On about a weekly basis we find ourselves stunned by the outpouring of support from people all over the country for The Mentoring Project. The passionate Church communities in Iowa, garage sales in North Carolina, exceptionally large t-shirt orders from Texas. The list goes on a on.

Yesterday we received an amazing package in the mail from an indie-rock band in Baltimore, Maryland called This The Rescue. I'd been in touch with Jake from This The Rescue a few months back and he had mentioned his band's intention to give 20% of every dollar his band makes to The Mentoring Project. 20%! Now I've worked in the nonprofit sector for a long time, and with promises like that, to put it bluntly, seeing is believing.

But there was something special about Jake and This The Rescue. They seemed really committed, had mailed us their most recent album, bought a few TMP t-shirts, and I was secretly hoping we'd hear more from them.

So we opened the package they sent and the contents were pretty exciting.

First, a very classy This The Rescue t-shirt, which you are seeing our President Dr. John Sowers rocking while holding a photo off our wall of a Portland mentor/mentee pair.

Secondly, they sent us $71.20! For a band who makes their money playing basement shows and nightclubs up and down the Eastern Seaboard, this is pretty amazing. I have a number of friends in bands and I'm always stunned to hear the number of couches and dirty hardwood floors they've slept on in the last year. Not to mention the gas station food on the I-5 corridor. So the sheer fact that the band sent us $71 of their hard earned money is remarkable.

Lastly, and most importantly was a very touching letter they included in the package. Rather than summarize, I thought I'd just copy it all out here and end on this:

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Dear Friends at TMP,

When we first contacted you about the possibility of partnering with you guys, we decided as a band to commit 20% of everything we make to what you are doing. Because we don't make much money, our 20% really isn't much in terms of a dollar amount.

As we wrap up the recording process and find more and more the real costs of releasing our first full length album, we are learning that committing to The Mentoring Project probably isn't really about The Mentoring Project - it's about what we are being taught and challenged towards. It's about trusting God as we try to move on the things that He has given us passion for. It's about putting into practice and really believing in the things we sing about - because at the end of the day, if we are just slinging guitars and singing melodies, then we haven't really done anything.

Thank you so much for allowing a small band in Baltimore to practice living a better story with something that really matters. Thank you for allowing us a place in a much bigger movement.

We are deeply thankful for you, and for what you are doing.

Matt, Tom, Luke, Chris and Jake, This The Rescue

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Find out more about This The Rescue: http://www.thistherescue.com/

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thistherescue

Maybe thank them for how amazing they are?

We Can't Believe It!

Because of all your incredible support, The Mentoring Project won a $20,000 grant from Chase Bank!

In the end we finished in 33rd place with 2,971 votes. Not bad eh?

Thank you to those who voted for us, passed it on to their friends, posted it on their Facebook wall, and made all of this happen. We couldn't have done it without you!

So now the big question: What are we going to do with the money?

Glad you asked. 

Over the last year, we've had nearly 600 churches across the country ask how they can begin a TMP Mentoring Program in their church community. With the demand this high, we realized we needed to create dynamic training & resource materials to ensure that each of these churches can begin mentoring fatherless boys in their area.

The $20,000 grant has been allocated to produce high quality training videos and an extensive mentoring toolkit so these churches can hit the ground running!

So thank you for all your support. Your votes and advocacy of TMP will ensure that thousands of boys will receive mentors in the future.

Thank you!

Dr. John Sowers, President of The Mentoring Project 

A special guest blog from TMP Founder Donald Miller:

Could you do me a favor?

So about once a month, a friend's non-profit starts lighting up twitter and facebook asking people to go and vote because somebody somewhere might give them some money. The Mentoring Project has never had a huge twitter following, so we’ve never entered one of these contests. And to be honest, I normally ignore these twitter requests. It just feels like a teen thing, some sort of popularity contest amongst non-profits.

That said, The Mentoring Project President Dr. John Sowers called me a few days ago to say that Chase was giving away 20k to the top 200 non-profits that get voted on on facebook. John said we really need the money to shoot training videos that will allow the 600 churches on our waiting list to start mentoring programs. What that means is, if we get 20k from chase, thousands of fatherless boys will get role models because we can franchise the mentoring program we are currently running here in Portland. We don’t yet have that money designated in our budget.

So now I am THAT GUY. I’m the guy asking people to vote on twitter and facebook. And to be honest, I don’t even have a facebook account. So I’m DOUBLE that guy. I guess I never put together those little votes with actual social change until it became personal. So please accept that as a confession.

