Leverage Billionaire Funding - Tipping Point

Today I saw an article showing How Melinda French Gates Plans to Fund "Chronically," "Unconscionably" Underfunded Programs for Women and Girls.  

In addition, I've seen many articles showing how MacKenzie Scott donated more than $740 million to HBCUs in 2025 and already more in 2026.  This is just part of her 2019 pledge to "donate the majority of  here billions in wealth to charity."

And, this week I saw posts on social media suggesting that these two women team up to create a new media ecosystem.  That would be fantastic.

But, I think there's another opportunity. What if MacKenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates teamed up to fund the idea shown below, at several universities?  Let's dig into the graphic:

In the middle of the graphic is the birth-to-work arrow that I've  used since the mid 90's to visualize age-level supports that volunteers and businesses could provide to youth, via well-organized tutor/mentor programs as well as schools. 

At the top of this graphic is the question. What can universities do differently, that might be a tipping point in terms of making well organized programs available in more places, for more years, reaching more youth, and helping them through school?

I answer by saying "build a pipeline of leaders, who work in these programs, and who work to provide the talent and resources needed by each program on an on-going basis".

So I added an overlay to the Birth to Work arrow to suggest this idea.

If you strip away the arrow, this is what's left.

Imagine a four to six year masters or PhD level college program, starting the freshman year of college.  Then visualize on-going practical learning, in which college students serve in existing programs, reaching youth as young as elementary school, with their service tied to course work being studied on campus at different points over their college career.

Imagine part of what college students are teaching youth in middle school and high school, is drawn from the same "how to" lessons that college kids are studying. If students begin thinking of what it takes to make the programs available to them, which they are part of, they will have momentum if they choose to pursue this course of study in college, and as a career.

If colleges just did the first part of this suggestion, they would  be reaching youth in neighborhoods surrounding the college and enlisting their students and alumni in various roles that help PULL kids through k-12 school, and into college, then on into jobs and careers.  If this were a continuous program, lasting for decades, it might dramatically close the opportunity gap.

This certainly would support Gate's goal of supporting programs for underserved women and girls.  And HBCUs receiving funds from Scott could dedicate some of those funds to building this type of curriculum. 

However, that's not enough. Youth and volunteers need a safe, well-organized place where they can connect, build relationships, and stay connected for many years.  Such places are constantly seeking dollars, volunteers and other resources, but are not equal in their abilities to attract those resources. Thus, too few programs are available.

Here's the TIPPING POINT:  The curriculum I am suggesting is not limited to just those going into direct service. It's a college wide humanities type course that engages students studying in different fields, most of whom will go into the business world.

Imagine that each year's class of graduates from a university include a few with degrees showing them to have a full knowledge of how to build and lead a mentor rich youth serving organization.  And then imagine another group of graduates, leaving college with an understanding of what it takes for such programs to succeed, and the role they can take in PROACTIVELY providing dollars, talent, technology, volunteers and other resources needed, including jobs, internships and learning opportunities for youth in organized tutor/mentor programs and public schools.

Then, imagine that people from both groups spend time daily, or weekly,  in on-line affinity groups, supported in part by universities, and students who are working toward their degrees, where they keep learning, from the college, and from each other, so they are constantly seeking to do more and do better, at helping kids move out of poverty, or helping solve other complex problems facing the world.

No matter how many billions Gates and Scott donate, it's too little. They need to leverage their giving so others join in.

I've attempted to communicate this idea in the past using this graphic, which you can find in this series of articles.

The problem, as I see it, is that most adults don't have time to dig through my articles and learn what has taken me 50 years to learn.  Most are not motivated to do this, nor guided through this mountain of information, they way faith leaders and college professors guide students through other information resources.

So what types of curriculum would students study?  I started building a list which I show in the graphic below. I suspect that others could add more, if they just spent time thinking about it.

