March Tutor/Mentor Newsletter - Speakers for Conference

You can now read the March 2014 Tutor/Mentor newsletter. It's full of links to research, resources, ideas, and articles that anyone can use to help building and sustain mentor-rich programs that help youth move through school and into jobs and careers. If you'd like to receive this in your email, just subscribe at this link.

Included in this newsletter is a list of speakers who I expect to present workshops at the May 19, 2014 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. You can see the list, and bios, here. A few more people are expected to confirm workshops and some of those who have confirmed may change before May 19. However, I think this is a great list and offers many reasons for people to attend the conference.

I'm pleased to announce that Becoming We the People, a non profit focused on Northwest Indiana, that has been part of conference planning since 2011, has agreed to act as fiscal agent for conference sponsorships. I offer $20 scholarships to anyone who requests them, and do not charge a fee to workshop presenters. Thus, finding some sponsors to help cover these costs, and other expenses related to the conferences and the Tutor/Mentor Connection, is really important.

If you read the newsletter and browse the links we point to you'll see a huge amount of information. The conferences are part of an on-going effort to collect and share this information with a growing number of people who need to be consistently involved in helping constantly improving tutor/mentor programs reach youth in more of the high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago and other cities, with a flow of ideas, talent and dollars that enables each program to constantly grow in what they do to help transform the lives of youth, volunteers and communities.

Graphics like this one are intended to communicate this ideas. Visit this page to see a video breaking this graphic down into individual components.

I hope you value the ideas and will share this information in your own network. If you can attend the conference in May please do. If you can connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, Linked in or in Google communities, then we can go deeper into this information and connect more frequently.

MOOCs "Not a Course. It's a Collaboration"

Terry Elliot, one of the participants in the Making Learning Connected MOOC #CLMOOC that started a couple of weeks ago posted an article today showing some of the people he's connected with, including me. In the article he included a line saying "This is not a course, it is a collaboration."

I've written articles about MOOCs and their potential for supporting the on-going learning of groups of people trying to solve complex problems, like inner city poverty and related issues. I've also been aggregating a library of blog articles about MOOCs.

I'd like to expand on Terry's thinking with a goal that others will join me in building a network of people who focus on volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs for the way they expand the social networks and learning opportunities for youth living in highly segregated neighborhoods of inner city poverty.

First, let's learn to use maps to support collective action.

Maps focus our attention on all of the high poverty areas in a geographic region. Using the Interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Locator you can also zoom into specific neighborhoods and add layers of information showing assets (faith groups, business, hospitals, universities) and transportation routes through the neighborhood. These maps can show all the people who might be connected in the type of MOOC Terry describes, who share a self interest and concern for reducing the negative impacts of poverty within the geography they share.

We ought to be able to build maps like the one being built for the #CLMOOC that show all the participants in an effort intended to reduce poverty, improve schools, stop violence, etc.

Second, let's use maps to show the talent and networks we need to bring in to a community of practice MOOC.

This is a 'talent map' showing skills needed for an organization, or a network, to achieve its mission. This is a 'network map' that illustrates the need to have representation from many sectors. This is another map, showing youth intermediaries in Chicago.

Traditional problem solving and community organizing has relied on face to face and small group meetings. In a big city like Chicago I don't feel you can ever connect with enough of the people needed to be involved on a one-on-one basis and you can't keep key people involved in place-based meetings for the years it will take to build and implement strategies that reduce poverty's impact in every high poverty neighborhood of the Chicago region.

You can do more of this using the Internet and MOOCs that focus on "learning and collaboration".

The "Who all needs to be included?" question should be answered by an on-going effort to build a library of links to information that already exists to research, funding, existing organizations, ideas, etc. This maps shows the library I've been building on line since 1998. Click into the links of this graphic and you'll go to sections of the library with a variety of links on each topic.

Almost every web site I point to has a staff directory, a "contact us" button and many have Twitter and Facebook links. I'm constantly reaching out to these groups to connect them to me and the conference I host in Chicago every six months. However, I feel on-line communities, organized like the ETMOOC and CLMOOC have the greatest potential for connecting people from a wide range of these organizations with each other.

Participation mapping, like this, using social network analysis tools or GIS maps can also show who is taking part in these MOOCs. Giving recognition to those who are involved might encourage those who are not involved to join in.

