it's not overflowing, which means unless we find more donations this week and in the coming months, we'll be borrowing money in June and July to pay the rent!!

Not all charities are as good as others in raising money. There are many who do excellent work but work in relative isolation and struggle to find funds to do their work. We set up the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 (and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011) to try to change the way funds were raised and distributed to tutor/mentor programs in Chicago. We've piloted GIS maps to show where these programs are needed, based on where poverty and poorly performing schools are most concentrated. We've created a searchable database to help people learn what programs are in what zip codes, or if there are zip codes where more programs are needed. You can find this in the Program Locator, now an archive, at https://tinyurl.com/ProgramLocatorSearch 

I spend time writing blogs like this to try to help all of these programs get the resources they need, not just the programs I lead. I try to teach others to follow this example because I think it can increase the donor pool that supports all of us.

Note. When I wrote this in 2005, I was still leading the Cabrini Connections program.  Thus, if you want to feel good, but don't want to send a contribution to Cabrini Connections, we offer you dozens of other programs in Chicago where you can help kids and mentors connect. Furthermore, if you search the LINKS library, we offer you almost 900 links to organizations who do great work in all parts of the US, and who seek charitable contributions to sustain what they do.  That library is now here.

I have been doing this work for more than 30 years. I've been blessed in more ways that I can count, starting with the kids and volunteers who have let me be part of their lives, and going on to my own children who are the result of me meeting and marrying a women who I met in 1980 when she became a volunteer in the program I was leading.

I hope that many of you have found the same type of joy from giving of your time, talent and treasure. And I hope you'll keep giving until it feels good!!

As you celebrate this holiday please look for ways to share some of your own blessings with people who are helping kids and who are trying to end poverty through mentoring and career education. ...or who are doing other forms of charity and service that also need to be funded with your contributions.

To all who have helped Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, with their donations, with their volunteer contributions, and with their encouragement, I say "Thank You!"

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

--- end 2005 article ----

Reach out and give till it feels good!  Boy is that needed now in 2025, in the USA, and all over the world.

I hope you'll read more of my blog articles and share them in  your networks and that we connect on one, or many, social media platforms in 2026.

I'll be 79 on December 19th, and would greatly appreciate if you'd make a contribution to light a candle on my cake. Click here. 

Target holiday and year-round giving to high poverty areas

 On Sunday the Chicago SunTimes and WBEZChicago published a story about how life expectancy in some neighborhoods of Chicago is much lower than in others.  Below is the map that was in the SunTimes story, and which can be found on the WBEZ site. 

I included some text from the article with the map.  The top paragraph says, 

"In a city with a deep history of segregation, Chicago public health officials view the gap through the lens of race. They say four main drivers — heart disease, homicide, opioid overdoses and cancer — fuel shorter lives among Chicagoans who are Black compared to residents of other races. In many cases, these deaths are preventable."

The bottom paragraph reads,

"In West Garfield Park, merely living is much harder than in most parts of Chicago, according to a “hardship index” that incorporates unemployment, income and other factors. Around 40% of households make less than $25,000 a year, data shows. The majority of residents are unemployed or stopped looking for a job"

I've been writing about this for over 20 years.  In 2008 I followed a SunTimes report titled "Schooled in Fear" with these articles. 

As we began 2025 I wrote an article titled, "Inequality. So much data. So little change."

In that article I included this Chicago Tribune story and map from 1994.

This is not a new problem.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving, then the year-end holidays, I urge you to form a study group and start reading some of the articles I've posted on this blog, and some of the information I've shared in this section of the Tutor/Mentor library.

Then read some of my articles about philanthropy, such as this one.

And read my invitation to universities, such as this one.

I created this concept map several years ago to show that youth, families and schools in areas of persistent poverty face many challenges.

Helping volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods is one way to provide extra support that helps kids through school and into adult lives.  It's also a way to increase the number of adults from beyond poverty who become personally involved, through the bonds they form with the kids they work with.

But each node of this map points to issues that need to be addressed concurrently.  It's a huge challenge and something that won't be solved in a short term of any single elected official.  

What I've been doing as a one-man operation since 2011 and a small organization since 1993, needs to be owned by one or more universities in Chicago and other cities so an on-going input of student manpower and talent can do the work of a Tutor/Mentor Connection, and learn habits that they can use once they graduate, and for the rest of their lives, to help reduce these challenges and create a brighter future for all of us.

That ownership can come if one or more wealthy donors provides the multi-year funding needed to make it happen.  