As you look at the list of skills needed, compare them to courses required by colleges preparing teachers, social workers and/or business leaders.  I doubt that many are required to learn spatial thinking tools like GIS mapping, or concept mapping. Or that they are asked to learn basic coding, so they can oversee a web site or blog, to communicate ideas. I doubt that many are learning ways to support digital learning in on-line communities, or the creation of digital content that can be used to share ideas and promising practices.

Visit this section of the Tutor/Mentor library and find lists of websites that share skills which should be part of this curriculum. 

To me, this graphic also represents how students, alumni and community members, including youth, would be connecting in on-going learning to better understand complex problems, and learn about actions being taken in some parts of the world, that might be applied in other places, if resources were readily available.  If alumni who are working or have been blessed with wealth are in these conversations they would be ready and able to offer support where needed.

I've been reaching out to universities in Chicago and beyond since the 1990s to find one that would adopt the Tutor/Mentor Connection/Institute, LLC as a strategic partner.  Here's one of many articles showing this invitation.

It just takes one college to pilot this, and one wealthy benefactor to provide the financial incentive for a college or university to take this role.

Look at the graphic below. Imagine each of those red school icons being a place where an alumni with a Tutor/Mentor Institute degree from your university were on the staff and that others were volunteers, board members and/or donors.  Can you visualize having such an impact?  

This is not intended to help one, or even a few, great youth programs grow. It's intended to fill a growing number of high poverty areas across the US and the world with great, constantly improving, well-supported youth tutor/mentor programs that are recognized as world class, by the degrees of their leaders and by the work they are doing.

No matter how many billions of dollars wealthy donors give, it won't be enough.  However, if some of these dollars are intended to support effective, constantly improving organizations, and others are intended to educate donors, so they learn to search for organizations to support based on where they are located, who they serve, and what they show on their websites.  No Letter of Inquiry or Grant Proposal needed!

If you've read any articles on this blog, or followed my @tutormentorteam posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter or Facebook, you've seen graphics like the one below.

The message in both graphics is the same. We need to reach kids as they enter school and support them with a wide range of mentors and learning experiences as they move through school and into adult lives. While all kids need this support, for most kids, it's naturally available through family, neighbors, faith groups and community.

For each child this is at least a 20-25 year journey, starting in preschool. 

To make that happen we need to create a pipeline of new leaders.  Wealthy donors can fuel that.

Thanks for reading. Please share it. Maybe someone in wealthy circles of influence will take time to read it.  And pass it on, up the chain of wealth!

If you appreciate what I'm sharing, visit this page and send a contribution. 

Use this resource to map and analyze your networks

The information below is from a new page on my website that I launched to show work done by a team of students from the Information Visualization (IVMOOC) class at Indiana University. This is a project they had been working on for me since September 2025.  

I'm very impressed with the work they did. This visualization shows participation in one of the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences held in Chicago between May 1994 and May 2015. You can see it in this article.  Open the Kumu map - click here

In the article and on my website I show several other views that I created from the interactive Kumu project. However, this was only a demonstration of what's possible.  On social media I've been encouraging youth and volunteers from Chicago tutor/mentor programs to dig into the map and find their own organization, then share a screenshot showing what conferences you were part of.

To understand the value of this project, I urge you to read the IVMOOC team final report (click here).

Then take time to study the "Open Source Network Mapping" app created by the team. (click here).

Then look at the "How-To-Guide" that provides step by step information.

In the Project Overview the IVMOOC students wrote: "The Network Map is an event network visualization platform that helps event organizers collect participation and connection data, automatically convert it into network-ready nodes and edges, and explore insights through an analytics dashboard. Outputs can be exported to tools like Kumu.io and Gephi for deeper relationship mapping and network analysis." 

Then, look at the Git Hub page for the project. click here

On the home page you'll find this description. "Network Map - Event Network Visualization Platform. A full-stack web application for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing participant connections from events. Transform survey responses into interactive network graphs and analytics dashboards."

The Network Mapping project was the work of one IVMOOC team. Another looked at the data and created a dashboard showing participation by zip code. See it in this article.