We're in July, starting the 2nd half of 2013. I hope that if you've read this you'll share it with people in universities, philanthropy, media, business and government who might be willing to sponsor this type of community building, not just on a one-time basis, but as part of on-going problem solving.

By November 4, as I host a one day Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago a new MOOC focused on poverty, violence, education and workforce development in Chicago and other big cities could be in place. The result of our efforts can be more places where youth and volunteers are building long-term connections that benefit both the young people and the volunteers who are involved.

Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, or Linked in, the Tutor/Mentor Connection on Ning, or in one of the Google+ hangouts for these MOOCs.

Using Past to Predict the Future

Over the past few months I've uploaded copies of newsletters from the 1990s and began to post maps showing participation in past Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences.

I use these to demonstrate work I've been doing for more than 20 years, and to invite support to continue this work in the future.

I've hosted a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago every six months since May 1994, to connect programs and supporters with each other, share ideas that can help each program constantly improve, and to create greater public attention for all tutor/mentor programs in Chicago.

From 2006 to 2011 I was supported by alumni from Northwestern University who were part of a Public Interest Fellowship Program. I encourage you to read articles they wrote about past conferences.

The November Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference was a Success, Nov. 2008

Engaging Universities Workshop, June 2009

Become a Speaker at the May 2011 Conference!, April 2011

Conference Video, 2010, Nov. 2011


By organizing conferences every six months, and a Chicagoland Tutor/Mentor Volunteer Recruitment Campaign every August/Sept. from 1995 through 2003, I was able to generate a number of stories in print, radio, TV and the Internet, expanding attention and support for volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs all over the Chicago region, not just for the Cabrini Connections program I was leading in the Cabrini Green area of Chicago.

This strategy was part of an on-going effort intended to build greater support for tutor/mentor programs so each could borrow ideas from other programs in Chicago and the US and constantly improve their impact on young people. This strategy was never consistently supported by CPS, the Mayor's office, philanthropy or business, yet it continued year-after-year for 20 years.

Due to changes at Cabrini Connections in 2011 I'm no longer operating under a 501-c-3 non profit structure so it has been much more difficult to find the money needed to do this (even though it was almost impossible in the past!). Yet, as this article says, "the difficulty of success does not relieve one of the obligation to try".

I also have written about the conference on this site. In addition I've written about learning, network building, collaboration and leadership strategies.


The next conference will be held on June 7, 2013 at the Metcalfe Federal Building. I'm organizing workshops now. See this list of suggested topics and use this form to submit a workshop proposal.

I'm not operating as a non-profit yet still need sponsors to support the conference and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. I wrote this article to suggest that if companies are willing to put their names on race car driver uniforms, we should be able to encourage the same type of support for people helping youth become their future workers.

20th Year of Tutor/Mentor Connection.
I've shown what I've been able to do with a little money in the past. I hope you'll help shape the future with a donation or a sponsorship.

Planting Seeds. Nurturing Growth

This is one of the graphics that I've created to wish all of my family, friends and connections a happy holiday and a joyous 2013.

It's using an image from an animation created by one of my interns to show how a volunteer grows into a leader as they stay involved in a tutor/mentor program over many years. You can view this at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/images/flash/rebuild_real.swf

My own growth illustrates this. I started tutoring in 1973 when I joined the Montgomery Ward Corporation as an advertising copywriter. I became the volunteer leader of the company program in 1975 and for the next 36 years I've spent time every day trying to figure out ways to attract youth and volunteers and keep them engaged. When I left Wards in 1990 I also had to figure out ways to attract donors and keep them engaged, too. The original program did not need to work about this because I and other leaders had full time jobs. We could afford to lead the program as volunteers.

In 1990 this became my full time job and I had to raise money to pay me a salary and to pay others who became part of our staff over the past 18 years. This map shows my journey over the past 38 years.

To do this I've tried to educate volunteers, youth, donors, and every other stakeholder by pointing them to information showing where and why tutor/mentor programs are needed and to stories showing the impact of these programs on the lives of kids and adults. This video is one that tells this story.



Since this is the season of religious holidays I would like to compare my work to the Parable of the Sower from the Bible.

Over 35 years I've spread many seeds inviting others to become involved as tutors, students, leaders, donors, advocates, and have tried to nourish them weekly so that some take root and grow.