As you celebrate the holidays, think about what's shown in the graphic below.

Everyone celebrating with you represents different talents, skills and resources that could be part of a long-term strategy.  Many have people in their own networks who also have these skills. And some may know a "super hero" who would make a major gift, if they were asked.

Read the articles. Share them. Start a study group. Pick neighborhoods to support. Pick organizations in those neighborhoods where you can offer time, talent and dollars.  Identify and elect legislative representatives who will create policy that mobilizes and distributes an on-going flow of operating resources to EVERY neighborhood with concentrations of persistent poverty.

Do this and you'll also connect with people and ideas that focus on saving our Democracy.

Thanks for reading. Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, BlueSky or any other platform that I show on this page.

And, if you're able help me celebrate my December 19th, 79th birthday with a gift that lights a candle on my cake.

Or a gift to my on-going Fund T/MI campaign. 

Tipping Point Articles - add Vu Le to your reading

Several years ago, I posted an article featuring this graphic to show what universities could be doing to build a pipeline of new leaders into the youth development program sector as staff and leaders, and as people who proactively support such programs with their time, talent and dollars.

If this were happening, it would be a Tipping Point.

Today I read a new blog article by Vu Le, titled "Donor engagement and the retail-ification of equity and justice".  Everything he says resonates with my own experiences.

I have a link to his blog in a sub-section of the Tutor/Mentor library that focuses on "Challenges Facing NPOs".  

His articles, and the rest of the resources I point to should be part of any curriculum developed as a Tipping Point for reimagining how nonprofit and social benefit organizations are funded.

I hope you'll read these and share them in your networks.

NOTE. While my goal is to create a pipeline of new leaders, and new donors, for tutor, mentor, youth development and workforce development programs that reach K-12 youth in every high poverty zip code, this same model could be adopted to fix America's broken education system, and the widening gap between rich and poor, white and colored, urban and rural.  It's a long term strategy but needs a beginning.

Innovating new funding solutions

I wish peace, good health and happiness to all who celebrate any religious holiday this weekend.  However, I'm not sure any GOD is going to help us unless we do more to help ourselves.  Thus....

A few days ago I shared an article titled, "Funders, here's the blueprint for saving democracy", written by Vu Le.   I wrote about it in this article. 

I've used the term "blueprint" in many articles, to show a range of actions that donors, leaders, policy-makers, etc. need to be taking to help make sure well-organized, long-term, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs are available in EVERY high poverty area of Chicago and other places with concentrations of persistent poverty.

I've been using this "Mentoring Kids to Careers" graphic, along with various versions, since late 1990s, to emphasize the same goals.

In the lower left corner is a map of Chicago, with high poverty areas shaded grey. These are the areas where mentor-rich programs are most needed BECAUSE of how they can expand social capital and aspirations and open doors to opportunity.  

What makes my work unique is that I don't just point to the research.  I maintain a list of Chicago volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs and look for ways to draw volunteers AND donors DIRECTLY to each program, throughout the year.   My long-term goal has been that a program website serves as the "grant proposal" and donors use that, plus the information I share about long-term mentoring, and the need for such programs in high poverty areas, to make funding decisions.

In this article you can find my list of programs and see how I plot them on a map. This helps people find existing programs and hopefully is used by planners to determine where more are needed.

Below I've created another version, highlighting one stage on my career ladder.

Kids grow one year at a time. Support  needed for many years.

It's great to be able to provide a youth tutoring and/or mentoring activity that lasts for one, or two years, but it takes 12 years to move from first grade through high school and four to six more years beyond that to be starting a job and career. Expanding the "who you know" network is critically important for kids living in areas of segregated, concentrated poverty where "who they know" is not as extensive as it is for kids living in more affluent areas.

The challenge Chicago and other places face is building and sustaining k-12 support programs in every high poverty neighborhood.  I've written about this often since starting my blog.  

View in this article

I've been writing articles and sharing graphics like this for nearly 20 years, but as just one voice, I don't have enough impact to influence the massive changes that are needed in how such programs are organized, designed and supported.

Below is another graphic that I use to emphasize the need for continuous flows of flexible operating dollars to youth programs in every high poverty neighborhood.

View in this article

The benefit of long-term support of mentor-rich programs as a form of social capital was reinforced in this 2023 article which points to a report from MENTOR, titled "Opportunities to Invest in Long-Term Social Capital for Our Youth: A Philanthropic Agenda".    

View this group of articles and find more research that donors can use to support funding decisions.