This is the third time since 2008 that the IVMOOC project has looked at the Tutor/Mentor Connection (which has been led through Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011).  Click here to read the 2015 project report.  I'm hoping to be a client for the Spring 2026 IVMOOC, too. 

I've been reaching out to universities for help since the 1990s. It's part of an on-going invitation to engage students, faculty and alumni of universities in Chicago and throughout the world.

Read this post and find a PDF that shows 30 years of engagement, yet also shows no strategic, long-term effort where a stream of students work on the T/MC project while in college, then when they are alumni, with the goal of creating long-term impact on the lives of people living in high poverty areas. 

I invite students and faculty to help me do that, by learning about the tool, and why it's important by reading articles on my blog and in my library.  Then, by creating your own event mapping project, perhaps showing how people at your university are connected around specific issues.

Please connect and introduce yourself to me on LinkedIn, BlueSky, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (see links here). 

Making Philanthropy Work Better

I've posted more than 100 articles since 2005 that focus on improving the distribution of philanthropic dollars to volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs that reach K-12 youth in high poverty areas of Chicago and other places with multi-year support. 

I've used this graphic often to show the need for long-term funding.  You can find it in this article.

I've also written about the role of information-based intermediaries who collect and share information that volunteers and donors and policy-makers could use to help youth and families in areas of concentrated poverty.  Here's one example.

Furthermore I've shown my efforts over the past 30 years to create a map-based program locator that could help people better understand where youth and families needed more help, and what tutor/mentor programs existed in these areas, that also needed more help.

Thus, I was excited over the past two weeks to learn of an organization called Project 990, which is based out of Indiana University.   Visit their website and see how they are "Building a comprehensive data analytics platform that integrates information from millions of tax filings, grants, and other sources related to philanthropic giving."

This is far more extensive and sophisticated than anything I was able to do in the past.  View this Tableau site to see maps they have created from the data they are collecting. 

Then visit this Smart Charity page on LinkedIn and read the stories they are creating using this data.

I started connecting with Indiana University in the early 2000s when people from IUPUI began attending the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted in Chicago.  Then in 2008 I began connecting with an Information Visualization program on the Bloomington campus of IU.  This 2012 article shows work done in 2008.  This article shows work done in 2015 and again in 2025. 

This Tableau map shows that part of their focus is on Bloomington, where the IU campus is located.  

I've introduced myself and hope that one or more of their students will dig into my blog, website and archives and begin sharing what they are learning via the Smart Charity stories.  My goal is that some of the strategies I've piloted, that focus on active, on-going communications intended to draw donors to existing non profits, and to places where more are needed, will become part of their own efforts.  The 2006-2015 articles on the Tutor/Mentor Intern blog show what's possible.

Furthermore, I hope their model is duplicated by universities in every urban area and in every state and that over time, this fixes the funding and staff retention problems that I focus on in my articles.

1-13-2026 update - Here's another example of mapping philanthropic data. Take a look at the Nonprofit Ecosystem Mapping Project on the GivingTuesday Data Commons. click here

When I was working with the IVMOOC team last fall I suggested that they create a map showing all of the programs at Indiana University that focused on helping people.   Here's one article where I show what's possible.   Here's another.  If such a map of the IU ecosystem existed I suspect it would connect the IVMOOC program and the Project 990 group, and maybe others who are doing related work.  

I am constantly reminded of how much great work is happening that I'm not aware of.  I add links to the Tutor/Mentor Library to share much of what I find.  So, if you're aware of programs similar to Project 990 at other universities, please share the links.

Thanks for reading.  Find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, Twitter and Mastodon. Find links here.

If you'd like to help fund my work, visit this page. 

Mapping Learning Resources - 2026 and beyond

Over the past few years I've devoted several articles to showing uses of concept maps and other visualization tools to help organize information and ideas and create platforms that engage more people in learning and innovating solutions to complex problems.

Here's another example.  Explore this interactive map (created using Kumu.io) on the Landscape of Consciousness website. You'll find four maps like the one shown below that visualize theories of consciousness.

Scroll down on the home page and you'll find this chart, which details the information found on the concept map. 