I met a young man at the Chicago Police Department yesterday who told me he had used the Program Locator Maps in a college research project, to demonstrate the need for more youth programs in the Englewood neighborhood. That's an example of the seeds beginning to take root. A few years ago I received a $2,500 donation from the Women's ProGolf Association. By tracing the donor in my database I found it was a person who I had first started sending newsletters to in 1994. He had changed jobs but it was not until many years later that he could provide financial support. If you log in on the OHATS documentation system (user name Guest; password Visitor)you can see other testimonials and actions I've documented since 2000.

Thousands of seeds have been planted. Every time I send a newsletter, such as this one, I'm asking people from my past to become active in supporting the work that needs to be done in the future. Every time someone has visited this blog or one of my web sites since 1998 a seed is planted.

As some of these seeds take root we should be able to show workers and leaders in every node on this map who are working to support the growth of tutor/mentor programs in every high poverty of Chicago and other cities, and who are providing talent and financial support to help me continue to spread seeds and nourish their growth.

I'm not a non-profit, so you cannot get a tax deduction for helping me. You can look in the mirror and tell yourself how much you are doing to help kids living in high poverty have systems of support that tutor/mentor programs can provide.

Click here to add your support to Tutor/Mentor Institute.

Click here if you'd like to give your support in the form of a gift for my 66th birthday.

Click here to find a list of tutor/mentor programs in Chicago that you can choose to support even if you cannot support my own efforts.

Did the Good Samaritan Get a Tax Deduction?

I’m sure most people are familiar with the Bible story about how a man saw another person in need along the side of a road and gave him all the help he needed to recover. This story is over 2000 years old, but it brings up an important question. See Good Samaritan images like the one shown in Pinterest.

For many years a debate on reductions of tax deductions for charitable giving has been going on in Congress. Will people still give to social causes without a tax deduction? See this article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy , Changes in Charitable Deduction May Have Mixed Impact on Giving.

Where did we get off the road of giving aid because it’s needed and the right thing to do, to giving aid only when we get a tax write off?

I operated as a 501-c-3 non profit from 1993 to 2011 and solicited donations from a wide range of individuals, corporations and foundations over that period of time. More than $6 million was raised, partly to support the site-based Cabrini Connections program, and partly to support the citywide strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

I’ve been operating without the 501-c-3 tax status since July 2011, focusing on the Tutor/Mentor Connection's goals. I am doing exactly the same work of supporting the growth of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs (see 4-part strategy), yet find it much more difficult to ask for help due to not being classified as a charity. Based on the number of people who gave in the past but not in the last year, I think others find it more difficult to give help because I’m not a charity and they don’t get a tax deduction. Read "Why I'm not a Non-Profit"

I don’t think the person that the good Samaritan helped was a 501-c-3 charity. He was someone in need.

I have been trying to improve the flow of talent, dollars and technology into high poverty neighborhoods for over 18 years. I’ve piloted a unique use of maps and interactive databases to do this, yet have not had the capital to keep these working, updated and expanding in how they connect resource providers with the different tutor/mentor programs operating in Chicago.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll outline two strategies that I've been developing. I think any city could support these in its own efforts to help youth in multiple neighborhoods have the extra learning and mentoring supports needed to move more successfully through school and into jobs and careers.

One is an information-based community mobilization strategy. The second is a 12-month calendar of events and collective efforts intended to dramatically increase the number of people to look at the information and take actions that support the growth of one, or more different tutor/mentor programs in Chicago or other big cities.

As you read these I encourage you to browse past articles on this blog, review the sections of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site, and review the wiki that shows what I've been building and where help is needed.

If you’ve read these and agree with what I’m trying to do, then look in the mirror and ask yourself if you’re a Good Samaritan and if you can provide some of the financial support needed in 2013 and 2014 and beyond to do this work properly. Click here and find a  PayPal link that you can use to offer help.

Resources to Support Tutor/Mentor Program Growth

In late 1992 myself and six other volunteers decided to create a non-school, volunteer based tutor/mentor program to help Cabrini-Green area youth entering 7th grade get the consistent adult mentoring and learning support needed to help them finish high school six years later with momentum heading them to college and careers.