Here's an article about philanthropy that I wrote about in 2018 after it was published by Open Impact. It's titled, "The New Normal: Capacity Building During a Time of Disruption"

I read the article and saw many ideas which I've been trying to implement via the Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC since 1993. So I decided to put it on Hypothes.is and re-read it, highlighting relevant parts, and writing comments in the margin that show my own efforts.

In the paper's introduction the writers say "we hope this paper will spark and important conversation". I agree. 

In my comments I suggest that philanthropy would dramatically change if donors were shoppers and if non-profits and social change organizations would put enough information on their web sites for donors, volunteers and clients to make better choices of who they support, and in what ways.  I also emphasize the use of maps to support a better distribution of resources to all high poverty areas of the Chicago region and other places where help is most needed.

Read about Annotation

Thus, I invite you to read "The New Normal: Capacity Building During a Time of Disruption" with three purposes:

1) build a deeper understanding of what I've been trying to do, and to find reasons to support my efforts and help carry them into the future;

2) build a deeper understanding of the challenges facing all social benefit organizations, in the US and the world, and a commitment to draw others into this conversation; and

3) see how on-line annotation works and build a commitment to launch other articles and invite more readers and learners to join in.

I look forward to meeting you in the margins.

So far no one has joined me in reading the New Normal article.   Maybe that's because so few people actually see my articles.

I post on Facebook, Twitter, BlueSky, Mastodon and LinkedIN and occasionally on Instagram. I also have graphics on Pinterest.com.  If you do a Google search for "tutor mentor" my web sites will be on the first page (after paid advertising). Thus, if people are looking, they can find me.

If you're connected to any youth-serving programs in any way (student, alum, volunteer, board member, staff, donor) you can help them attract support by sharing what the organization is doing and making an effort to raise the organization's profile.

You can even write articles like mine.

Thanks for reading!  Enjoy your weekend.

Small voice in big universe of problems

I'm starting a new week, like I've started new weeks for the past 20-30 years. Recommitting myself to using my small voice to try to have a positive impact on the lives of people living in areas of concentrated poverty. 

As I though about how to write this I searched for "slice of the pie" to find a graphic that I created in the 1990s showing many issues that require attention, and how the "youth in poverty, and volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs" category is just one small slice of that pie. I found an article I wrote in 2015 and updated in 2020. I've reposted it below, with updates for 2025. 

The fires in Los Angeles and the hurricanes that hit the US South East states in November are just the two latest massive disasters that will require many years of consistent effort for people in the affected areas to recover.  This is not a new problem. 

In September 2005 I wrote an article titled "Disaster challenges us all".  In it I wrote,

"For the next few weeks there will be a tremendous outpouring of charitable donations to support relief efforts, just as there was in the weeks following the Tsunami. However, following this there will be a need for donations to continue for a decade or more. 

However, in six months or a year there will be another disaster that will mobilize public attention. Then the people who need Tsunami aid, and the people who need Katrina aid, will be off the front page and struggling to find the dollars needed to continue rebuilding their communities."  Read the article. 

This graphic is part of a strategy graphic that shows the planning steps needed to solve complex problems or roll out a new business strategy. See the full graphic and explanation here.

Every year, millions of dollars are spent by social benefit organizations trying to attract resource to support their work. The money is spent directly on fund raising, marketing and public education. It's spent indirectly on training programs and consultants.

Regardless of where an organization operates or what cause it focuses on, we're all competing for a slice of the same donor pie. That pie seems to be shrinking, either because of economic circumstances, or because of the rise in organizations competing for a share of the pie. Natural disasters that occur randomly around the world exert a huge pull on discretionary donor dollars every time they happen.

In the last few cycles elections have also drawn a huge share of donor dollars.

In my 2005 article, I wrote, 

"I spent 17 years doing corporate advertising for a large retail store. We sent out 3 waves of advertising each week to 20 million people in 40 states telling potential customers that we had stoves, clothes, tires and other merchandise they wanted in one of 400 stores that we operated. We also spent millions of dollars in making sure we had the right merchandise in those stores, well trained people, and that the stores were in the right locations. 

Each store had a responsibility to do its own advertising and training but because of the support from the national advertising and training, each store was able to attract customers on a regular basis, at a fraction of what it would cost if each had to create their own advertising campaign."

I've not found any city with a consistent, on-going effort to support all tutor/mentor programs in that city the same way big companies supported hundreds of retail stores spread all over the country.