This page is really important.  The "Implications" section "explores the real-world consequences of theories of consciousness on five profiled and challenging questions".

The Landscape of Consciousness map was shared on LinkedIn by Deniz Cem Önduygu.   This is where I get my first look at most of the Kumu visualizations that I've been sharing.

Now look at my maps.  This one shows the full range of information in the library on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC website.  click here to open

This shows one of the four subsections of the concept map shown above.  This one shares links to information anyone can use to build coalitions and innovate solutions to complex problems.  click here to open

At the bottom of each node are one, or two boxes.  These include links to external website pages, or to additional concept maps.  click here to view this page

I've built the Tutor/Mentor library over the past 50 years, starting in the 1970s when I was looking for ideas for my weekly sessions with my mentee, then when I began to lead a program.  We accelerated this process in 1993 when we created the Tutor/Mentor Connection, then again in 1998 when we moved the library to the Internet, where it has grown for over 25 years.

I've used cMapTools since 2005 to visualize ideas, strategies and the resources in the Tutor/Mentor Library. And, I use blog articles to "make sense" of the information.  

I don't have the energy or motivation to rebuild all of my maps using Kumu or Gephi, but I keep sharing examples of these tools, with the goal that one, or more, people will use my library as a resource and will use Kumu to map what's available.

Last week I posted this article, showing the visualization below, created by students at Indiana University.  It shows participation in the 1994-2015 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted in Chicago. They created this using Excel spreadsheets from my library.

Last April, I used this article to show my 30 years of outreach to local, national and international universities.

On page 39 I showed the 2008 IVMOOC project done by students at Indiana University. 

This shows that I've had success in connecting with universities on short term projects. But I've not been able to build any long-term partnerships.  Thus, while each project was valuable, the potential was lost because they were not part of any university-led on-going effort, or relay-race, where future students took the place of current and past students and constantly updated, expanded, and improved on the work done by previous students.

That will only happen if a major donor provides the money.

So as we enter 2026 I call on readers to share this with their networks, reaching out to people who could make major gifts, to a university, to build on-campus Tutor/Mentor Connections, that build on the work I've piloted for so long.

This invitation aims to reach faculty and/or administrators who might develop programs, and grant requests, that find this money.  If you're interested, take a look at this page, where I outline steps you might take.

I'd be happy to explore this idea with you.  Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, BlueSky, Mastodon, Facebook and/or Instagram (see links here).  

Thanks to everyone who sent contributions in 2025 to help me do this work. Visit my "Fund T/MI" page to offer your help. 

Target holiday and year-round giving to high poverty areas

 On Sunday the Chicago SunTimes and WBEZChicago published a story about how life expectancy in some neighborhoods of Chicago is much lower than in others.  Below is the map that was in the SunTimes story, and which can be found on the WBEZ site. 

I included some text from the article with the map.  The top paragraph says, 

"In a city with a deep history of segregation, Chicago public health officials view the gap through the lens of race. They say four main drivers — heart disease, homicide, opioid overdoses and cancer — fuel shorter lives among Chicagoans who are Black compared to residents of other races. In many cases, these deaths are preventable."

The bottom paragraph reads,

"In West Garfield Park, merely living is much harder than in most parts of Chicago, according to a “hardship index” that incorporates unemployment, income and other factors. Around 40% of households make less than $25,000 a year, data shows. The majority of residents are unemployed or stopped looking for a job"

I've been writing about this for over 20 years.  In 2008 I followed a SunTimes report titled "Schooled in Fear" with these articles. 

As we began 2025 I wrote an article titled, "Inequality. So much data. So little change."

In that article I included this Chicago Tribune story and map from 1994.

This is not a new problem.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving, then the year-end holidays, I urge you to form a study group and start reading some of the articles I've posted on this blog, and some of the information I've shared in this section of the Tutor/Mentor library.

Then read some of my articles about philanthropy, such as this one.

And read my invitation to universities, such as this one.

I created this concept map several years ago to show that youth, families and schools in areas of persistent poverty face many challenges.