As I write this, we are 30 votes from being in the top 200. The voting ends about ten days from now, so we will need a lot more than 30 votes, but would you mind being one of the people who spends a few seconds and votes for us? It would honestly mean thousands of kids lives are changed through really great relationships.

Thanks so much. You can vote here.

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/270170750-mentoring-project

And a very special thank you to CHASE bank. Very cool of them to do this.

- Don

"I say this as someone who grew up without a father in my own life.  He left my family when I was two years old. I still felt the weight of that absence. It is something that leaves a hole in a child’s life that no government can fill.”- President Barack Obama

For the past three years, President Obama has strongly advocated for fatherhood and healthy families.  Last summer, The Mentoring Project President, John Sowers, participated in a White House Fathers Day event that included top politicians, celebrities, actors, and leaders of national non-profits organizations.

The result of that 2009 meeting started a national conversation about fatherhood and the need for mentors, and it culminated in a series of citywide events that brought together leaders and communities for the task. This year, President Obama invited Sowers along with a group of leaders, celebrities, and politicians to DC to announce his new Mentoring Initiative. At the meeting President Obama said:

“We know what too many fathers being absent means. Too many fathers missing from too many homes, missing from too many lives. We know when fathers abandon their responsibilities, there is harm done to those kids. We know that children who grow up without a father are more likely to live in poverty, more likely to drop out of school, more likely to wind up in prison. They are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. More likely to run away from home, and more likely to become teenage parents themselves."

Watch the full video below:

For the past three years, I had the privilege of mentoring a young guy named Oz. I usually picked him up after school and we would go get a burrito, or to the carwash, or to hit wiffle-balls. Sometimes went to Chuck-E-Cheese and I would dominate on the Skee Ball. Oz liked the tickets. And the cool prizes. Like laffy-taffy. 

I remember once, after I picked up Oz from school, the first thing he asked me was, “Are you an Uncle now?” His mother had told Oz about my nephew, and Oz and his mom had been praying for him and his health. I was impressed that he remembered and had been praying for us.

As made our way to the Cold Stone Creamery, I asked Oz the usual questions: 

"How is math going? How are you treating your mother? How is track?" 

That week, Oz won a track race with the other first graders in his school, and he was pumped to show me his gold ribbon. I listened to it several times and told him how proud I was of him.

Oz also had a new green-and-blue football that changed colors when you held it. But I knew that Oz was struggling some in school and his mother had recently hired a tutor, so I asked him how that was going. He talked about how hard it was, but I told him that I was proud of him for trying.

Later, while Oz was downing his chocolate fudge ice-cream cone, I decided to ask him about his father, as Oz never spoke of him. I asked him if he ever saw his dad.  

Oz said: 

“I don’t have a dad. Will you be my dad?”

I sat there. Stunned. Not really knowing what to say. After a moment, I managed to get out, “I am here for you buddy and I love you,” to which he replied, “I love you too.” 

- Spanning continents and turning charity upside down -

Bob Goff, founder of Restore International, called me last week to let us know that young men from The Restore Leadership Academy (pictured above) have decided to make a donation to The Mentoring Project to provide mentors for kids in Portland, Oregon.

Apparently, with the help of Restore, a number of these young men have started growing & selling their own crops. After hearing about The Mentoring Project, they wanted to give a small portion of their profits to our work.  

When we heard this news we were shocked, and a little unnerved. What were these young men thinking? Are we seriously going to accept donations from kids in Uganda? Many of these students were former child soldiers, their lives upended by poverty, conflict, and civil unrest, and now they want to give to The Mentoring Project?

It's easy to be cynical about something like this and assume it's not in the best interest of The Mentoring Project to accept donations from young people who are, for the most part, in a much harder situation than the fatherless boys in Portland.

But in talking to Bob about it, we realized that accepting the contributions and allowing Ugandan youth the opportunity to give generously is the most empowering thing we can do.

Bob described these students as the future leaders of Uganda and how this donation is a powerful incentive for the development of their country. The gift is a boost for us, but also an act of nation-building for them. 

Due to an eclectic mix of colonialism, foreign investment, and resource allocation, the world of international aid and development is dominated by 1st world countries supporting the livelihoods of 3rd world countries. Rarely, is it the other way around.

Coincidentally, alongside my work with The Mentoring Project, I run an international education organization called These Numbers Have Faces. As both organizations solicit support through various means, it's exciting, and also inspiring, to see ordinary Americans, Canadians, and Europeans feeling empowered and overjoyed to give to our work in America and South Africa. 