Thus, it's unlikely that great programs, doing similar work, but in different places, will be available in a large percent of the places where such programs are needed. 

Since 1993 I've piloted uses of maps to show where non-school tutor/mentor programs are most needed, then using the maps to influence donor support of programs in every place where the map shows programs are needed. In recent years there is a growing application of mapping and data visualization (see examples on this concept map). However, I still don't see many who are trying to create maps of all service providers doing similar work in areas where that work is needed. Such maps would show a poor distribution of needed programs. Over time it would show change as new programs launch and some go out of business.

It's also unlikely that many organizations will attract on-going dollars to enable them to provide long-term support. In youth development, this is a serious issue. Kids take 12 to 20 years to move from first grade to first job. If they are living in high poverty areas, the support system needs to reach them early and stay with them through school and even into work. Such support systems are needed in many, many places.

Architects, engineers, web developers, etc. all use some form of blueprint to show all of the work that needs to be done, in the correct sequence, and with the right talent, to build a tower, a rocket, or any other product.

In disaster recovery, or helping kids through school and into careers, I feel that this is missing.  Take a look at this concept map.

It shows some of the supports kids need at each grade level as they move through school. It includes a map showing high poverty areas of Chicago, where these supports are most needed (because they are not naturally available).  It also shows a role volunteers and extra adults can take. 

I've seen list posted on social media showing supplies people need in LA because of the fires, but not a concept map that shows what's needed from today (fighting fires/finding places to live) until some day in the future when these areas have been rebuilt and when all the people affected have rebuilt their lives.

Without the blueprint a lot of money will be spent, but without an accumulated long term impact. Without a map, only a few places will get the help it needs.

What's the solution?

Building public will is step 7 on this map. Each step is important in solving complex problems. However, until more people from different places, with different talents, and different levels of influence get involved in brainstorming ways to build public support and keep it growing, I don't see many long-term solutions emerging.

I created this graphic (see article) to illustrate that while we want to help social benefit organizations and clients use the resources available to achieve their missions and/or overcome challenges they face, we also need to influence what people who don't live in poverty do to help them. This can include direct support such as funding, or public policy. It can also include indirect support, such as removing barriers and obstacles.

Some (but certainly not all) of the actions we need to be focusing on include:

a) constant education of the public so they have deeper understanding of the problems and places where strong, constantly improving, social benefit organizations are needed

b) innovation of on-going advertising-type campaigns to influence what resource providers do

c) build growing understanding of how current systems of philanthropic and government support are not working.

Just a small growth of the resource pie every year could make a huge impact on the availability of needed social benefit organizations (including tutoring/mentoring organizations) in more of the places where they are most needed.

Building public will requires champions and leaders from every sector, in every city of the world. I'm certain that this discussion is taking place. I'm just not sure where this is an on-line forum, a cMOOC, or part of a web library that points to a wide range of places where this is being discussed.

I've started using BlueSky more than Twitter. However, while I find groups of educators and a good discussion of nonprofit issues I still don't find volunteer-based youth serving organizations, their donors, the media, or their researchers.    

I've been sharing this message, along with a library or resources, and list of existing programs operating in Chicago, since 1994.  Yet, I find almost no leaders using a collection of graphics similar to those I've put into this article, to share their own commitment to this same goal.

Ideas bursting in air!

I launch my ideas on blog articles every week, then spread them, like fireworks via social media. As you and others pass them on in your own feeds, we reach more people, and maybe convince some to take on leadership roles in this effort.  Such leaders can be from any city in the USA, or from other parts of the world!

Thanks for reading. I'm a small voice, just a whisper in the wilderness. But if you share, we can roar like a lion.

Please share.  I'd like to hear from you.

Use the comment section to provide links to open, on-line forums, social media groups, or cMOOCs that you're aware of, where "building public will" is the focus of the group. Or introduce yourself to me on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Finally, it's a new year and once again I need to raise a few thousand dollars to cover the costs of maintaining the Tutor/Mentor library, writing this blog and trying to be a spark that ignites a massive increase in using these ideas.  Visit this page to make a contribution. 

Support long-term mentoring.

 A couple of weeks ago I shared new research on mentoring in this article.

I hope you'll take time to read it. One of the key points was the  mismatch between how philanthropy funds long-term programs and the need for long-term programs to build and sustain relationships, or "who you know". 

Then take a look at this article, which includes the graphic shown below.

If we want to help more kids living today in high poverty areas move safely through school and into adult lives, with jobs that enable them to raise their own kids free of poverty, we must innovate ways to generate on-going operating dollars to a wide ecosystem of organizations in Chicago and other communities.