Helping volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in high poverty neighborhoods is one way to provide extra support that helps kids through school and into adult lives.  It's also a way to increase the number of adults from beyond poverty who become personally involved, through the bonds they form with the kids they work with.

But each node of this map points to issues that need to be addressed concurrently.  It's a huge challenge and something that won't be solved in a short term of any single elected official.  

What I've been doing as a one-man operation since 2011 and a small organization since 1993, needs to be owned by one or more universities in Chicago and other cities so an on-going input of student manpower and talent can do the work of a Tutor/Mentor Connection, and learn habits that they can use once they graduate, and for the rest of their lives, to help reduce these challenges and create a brighter future for all of us.

That ownership can come if one or more wealthy donors provides the multi-year funding needed to make it happen.  

As you celebrate the holidays, think about what's shown in the graphic below.

Everyone celebrating with you represents different talents, skills and resources that could be part of a long-term strategy.  Many have people in their own networks who also have these skills. And some may know a "super hero" who would make a major gift, if they were asked.

Read the articles. Share them. Start a study group. Pick neighborhoods to support. Pick organizations in those neighborhoods where you can offer time, talent and dollars.  Identify and elect legislative representatives who will create policy that mobilizes and distributes an on-going flow of operating resources to EVERY neighborhood with concentrations of persistent poverty.

Do this and you'll also connect with people and ideas that focus on saving our Democracy.

Thanks for reading. Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, BlueSky or any other platform that I show on this page.

And, if you're able help me celebrate my December 19th, 79th birthday with a gift that lights a candle on my cake.

Or a gift to my on-going Fund T/MI campaign. 

Into the new year

America lost a hero this week with the death of former president Jimmy Carter. 

I heard President Carter speak in June 2008 when I attended the National Conference on Volunteerism and Service in Atlanta.  His purpose, and the purpose of The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Foundation (JRCPF), was (and still is) to encourage the growth of campus-community partnerships and student-led community service learning.  

I wrote two blog articles in 2008 in the weeks after hearing Jimmy Carter and I've mixed them together in the message I'm sharing today.

President Carter talked about the gaps between rich and poor, and then demonstrated what he is doing to close this gap by providing awards to three university-community engagement projects.  

He said "the greatest challenge we face is the gap between rich and poor." And, "We have the best institutions of higher education in the world, yet many are surrounded by slums."

I created the graphic below as I attended workshops focused on business and university engagement. It includes a map of the Chicago region, showing areas where poverty is concentrated and were youth, families and schools need more help.

In 2008 I'd already spent 14 years trying to reverse the traditional two-way process of how nonprofits obtain resources from people who already have a self interest in wanting these nonprofits to be successful in their missions. We'll never have great social benefit programs in a majority of the places where they are needed based on the current system of competitive allocation.

Yet, if we can engage the talent of volunteers and leaders to serve in intermediary roles, we can do more to connect people who can help with places where help is needed.

I put these and similar charts on the T/MC web site with a goal that they are used by groups of people in universities, churches, businesses, etc. who want to become more strategic, and more engaged, in the ways they use their talent, time and resources to help end poverty in Chicago, and other cities around the world.    

I wrote a second article after hearing President Jimmy Carter say "We have some of the best institutions of higher education in the world. Yet many of them are surrounded by slums."

I included this map showing locations of colleges and universities in the Chicago region,  with overlays showing where poverty was most concentrated and where poorly performing schools (based on 2007 Illinois State Board of Education) were located.

Its aim is to help students, faculty and alumni from each university create tutor/mentor support groups that adopt the mission and strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (led by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011) in their own efforts to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in the areas around the college or university.

Thus, if you're at Northwestern, or Loyola, you could have a great impact on the growth of programs in the North part of Chicago and in Evanston. While if you're at the University of Chicago, you could have an impact in helping tutor/mentor programs grow throughout the South Side where our maps show so much poverty and too few tutor/mentor programs.

