About Realise Mentoring
Most people can look back to periods in our careers and identify special people who have been there for us at critical stages, helping us to develop new skills and make the most of opportunities and challenges. Mentoring is the means by which one person assists another to grow and learn in a safe and supportive environment through acting as a ‘critical friend’, offering themselves as a sounding board in a trusting business relationship.
A mentor is there to support, stimulate and challenge a mentee on a personal and business level and our team of highly skilled volunteer mentors will often help a mentee to view their business in a different light using their knowledge, experience and expertise.
What’s involved?
The Realise Mentoring programme offers you access to a mentor on a one-to-one basis wherever possible, once eligibility has been confirmed.
A health check will be undertaken with eligible organisations to assess your mentoring needs and identify clear objectives from the mentoring programme. We will then carefully match you with a suitable mentor, who has the required experience and skills to meet your requirements.
Our mentors are successful, action-orientated people from a wide range of different sectors, who are willing to invest their time to enable others to benefit from their experience.
Depending on your needs, the mentoring support can last for up to 12 months, with an option to continue longer if you and your mentor wish. Access to the service is free for eligible organisations that submit a written application.
How can a mentor help you?
Through the Realise Mentoring programme, you can access experienced business mentors, who can help you to:
· develop your enterprising ideas
· find solutions to the challenges that you face
· develop the long term sustainability of your organisation
· increase your trading income
· build your skills, knowledge and networks
· deliver a high quality service
Our mentors are experienced business people from a wide range of backgrounds and areas of expertise, who also have an understanding of third sector organisations. They offer you an invaluable opportunity to benefit from their skills, knowledge and experience. They are people who have already had to address the challenges and issues that you face and can share their experience with you.
By supporting, stimulating and challenging you on an individual and organisational level, our mentors can help you to develop and grow your organisation and strengthen its sustainability. They can help you to view your organisation and the way you work in a different light. They can help you realise your potential.
Who can apply?
The aim of the Realise Mentoring programme is to provide mentoring support to leaders of third sector organisations to help them improve their financial sustainability and make a step-change to become more enterprising.
Any leader or decision maker of a third sector organisation that has aspirations to grow, diversify income streams and become more sustainable can apply, irrespective of turnover, staffing level, location or sector.
To be eligible, your organisation must have social aims, be governed by a voluntary management committee or board, be independent of government and be principally non-profit distributing. The programme is available to enterprising third sector organisations across urban and rural Scotland. You should be able to show that you are actively looking to develop your organisation’s long-term financial sustainability and diversify your income base. You will also need to be prepared to commit to the mentoring programme, at senior management level, for a period of up to a year.
What next?
Becoming a Mentor
The Realise Mentoring programme has a pool of experienced, successful mentors across the country from a wide range of business sectors, all of whom are willing to invest their time and energy to enable 3rd sector leaders to benefit from their knowledge and experience.
Mentors are established business people who are able and committed to offering their time free of charge to help another leader to grow and develop their business. We match mentors and mentees carefully to select the right skilled individual for each organisation through an initial healthcheck and a follow up meeting to make introductions and outline how to get the most out of the relationship.
Our mentors are willing to ‘invest forward’ to enable others to benefit from their experience and the commitment is usually for at least 3-4 hours of time per month from the mentor, with successful mentoring relationships lasting on average 12 months.
If you are interested in becoming a mentor or would like to find out more, please contact the team on:
3rd Sector Mentoring
Edinburgh Business Development
Capital House
2 Festival Square
Edinburgh,
EH3 9SU
Our Team
Our mentors are established business people in their own right with a unique blend of business and life experience. They benefit from having ‘been there and done that’ and they’re willing and keen to share their skills, knowledge and networks with other businesses.
The Realise Mentoring team is located across the country, with the programme managed centrally by 4 partners and delivered locally through the Chambers of Commerce and the CVS network and our team of mentors around Scotland.
We currently have highly skilled and experienced business mentors from a range of backgrounds and sectors. The programme is also complemented by our team of support staff who are tasked with facilitating, enabling and monitoring our mentoring activities and providing additional support for both mentors and mentees.
Contact Us
To speak us regarding the programme contact the team on:
3rd Sector Mentoring
Edinburgh Business Development
Capital House
2 Festival Square
Edinburgh,
EH3 9SU