On Saturday I watched via ZOOM a  panel discussion from the STEMM Opportunity Alliance conference held in Chicago. One of the speakers used the term "Cathedral Building" to describe visionary work that will take many generations to complete.

I just heard a #STEMMforALL speaker from @aaas use the term #CathedralBuilding when envisioning a long-term strategy to bring more POC into #STEMM careers. https://t.co/fg1dx4x3do

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) August 5, 2023

I think my work is Cathedral Building, too.  Maybe it's impossible.  It certainly will take decades. This reminds me of an article I posted several years ago about the Tower of Babel, from the Old Testament. 

According to the Bible story God saw that men might work together to solve impossible problems and thus he gave them different languages so they could not communicate with each other.

But, is this God's will, or the will of people in power and privilidge, who are supported by religious leaders?  Below is an image from an article I read this weekend, titled "How we got stuck: The origins of hierarchy and inequality"

These are all related.  People in power don't want to solve the problems we face. They want to protect their positions of privilidge.  

I keep sharing the graphic at the right. If YOU are reading this you have the power to help change the future, just by sharing my articles, and my library, with your network, and the world.

Furthermore, you can read the articles I point to and form study groups, where others read and reflect on the same articles.

From this comes brainstorming and new solutions.  

While I've been sharing these ideas for over 20 years, too few people have ever seen them.  That's why it's not only important for you to pass them on, but for you to help me find one, or more, places that will collect my archives and use them for research, study, reflection and inspiration for the next many decades.

Will you help?

Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Mastodon and my blogs.  

Help me pay the bills, with a small contribution. 

Take ownership of these ideas. 

Fix how youth programs are funded

Last night I interacted with some educators who I met in 2013 via an Education and Technology MOOC (#ETMOOC).  I mentioned a participation map that I had seen late 2012, which drew my attention to the event.  After looking around for a while, and exchanging some Tweets with the organizers, I found the map. You can see it below and at this link.

I've been encouraging leaders to use maps since 1994 because they point to all of the places within a geographic region, like Chicago, where people need extra help. Participation maps can show "who is in the conversation, and lead to a discussion of "who's missing".  I wrote about this in 2016 and 2017 articles. 

That's not really the focus of this article.

While I was scrolling my blog via my phone, looking for the ETMOOC map, I found a 2013 article I wrote about foundations who fund youth serving programs in Chicago and around the country.  I'm reposting that article below:

----- start ----

I’ve been part of an Education Technology MOOC (#ETMOOC) this week where more than 1000 people from around the world are connecting on-line and sharing ideas about uses of technology in education, learning, media and network building.

I’ve been trying for the past 20 years to build this type of learning community, connecting all of those who are concerned with the gap between rich and poor in America, the education system, workforce diversity, social justice, violence, public health, and a number of other reasons to be involved. Some people talk about the "village" it takes to raise kids. I write about it and try to bring members of the village together.

I started leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program in 1975 (see history) while I held a full time job with the Montgomery Ward company. While our program grew to include over 300 pairs of youth and volunteers by 1990, funding was not an issue because all of the leaders were volunteers.

However, in 1990 when I converted this program to a 501-c-3 non profit and needed to raise money to pay salaries for myself and others to stay involved, the funding of non profits began to become a real issue. Over the years I’ve aggregated a wide range of personal frustration on the challenges small non profits face in finding consistent operating funds, and I’ve built a library of articles that show how others think on this topic.

I illustrate my thinking visually so let me show some maps that I think many of you will find interesting, and useful.

This is a map showing nearly 400 foundation (corporate and private) in the Chicago region and Eastern part of the United States who I put on my mailing list between 1993 and 2005.

Every year I send copies of my printed newsletters to these people, showing why tutor/mentor programs were needed and what I was doing as a direct service provider, and as leader of the intermediary Tutor/Mentor Connection.

The green icons on the map are foundations that funded my organization at least one time. Few funded me more than 2-3 years in a row. Some, like Montgomery Ward, funded me for seven consecutive years, then went out of business, and thus were not able to continue their support. None of the grants was larger than $50,000 and most were in the $1,000 to $10,000 per year range. Some were for general operating expenses, which I could use flexibly to build the organization, while many focused specifically on activities of the Cabrini Connections direct service program or the Tutor/Mentor Connection. In total I raised more than $6 million between 1993 and 2011, with a peak of $500,000 in 2000. This money split with 40% funding the Cabrini Connections direct service program, 40% the Tutor/Mentor Connection, and 20% funding operating and fundraising expenses. With no multi-year commitments, each year since about 1998 I started from zero in raising $300 to $400,000 from a wide range of donors.