If you're at Dominican University in Oak Park, you could be supporting programs in Austin and on the West side of Chicago. If you're at the University of Illinois at Chicago, you could also be supporting the entire West side. And, if you're a downtown campus, with students and alumni living in all parts of the region, you could use these maps, to develop engagement strategies throughout the region, using the expressways as routes to connect with programs in different neighborhoods.

You could have a page on your website showing how your students were collecting and sharing information about what tutor/mentor programs in your part of the city were doing, and what universities in other parts of Chicago, and in other cities, were doing to help youth in high poverty areas of their cities. You could even be hosting conferences and online forums to share this information. View this intern blog to see examples of what's possible. 

As you look at these maps, use the Zip Code Map and Chicago Programs Links, to find contact information for organizations that provide various forms of volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring. You can narrow your search by type of program and age group served by using the Program Locator database (which was built in 2004, but is now only available as an archive).

You'll find that some programs are very well organized. Some are small, and may not be so well organized. Some places just offer homework help. Some offer a rich learning environment and connect youth to a wide network of adults and opportunities.

However, the goal is not to pick and choose between different levels of program quality. It's to help develop great volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring and extended learning programs in every zip code with high poverty. That may mean helping a small program grow. It also means helping the best programs continue to sustain their work.

It means we need to build a distribution of manpower, talent, operating dollars and technology into every poverty neighborhood, not just a few with high profile leaders.

The Tutor/Mentor Connection was created in 1993 and has been led by Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since 2011. It's aim is to share information so that teams in universities begin to develop their own ideal of what mix of services and what type of program structure is best, and that they begin to take on a responsibility for helping such programs grow in the area around the university, with a goal that elementary school kids they work with today can be college freshmen in 6 to 12 years, and college alumni who support the university, and its neighborhood tutor/mentor programs, 15 to 20 years from now.

Read this "Tipping  Point" article to see a description of this vision. click here

The result of such leadership can be that instead of wealthy alumni donating $20 million for research at an area university, these same alumni might begin to divide that money into annual grants of $40,000 to $80,000 that would provide operating support to volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the area around the university, using the web site of the organization, and the recommendations of the university, to determine which groups to support. It also means that thousands other donors will contribute their own time, talent and dollars to support the on-going efforts of programs in different parts of the city and suburbs.

That was a long term vision when I wrote this in 2008. It's still just a vision.

It requires many leaders in many organizations and communities. This is why I think some of this leadership should be anchored in universities who have long term commitments to their neighborhoods and the city of Chicago. Through these universities we can engage other teams of volunteers, from hospitals, businesses, civic and social organizations. (I'll write about the role of hospitals, faith groups and businesses in a different article.)

This is not something you can wait for the other college or university to take ownership of. It's a form of leadership and engagement that a student, alumni, professor or administrator can launch from their own blog or web site.

We even created a template of a strategic plan that you might use to start your thinking. We've created a Business School Connection to show how students from the business schools of our major universities could use the skills they are learning to mobilize volunteers and donors for area tutor/mentor programs.

Since 2008 I've created other visual essays to encourage universities to create on-campus Tutor/Mentor Connection strategies.  See them in these articles.

As you read the paper this week about another shooting in Chicago, or about some leader promising new hope for America, I hope you'll look in the mirror and say, "Solutions to America's problems start with me."  That's what Jimmy Carter did. 

Thank you for reading and sharing my blog articles.  I hope you'll connect with me on social media (see links here) and help build an on-line community of people who discuss and share these ideas. 

And thank you to those who made 2024 contributions to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.  If you did not contribute this year, please make a donation in the coming months.  Visit this page for details. 

What comes after the election?

We lost. America lost. What's at risk? You may have heard of Project 2025, the radical right agenda to reshape America.  This site was created by comic book artists and writers to help people better understand what's in Project 2025.  Take a look.  These are things we need to fear and fight against in the coming years.

However, there's a battle that has been going on far longer.  

Helping kids to careers

The issue I've been focusing on for the past 50 years is related to economic justice. If we help kids born or living in high poverty areas move through school and into adult lives with jobs and careers, and support networks, that enable them to live and raise their own children where ever they want, we do much to create economic justice. 