At the same time this group adopted a more ambitious goal (as if the first were not difficult enough!). We said, let's find a way to support the growth of mentor-rich programs in all parts of the Chicago region so that each program has a greater chance to succeed at the work they are doing. We named that the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

The presentation below shows resources that have been innovated in the years since then. Most are still a work in progress because of the lack of consistent or significant investment in this effort. This PDF shows the Decade of Challenges and accomplishments achieved despite of these.

Tutor/Mentor Institute - Resources to Support Collective Efforts

Despite challenges, including the creation of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in July 2011 to continue this work, these resources are all in place and available to help youth programs in Chicago and to stimulate thinking in other cities.

As we head to the holiday season and 2013 I invite volunteers, business partners, universities and financial supporters to add your talent, time and resources to help these resources stay available in Chicago and grow in the impact they have.

Mapping Participation. Help Build the Network

If you’ve been reading articles I’ve written you’ve seen many talking about network building and collective impact. I’ve been working at this for more than 35 years.

One way I’ve attempted to bring people together is through the May and November conferences I’ve hosted in Chicago since May 1994. This graphic is one of several that show the mix of participants at 2008-2009 conferences. See more conference maps here. You can see that there are not many from business, faith communities, political leadership, media or philanthropy.

Below is a different map. It shows different intermediary organizations in the Chicago region focusing on the well-being of youth. See map here. Every time I host a conference I send invitations inviting representatives from these groups to participate.

This next graphic is a map of one section of my web library. Each of these nodes points to a page with dozens of links related to that topic. When I host a conference I'm inviting representatives from each web site I link to in my library to participate. And I'm pointing anyone who reads my blog and/or attends the conference to visit these web sites and learn from the information they share.

This next graphic is a map of the Austin neighborhood of Chicago built using the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator. This map shows businesses in the area. Another version shows faith groups. The green stars are a few of 170 different locations where various forms of youth mentoring and/or tutoring are being offered in the Chicago region.

This graphic shows kids and tutor/mentor programs as the hub of the wheel. The spokes lead to each industry in the region, as well as faith, civic, social and political organizations.

At each spoke the ROLE OF LEADERS should be to encourage members to become informed, and then involved, in efforts that help improve the community wealth by helping more young people from throughout the region have the level of adult support they need to move through school and into adult responsibilities.

These maps show WHO we are trying to connect with and WHO is responding to our invitations by participating in the tutor/mentor conferences.

I’m not the only one hosting events in Chicago that bring people together to focus on helping kids. However, I don’t know of many who are using maps and network analysis tools to show who is coming to their events and to connect those people to each other so they can work together after the event. I don’t know too many who point to a map like the Program Locator with the goal of driving volunteers, donors, talent and other needed resources to each program, based on what the web site of the program describes as the work they do and WHERE they do it.

This is a Google map that I’ve added to the Conference web site. As people register they can add themselves to this map and put their web site, Facebook page and profile on the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.

If we can get more leaders from different sectors connected to each other, through the conference I host or events they host, we can help existing organizations get the ideas, talent and dollars they each need to constantly improve the work they do and we can help people in different neighborhoods where too few programs exist get the ideas and resources to build new programs so we reach more k-12 kids.

We can use our network analysis maps and Google Maps to show who is reaching out to connect and help others while at the same time providing a tool to help people connect with each other. As the number of nodes on the maps grow we will be demonstrating that more people are working together.

Over the past few months more than $2 billion was spent trying to get someone elected to be President and to other public offices. I would like to hope that money will lead to more and better non-school tutor/mentor support systems in high poverty areas of Chicago but I think bringing people together who do the work of building and financing these programs is more likely to achieve that result.

Thus I hope that if you've read this far you'll go a step further to help me AND to help the people leading volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago and in other cities. PLEASE share this with people in your network and encourage them to attend the November 19 conference AND add themselves to the conference map and attendee list so others know they were participating and can connect with them.

We’re all in this together, aren’t we?

Reaching More People

Last October I began posting articles like the one below on Scribd.com in order to give me a better count of who was looking at these and to try to encourage readers to go back to articles written in the past that are still relevant today.

I've been creating these articles since the mid 1990s to visualize my ideas. I've posted them on the Tutor/Mentor Institute site since the early 2000s. While some people have contacted me asking to use them, I don't get a good tracking of web visits from the library on the T/MI site.