This map shows a close up of the Chicago region so you can get a better sense of how many foundations I was reaching out to.

My organization never had more than 3 or 4 people on staff, and never had a full time professional development officer. I was CEO, chief innovator, chief marketing officer, newsletter writer, grant writer, janitor. Yet every year I was challenged to write letters of introduction, letters of inquiry, grant requests, grant reports, each with different requirements and different questions.

Yet we all were focused on helping expand the network of programs supporting inner-city kids during the non-school hours. By 1998 I was using web sites to show the work I was doing and what I was trying to do.

This map shows the Chicago LOOP area.

When I begin using maps I started following media stories about kids being killed in Chicago, with maps showing where this was happening, and with links showing what tutor/mentor programs were operating in those areas,

and what knowledge was available to community leaders, business and foundations so they would work to build programs that would provide more mentoring, tutoring, learning opportunities. Visit this Map Gallery to see a collection of maps created in the past.



This week I attended a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration at the University of Chicago, where panel members were asked to talk about their experiences with mentoring.

They each talked about mentors who “helped them stay in school” and who provided life lesions, such as “never, ever forget where you come from”.

Here are some other quotes from the event:

“Who ever is talking to them and showing an interest is a mentor.”

“We need to mentor each other’s kids since our own don’t listen to us enough”

“Foundation of mentoring is caring.”

“Mentoring is a two-way street. Mentors learn from youth.”

“Students who are successful have great networking skills.”

“Since the middle class has left the inner city, how are we going to connect mentors with youth living in inner city neighborhoods” “How do we reach those kids.”

“The politicians don’t care. These kids and parents don’t vote.”

“Why are there only 30 people attending this event when this is National Mentoring Month?” Why don’t more people care?”

I handed out business cards to each of the participants and said “Let’s find ways to change this.” I share these ideas on my blog, and in MOOCs so that people in more places will come together to find ways to support the growth of mentor-rich programs in more places where they are needed.

I host a Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator with maps that show where tutor/mentor programs are needed. Why can’t leaders in these foundations use my maps, or similar directories, to adopt neighborhoods, then adopt tutor/mentor programs in those neighborhoods and make long-term commitments to help each program become the best in the world by borrowing ideas from each other and using a constant flow of operating/innovation dollars and volunteer talent to implement these ideas.

Here’s an interactive version of the map of foundations. You can enlarge the map and zoom in and see the name and location of each. Some no longer exist since this list was last updated in 2005. (2023 editor note: this map may not show up in your Chrome browser. It does show up when I view it from my phone. It also can be seen if you use Microsoft Edge browser.)
  

With more than 200 youth serving organizations in Chicago offering various forms of tutoring, mentoring and non-school support, we can have 200 development officers and/or Executive Directors reaching through this list to find foundations who will give them funds each year, which is a tremendous redundancy.

Or we can build strategies that educate and motivate donors and business partners to reach out and build proactive support systems for tutor/mentor programs in neighborhoods that need such programs.

We can discuss ideas like this in face-to-face events, like the May and November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences. We can also connect in on-line events like the Education Technology MOOC.

We can do both. We can do better.

---- end 2013 article ----- 

Sadly, I still don't find people using maps to show participation in events, or to expand participation to more of those who need to be involved.  I've not seen many foundations using maps to show who is receiving their grants, or anyone aggregating this information to show all of those funding specific types of service categories, like youth development and/or tutor/mentor programs, within specific geographic areas.  

I've had almost no response to the business cards I shared in that January 2013 mentoring event. I still don't find youth development, tutor and/or mentor program leaders, staff, funders, researchers, and business leaders interacting in on-going MOOC-like events.

While I've actively reached out to build lists of stakeholders on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, I find few doing the same (or adding me to their lists). 

Maybe this is happening in different parts of the country, or the world, but I don't see it.  

If you share this article in your networks, maybe some people will send me links to websites showing this work being done.  I'll add those to my library and share them with others.

Thanks for reading. You can find me on these social media pages. 

Since writing the 2013 article I've added collections of articles in the About T/MI, History, and A New T/MC sections. Read these to understand what I've been trying to do, and to learn how you might duplicate this work in different places.

And, you can help me keep sharing these ideas by visiting my "Fund T/MI" page and sending a small contribution.