Since 2005 I've created a library of concept maps that visualize commitments, strategies and resources, with this one showing that helping kids to careers means providing a wide range of needed supports at each age level as they move from first grade through high school, college/vocational training into jobs.

View Mentoring Kids to Careers cMap

In the bottom left part of this cMap I show the role that volunteer tutors, mentors, coaches, etc. take, as "extra adults" to help kids access these resources and as a form of "bridging social capital" that provides expanded networks and opportunities for kids living in neighborhoods defined by concentrated poverty.

This is extremely important because if we don't find ways to get thousands adults who don't live in poverty personally connected to youth and families that are in high poverty areas, we'll never build the empathy, and public will, to invest in the long-term efforts I describe in posts like this.

Building such systems of support and making them consistently available for 20 to 30 years in thousands of locations will require a huge commitment of public will, something this country has little history of success in generating.

This is a graphic that I've used often over the past 20 years to show that the outcomes we all want for kids requires work done at the bottom of this pyramid.  You can find this graphic in this PDF.

Below I've created some images that focus in on different elements of this graphic.  The ideas apply in building systems of support for inner city youth, and for solving any other complex problem.

At the bottom of the pyramid is the knowledge that we draw upon to propose solutions to problems.   While we each have our own personal experiences, and some have studied an issue for their entire lives, most don't have a broad reference base that they draw upon to support where and how they get involved.  Building a knowledge base that supports the decisions of others who need to be involved in solutions to problems is an essential first step. Keeping this up-to-date is an on-going challenge.

I've been building a web library and directory of non-school tutor and mentor programs since the early 1990s. Initially I did this to support youth, volunteers and leaders in the tutor/mentor programs I was leading in Chicago. As I formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 I began to share this information more consistently with others throughout Chicago and use it to try to draw more consistent attention and resources to EVERY tutor/mentor program in the region, not just the most visible.  

The knowledge collection role is Step 1 of the 4-part strategy I've led since 1993.  Read more about what I've been trying to do in this Tutor/Mentor Learning Network presentation.

Competing for attention.  Drawing users to library.  Building and sustaining a library of information and ideas is one thing.  Creating daily advertising and public education that draws a growing number of learners and users to the information is a very different challenge.

Most youth serving organizations don't have powerful marketing teams working to draw attention and resources to them on an on-going basis.  The way philanthropy works, most programs compete with each other for scarce dollars. That does not encourage collaboration. Read this "Drain the Swamp" article to see what I mean.

Innovating ways that more people take roles in building public awareness and draw viewers to information in the library has been a priority of the T/MC since it was formed. This is Step 2 of the 4-part strategy.

I find too few conversations that focus on this step.  With the Internet we have a growing "Crisis of Attention", which is described in this 2017 article.

I keep looking for conversations where people are thinking about challenges of competing for people's attention in an environment where so many others have far more resources.  I've written many articles focused on "creating attention". Take time to read through them.

Building the network. Part of my web library focuses on "who needs to be involved" which includes a directory of non-school tutor and mentor programs in Chicago and around the country and a data base and collection of more than 2000 links that point to others who are involved in some way in efforts to help kids move through school and into jobs and careers.

Getting representatives of these organizations and resource providers together to learn, share, build relationships and innovate shared solutions to problems is what I focus on in this stage of the pyramid.  

Unless people in business, philanthropy, faith groups, media, politics, etc. are coming together on an on-going basis, for face-to-face and on-line learning it will be difficult to create and sustain collaborations that help build and sustain high quality youth supports.

In this blog article I show that a "village" of people with different talents and networks needs to be involved helping every tutor/mentor program grow, as well as helping many programs grow in specific neighborhoods and entire cities.    This is part of Step 3 in the four-part strategy.

These first three steps need to be happening on an on-going basis, reaching people throughout Chicago, Illinois and the world. However, they are just the start.

Better information, read and understood by more people, creates a better understanding of what types of youth support programs have the best chance of having a positive impact on youth and volunteers. Better information also helps people understand the challenges involved, which are many.