By mid November 2011 I was seeing that the number of people reading this was growing and I predicted that at the end of one year I'd have recorded 25,000 reads. The count today is at almost 27,000 and that's with no advertising support at all.

Economic inequality: The real cause of the urban school problem

Now that I'm headed into a second year I hope that a few advertisers, volunteers and potential partners will look at ways they can help me produce these essays in video, animation and other formats to even more people look at them.

At what visit count do I have to achive before an advertiser/benefactor would want his/her name listed as a producer on the credits page for these projects? If I can attract funding I can enlist people with more writing and creative talent than I have and these presentations will have greater impact and growing readership. That means more visibility to sponsors and partners.

Interested in helping? Connect with me on Twitter @tutormentorteam or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/TutorMentorInstitute/

Share the Information Collection Effort

I've been posting some of my PDF essays on Scribd.com for almost a year now and so far have recorded 25,400 reads. I started posting some of these on Slide Share too and I've just learned that I could embed the presentations in my blog. On Friday I posted one from SlideShare (see here) . This is from Scribd.

Community Information Collection: A Shared Effort
My aim is to share ideas and recruit talent, leaders and financial support from business, colleges, high schools and faith groups to help these ideas become part of the strategies leaders apply in many places to help kids in high poverty have an expanded network of adult support that helps them move through school and into work.

Collecting, organizing, visualizing, sharing and helping people understand the information is critically important and cannot be done well with just a few people involved.

I hope you'll look at these. Which platform do you prefer? Slideshare? Scribd? Is there another platform I should be using?

Want to help?

Getting from HERE to THERE in NonProfit Sector

In an article I wrote in December 2011 I talked about how non profits become good at what they do, then great, and how they need to stay great for many years to have an impact on young people and communities.

In this part of the Links Library I point to articles that illustrate challenges non profits have in growing from good to great.

I've created a number of graphics to illustrate this thinking which I hope are used in leadership circles throughout the country to engage others in thinking of what actions they need to take on an on-going basis to help all of the youth serving organizations in their community become world class at what they do to help kids become thriving adults.

Here's one I'd like to share:

In my own efforts I've been trying to help constantly-improving non-school tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty areas of Chicago. I use maps like this one to show where poverty is concentrated which I feel is where resources need to focus in order for a wide range or mentor-rich youth programs to form.

I've never had more than $150,000 a year to do this work which is far too few dollars to collect all of the information needed to support decisions that need to be made in many leadership sectors. Nor have I had money for advertising, training and promotions that would draw volunteers and donors to this information on a consistent basis, and at key times of the year, such as now when school is starting and all tutor/mentor programs are looking for volunteers. For the past year I've had almost not money to support this effort.

Thus, I keep looking for others who are doing some of the intelligence gathering that needs to be taking place. Here are some questions that I hope someone is asking:

* What is the "combat readiness" of each of the organizations working with youth in the Chicago region?

* What is their financial health? Do they have a consistent flow of resources to carry them through this year and into next year and beyond?

* What is their leadership strategy? Do they have experienced people devekioubg abd leading the organization's strategies?

* Who do they want to emulate? When you look at the web site (if they have one) of each youth organization do they post a list of 4-6 other youth organizations that they feel are "best in class" and that they are trying to emulate?

* What is their mission? Where would the organization's strategies fit on this graphic? How do they compare to others who do this work?

Is anyone doing the market research needed to understand how well youth organizations in the Chicago region (or in other cities) are prepared to help youth move through school and into adult lives?

I'm not looking for "generalizations" or "aggregations" of information. We should be able to put icons on maps showing the different readiness of each organization shown on the map. And leaders should be able to use this information in resource-mobilization effort that help strengthen existing organizations and fill in voids with new organizations where more are needed.

Is anyone interested in putting their name on a Think Tank or Research Institute focused on collecting and sharing this information?

Share the links in the comment section if you can answer these questions.

Tutor/Mentor Connection - Knowledge Network

This is one of several videos I created a year ago to outline the strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.



There are more than 2000 links in the Library I've been building for the past 20 years. I have used this information personally to build and lead volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs since 1975. I've been sharing this information for over 20 years to help others build and sustain programs with similar goals in many different places.

No one can read this in a short time. However, if learning is extended over many years this information can become a foundation of ideas that support actions of leaders from many sectors, intended to help high poverty neighborhoods have a wide range of youth and family supports that lead more young people through school and into adult jobs and careers.

