Celebrate 33+ Years of Impact! Thank you for helping.
I started the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 and the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in 2011.
While I began my tutor/mentor journey in 1973 as a volunteer, and led site-base tutor/mentor programs from 1975 to 2011, it's been for the past three decades, that I have dedicated my life to building learning networks, and expanding volunteer-based tutoring and mentoring programs across high-poverty neighborhoods in Chicago and beyond. Please contribute to help me continue. (scroll down to bottom of this page to find PayPal button and/or mailing address)
Take some time to walk through the sections of the www.tutormentorexchange.net website and see what’s available every day of the year to anyone in the world who looks for information about helping volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty areas. Look at the library and see the 2000+ links to articles showing where kids and families need extra help, why, and what some of the challenges are.
This is all free to anyone, thanks to you and others who have continued to provide contributions to help me pay the fees required to keep this site on-line and share it with others. This entire website is full of reasons for helping me help volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs grow in every area of persistent poverty. It's also a resource for any type of problem-solving!
The image asks "How can we do this better?"
It recognizes that there are many volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs already operating in big cities like Chicago, but that too many neighborhoods still have too few programs or none serving specific age groups. It shows a goal of connecting "everyone" in an on-going learning effort aimed at helping existing programs get the on-going flow of resources needed to innovate and grow, while helping new programs start where needed. It asks others to help.
Rather than trying to be a single leader in a huge city, the T/MC, and now T/MI, have sought to provide an information platform that all leaders can use to LEARN, EDUCATE, and INNOVATE ways to support long-term, mentor rich, volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning program growth in more places and to solve other complex social, political and environmental problems facing this country and the world.
Test AI Prompting: Ask tools like Gemni, “Where can I find resources that help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs serve K-12 kids in high poverty areas?” I did that last spring. The “Key Takeaway” for my search was “When you use the specific slash format "tutor/mentor", the search results shift away from general "tutor" ads and toward The Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC). Gemni wrote, “This is a framework developed by Dan Bassill that treats tutoring and mentoring as a single integrated strategy for poverty reduction and student success.” View the article at https://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2026/04/where-does-tutormentor-land-using-ai.html
With your help, I can continue.
If someone you know has become ill and needs money to pay bills, they set up a "Go Fund Me" page and ask for contributions. So, this is my "fund me" page. I (Daniel Bassill) have been self-funding most of this work since 2011, supported by a small group of continuing donors.
Please send a contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500 or more to help me continue in 2026, 2027 and beyond.
Mail contributions to:
Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
c/o Daniel Bassill
932 N. Salem Avenue
Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Thank you for helping me help others.
Note. The Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC is not a 501-c-3 non profit, so your contributions are not tax deductible. They will be used to support social benefit and the lives of thousands of young people born and living in high poverty areas of Chicago and other places.