WWF has seen significant year-on-year increases in participation of its global mentoring programme. Since its inception in 2018, WWF’s programme has had over 600 participants (350 Mentees, 270 Mentors). Mentoring Ambassadors are responsible for a significant contribution to that growth.
“Our evaluation consistently shows that staff who participate in the programme are more motivated and also more confident in tackling work related challenges. They experience an exciting global network in action, building friendships and connections across regions, functions and boundaries. And this all for nearly no cost… just a little bit of time!”
Innovating and upscaling the Global Mentoring Programme
After a successful first two years with a small team, the NGO has started to innovate via upscaling, repeat-participants and recognition.
Many of WWF 270 Mentors have returned for a second or third time to offer an hour per month to help a colleague thrive.
“Their feedback and also their return is a proof that this programme is not only rewarding for our Mentees, but also for the Mentors who help them to thrive. We also encourage former Mentees to further build their skills as Mentors in the network — and hence our Mentor pool is growing.”
As a nice add-on recognition mentors now receive a “Mentor badge” on WWF’s intranet.
A big step towards upscaling and inclusivity of the programme is via “Mentoring Ambassadors”. After a successful pilot, WWF works now with 15 mentoring Ambassadors (perhaps 20 in the fall cohort) who come from regional, topical and local teams around the world. They helped to place more Mentees in the programme than ever before.
“With the help of our local Ambassadors we quadrupled the participants in our programme cohort… While each looks after perhaps 5 – 10 Mentees, in total it really makes a huge difference for the programme and for WWF. We are now reaching out to many more countries to join with their own Ambassador…”
Mentoring Ambassadors help build participation and diversity
270 Mentors, 2018 to 2021
WWF’s Ambassador approach not only allows participation to grow. It also diversifies the participation and leads to more inclusion across the globe. WWF already sees an increasing number of South-South and South-North matches.
- 10% of Mentors come from Africa, 12% from Asia and 5% from South America
- 16% of Mentees come from Africa, 25% from Asia and 8% from South America.
350 Mentees, 2018 to 2021
To further emphasise inclusivity and outreach to staff, WWF offers briefings in English with translations to French and Spanish. Multilingual mentors are also available.
The charts illustrate the diversity of mentors and mentees over the last three years on the programme.
Building a great mentoring programme
Coach Mentoring Ltd is proud to continue to help (see WWF Alumni Mentors, 2018) with an initiative that stands as a testament to the benefits of a well run mentoring programme. We are always keen to talk mentoring, so please get in touch to discuss how we might help you with your mentoring programme.
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