I'm now supporting the Tutor/Mentor Connection through the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. I've posted a library of essays showing how this information might be used and encourage you to view these along with the videos.

I hope you'll budget time each week or month to read and reflect on some of this information. I also invite you to become a financial supporter, partner or investor to help me build and sustain this platform. Read more.

I'm a "Service Enterprise"

Since July 2011 when I moved from a 501-c-3 structure to a LLC tax structure people who supported me in the past as volunteers and donors have struggled to continue to support me. I've struggled to find ways to ask for help, even though I can't do what I'm doing without the time, talent and dollars provided by a wide range of people.

Yesterday I attended a workshop at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service where the term "Service Enterprise" was introduced by an organization called Reimagining Service.

On their web site is this statement:
We believe that one way to increase the impact of volunteering is to encourage the creation of more service enterprises. A service enterprise is a nonprofit or for-profit organization that fundamentally leverages volunteers and their skills to successfully deliver on the social mission of the organization.

I've described myself as a social entrepreneur, a social innovator, and a network-builder. Others have called me a "thought leader".

If it helps you to understand me as a Service Enterprise, then please use this definition as you read the articles on this blog and browse the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

In the Chicago SunTimes today was an article showing the cost of violence in Chicago to be more than $5 billion annually. You can find the study here.

If you want to help reduce this cost then become a volunteer, donor, partner of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and help me support the collective effort of hundreds of different organizations who are working to reduce the negative impacts of poverty by providing better non-school and school-based learning and mentoring support.

This map shows talent I am trying to find

This graphic shows the type of platform for learning and collective effort that I've been building and need your support to continue. If we can make this work in Chicago we can share it with other cities. If you are from another city and help me develop this platform you can have it for your own city at a much lower cost than what it would take to build it from scratch.

Testimonial from Brazil

I received this message today:

"This is Jurandir from Brazil. I would like to let you know that we have been seeing the results of our work that we started 20 years ago. I want to thank you because Cabrini is part of this blessing among poor families. Today we harvest good fruit in the community having good professionals, good parents, good parents. I thank you so much for your job. God bless you."

Jurandir started responding to my email newsletters more than a decade ago. I hosted him and his wife for a short internship in Chicago. We've stayed connected because I've found a way to stay in business for 18 years even though I've never had much funding to do what I do and it's very difficult to show measurable impact.

However, stories like this show value.

If you can invest and support this strategy click here.

Win the Race for the Future. Sponsor a Driver?

In August I posted an article offering Naming Rights to anyone who would want to provide three to five years of funding for the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC or a component, such as the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator.
Today I want to offer a different suggestion. Think of me as a Race Car Driver.

Look at all the company logos on this racing uniform. Companies aren't doing this for charity are they? They get some visibility for supporting these drivers. Why not think of people like me who share ideas freely with others throughout the world as Race Car Drivers competing in a race to save Democracy through education. Isn't that something that you'd want to associate your brand with? Maybe I can get some clothing company to create a sport coat that I can wear to conferences or speaking engagements, with the company logo right on the front and with other sponsors on the cuffs, sleeves, back, etc. I can wear this anywhere and even put it in my profile picture on Facebook and Linked in.

Maybe one of the major auto companies will donate a car that I can drive to meetings and park in the lots of conferences that I attend, with their logo in big letters along with the logos of other sponsors on the hood, top, back, fender, etc.

Do you think I could find $200,000 to $500,000 worth of sponsors to keep me in this race each year? Maybe a law firm, or dental office, or book company would want their logo on my jacket. Who else?

Can you be the first sponsor, or help me communicate this idea? Maybe others who have ideas to share could get sponsors to support them so they could help all of the people who need their ideas, not just those who can afford to pay.

What do you think? Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!

It's my 35 years of experience and ideas that are valuable. That's what I have to sale. Most of the people starting programs don't have the money to pay enough to keep the Tutor/Mentor Institute growing, or even to keep the web sites updated. If I can fill this sport coat with annual sponsors, I can raise nearly $200,000 and not only continue to share my ideas freely, but do more of the work to build greater understanding of volunteer tutor/mentor programs and how they differ, and to draw volunteers and donors consistently to all of the different programs operating in Chicago and other cities.

Read about ways to contribute. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/donations