We've learned that there is something meaningful and deeply enriching in the act of giving itself, regardless of the amount.

Remember the parable Jesus told about the widow who gave her last coin to the poor in Mark 12? In the same vein, let's not take away the opportunity for the boys from Uganda to be blessed by God and experience the joy of giving.

We wanted the students in Uganda to know how much we appreciate their donations, so we mailed them a few copies of this thank you page showing one of the mentees they are helping us support here in Portland.

Basically, Restore International is turning charity on its head. They are saying that the privilege of financial progress and the joy of financial generosity shouldn't be reserved exclusively for the global north. And, maybe if we gave the global south more opportunities to experience the joys of giving, they'd be more likely to pull their own countries out of poverty. 

Needless to say, we're just thrilled to be along for the ride.

- Justin Zoradi, Marketing Director, The Mentoring Project
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Art is a great way for Mentors and Mentees to connect, so we were thrilled to see a fun screenprinting event take place in Portland last weekend.

People have been feeling the hurt lately. Downed economy, job loss, and general dislike of world affairs. With this in mind, a group of Portland's local graphic artists gave back to their community and The Mentoring Project! TMP got full attention at the event happily named "No Bones For Halftones." 

TMP's mentors and mentees got to share in a presentation on screen printing, then print on the clothes we brought. Everyone had a blast! Thanks again for opening this event to The Mentoring Project!

This month, we are excited to have nearly twenty new Portland TMP mentors! These heroic guys have gone through the TMP training and stepped into the lives of fatherless boys. 

We are moving steadily towards 1000 mentors here in Portland, with our goal of wiping out the mentor waiting list.

Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they mentor. 

Donate to support a mentor

Get your church involved in mentoring

After countless submissions and a spirited online t-shirt contest, our new shirts have arrived!

"Walk Beside Me" by Rachel Johnson and "TMP Alphabet" by Isaac Reichenbach are now available.

Buy and shirt and support a mentor today: Visit Our Online Store

You may have heard that in June, The Mentoring Project is hosting garage sales all over the country.

Here in Portland, the TMP office, our staff, supporters, and board members are doing a huge one in NE Portland. We're gonna be at at this big lot with tons of room and we're hoping to create the most epic garage sale of all time.

If you live in the Portland area, we'd love your help in filling this lot to the brim with the coolest stuff our zany city has to offer. 

Will you consider dropping off some garage sale items to us that we can use for the official TMP Garage Sale?

Please contact us: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it so we can get some info from you and get started.

Do you live far away from Portland but still want to help out with the garage sale? Go here, register, and host your own: http://www.thementoringproject.org/garagesale.html 

"This generation will never believe our gospel that God can be their father unless we are willing to step into their fatherlessness with the same intimacy that Christ stepped into our world at the incarnation" - Dr. John Sowers

TMP President Dr. John Sowers is at the Q Conference in Chicago sharing about the power of mentoring. The Q Conference features 600 participants and dynamic leaders from all different sectors.

Dr. Sowers was joined on a panel with Gabe Lyons (author of UnChristian), Roland Warren (President of the National Fatherhood Initiative), and representatives from Focus on the Family and the Bethany Adoption Agency. TMP was honored to have a voice on the Fatherless panel.

To continue the conversation, The Mentoring Project is hosting a breakfast on Friday April 30th, 7am CST  at the Corner Bakery. (1205 LaSalle between Adams & Monroe, behind the W Hotel)

If you're in the Chicago area, please join Dr. Sowers and TMP or this special breakfast to dialogue about mentoring and the fatherless generation. 

See you there!

In preparation for our national expansion next fall, we are proud to introduce The Mentoring Project National Impact Model.

Click the model below to view it larger and see our long-term plan to impact the lives of fatherless youth. 

We're on our way to 1000 mentors here in Portland. Soon after, we're working on 10,000 across the country, and 25 yrs from now 1 Million mentors. Will you join us?

Out of 30+ submissions, below are the top 10 designs for the TMP T-Shirt Contest.

Please choose your favorite by selecting the button on the left and clicking the orange "Vote" at the bottom.

While the voting will influence our decision, ultimately, The Mentoring Project staff will make the final decision on which shirt we choose to print.

The TMP T-Shirt voting will last for one week from April 8th - April 15th. All votes after the 15th will be null and void.

The winner(s) will have their t-shirt printed by The Mentoring Project and sold in our store, promoted by Donald Miller, and receive a signed copy of Don's new re-release Father Fiction.

Vote, Vote, Vote and tell your friends!