Help Fund This Work

President, Chief Executive Officer, Founder
Tutor/Mentor Connection 1992-present

Founder, CEO, Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, July 2011-present

View Timeline Showing Daniel Bassill involvement since 1973.

Daniel F. Bassill combines 40 years of unique experiences into his leadership of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC and the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Few people in the US have a similar depth of involvement and experiences. See Linkedin Page

Between 1975 and 2011 I helped create three of the most respected tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, as

* Volunteer Director of the Montgomery Ward-Cabrini Green Tutoring Program from 1975-1990. Program grew from 100 to 300 pairs of teens and volunteers over 15 years.

* Executive Director of Cabrini-Green Tutoring Program, Inc. from 1990 till October 1992. Number of youth grew to 440 and the number of volunteers grew to 550.

* Founder and president of Cabrini Connections from 1993-2011. The program started in 1993 with five teens and 7 volunteers and enrolled more than 600 teens and 800 volunteers in the next 18 years

In addition,  I helped grow the Lawyers Lend A Hand to Youth Program at the Chicago Bar Association (http://www.lawyerslendahand.org/) from a $2k award in 1994 to a $2 million foundation in 2007, as 1)non-profit partner and founding member of Executive Committee of the Lend A Hand Program from 1994 to 2001 while it operated as part of the Chicago Bar Foundation; 2) member of the Executive Board of SunTimes Marovitz Lawyers Lend A Hand to Youth Program from its founding in 2001 through 2008.

My experiences include:

*  17 years advertising management in national retail store corporation, creating advertising to draw people to 400 stores in 40 states

*  4 years as Loaned Executive in Chicago's United Way Crusade of Mercy. Served as consultant to Big 6 accounting firms and major corporations, helping each develop leadership giving and employee donation campaigns

*  3 years in US Army Intelligence and 4 years history major in college, where I learned to use knowledge for innovation and decision support

*  36 years leading a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program, connecting workplace volunteers and inner city kids.  I'm still connected to many students from 1970s, 80s and 90s via Facebook. I'm now seeing them post stories and photos showing high school and college graduation of their own kids. 

Visit this page to see a list of awards and recognition that has been earned in the past 30 years.

Visit this page to see media stories resulting from work of the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Read these blog articles where I've described how my background has led to the work I'm now doing.

Read "The Tutor/Mentor Business" written by Sara Coover Caldwell, showing growth of Tutor/Mentor Connection, from when Dan Bassill became a volunteer in 1973 to 1997, when Dan was selected to represent Chicago at the 1997 Presidents' Summit for America's Future. click here

Read, "Looking Back over 45 Years" by Dan Bassill - click here

Read, "How are Social Sector Leaders Created, the story of Dan Bassill's 45 Year Journey".  On the I-Open blog. click here

Can you help fund this work? Click here and learn more.

Bassill began using computers to solve problems and do work of many people when with the Montgomery Ward Corporation in early 1980. In 1997 he began integrating the Internet into the strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Cabrini Connections.  On this Tutor/Mentor Institute web site are many pdf essays written by Bassill to illustrate his views and strategies, along with links to many places where Bassill shares extensive information about tutor/mentor programs, where they are needed, why they are needed and how business, philanthropy and volunteers can be more strategically involved.

Bassill shares his ideas on this and other web sites, writes the articles on the http://tutormentor.blogspot.com and http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com blogs and contributes comments and articles at many other places where he shares  ideas and network with others. His goal is to help a generation of new leaders learn from his own experiences, so there are thousands of people working in the same way to build mentor-rich volunteer-based programs that aim to transform the life of youth and the volunteers who become part of these programs.

Creation of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, July 2011
In April 2011 the Board of Directors of the combined Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection voted to no longer support the T/MC strategy after June 30. Read more.  In July 2011 Bassill created the Tutor/Mentor Institute LLC to provide a new structure to generate revenue and partnership to support the continued operation of the Tutor/Mentor Connection in Chicago and similar intermediary organizations in other cities.  This new structure depends on continued aid from those who have supported the work done over the past 18 years along with finding new partners, sponsors and benefactors.

Review of past 45 years.  Visit this HISTORY page.

See Videos showing T/MC strategy. See visualizations by interns, explaining T/MC and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC strategies.

Many people complement the broad based thinking Dan brings to this effort. He's an "artist" . In this article, one person says he deserves a Genius Award.   Can you become his benefactor and help make the ideas shared on these web sites more of a reality?

E-mail Bassill at "tutormentor2 at earthlink.net ".  Connect on Twitter@tutormentorteam or join the Tutor/Mentor Institute on Facebook.