When I talk about the need for "better information" read some of the articles I've posted about program design and how many programs are needed.   

This needs to lead to actions that support programs in more places. If more of the stakeholders, including resource providers, are looking at this information, they can develop a set of actions that generate a flow of on-going resources (talent, dollars, ideas, technology, etc.) into every high poverty neighborhood, to every tutor and mentor program operating in those neighborhoods.

T/MC map created in 2008

It is essential that maps be used to support this process. With a map leaders can focus on all areas of a city where kids need extra help. At the same time, neighborhood groups can focus on their part of the city. Many groups need to be doing this.  With a map we can add overlays that show indicators of need, existing youth tutor/mentor and learning resources, and assets (business, hospitals, faith groups, universities, etc.) who could be helping youth programs grow in different areas....because they are also invested in these areas!

I think this is the weakest link in this process. Most programs compete with others for scarce resources. Most foundations use requests-for-proposals and competitive grants and competitions to decide who gets funded. There are only a few winners and many losers. Often prizes and grants are one-time gifts, not repeated from year-to-year.  No business could grow to be great on this type of funding stream. Yet, I see few leaders using maps to show a need to draw resources to all poverty neighborhoods, and to all of the organizations working in these areas.  Few cities have a map based leadership effort, intended to help great programs grow in every part of the city. 

However, if we could solve this problem....

A better flow of needed resources to youth serving organizations (Step 4 in 4-part strategy) leads to more and better programs serving k-12 youth in more of the places where they are needed.  I can't tell you how often people ask about "outcomes" without talking about the work needed to build well-organized, mentor-rich non-school programs.

This leads to the final graphic.

It can take several years for a business to become profitable, or for a youth-serving organization to build the team of staff, leaders, volunteers, parents and youth that makes it a "great" program.  However, that's only the start. If a youth enters a great program in first grade, or 7th grade, it will still take 12 years for the first grader and six years for the 7th grader, just to finish high school!  It will take four to six more years for that young person to move on into adult lives and roles, and to jobs and careers that enable him/her to raise their own kids outside of the negative influences of high poverty.

Long-term; many places

I used this birth-to-work arrow in many other articles, such as this one, which is a discussion of the costs involved in a program intended to create jobs for 32,000 young men in a few Chicago neighborhoods.

I created this 'race-poverty' concept map to illustrate the many other factors that influence life outcomes for kids born or living in high poverty areas.  In 2017 I read an article titled "Why do we keep insisting that education can solve poverty?" It still applies.

Here's the challenge. As a nation we're not very good at keeping the focus (and flow of resources) on problems and solutions to the time it takes to actually begin to solve the problem.  While this 1993 Chicago SunTimes article includes a map, very few leaders in 2017 are using maps to emphasize all of the places where kids, families and schools need help to aid youth as the move through school and into adult lives. Read more about this.   Read this article about "building public will".

I started this article with this graphic, and pointing to this presentation from my library of visual essays.

Poverty is a complex problem, requiring many different types of resources in the same place at the same time.  If we want more youth to stay in school, be safe in non-school hours, graduate from high school and move on to jobs, careers and adult responsibilities, we need to do the work shown at the bottom of this pyramid.

Who should take the lead? Universities.

I've been reaching out to universities for over 30 years but never had the leverage (money and clout) to motivate busy faculty members to adopt the Tutor/Mentor strategies as their own.  Here's one article and here's another that show my invitation.  Read this "Tipping Points" article to see what's possible.

I just read today how Warren Buffet is making billion dollar donations around Thanksgiving and how MacKenzie Scott has doubled her giving in response the 2024 election.  People like these could fund long-term Tutor/Mentor Connection strategies at universities in every city in the country (or the world) and ensure they share ideas and learn from each other, so they constantly improve their impact.

They don't even need to involve me! They can  motivate people to spend time reading and learning from my blog and visual essays, just by providing the money needed to fuel such efforts!

I wrote an article in 2021 about "Learning from others. Don't re-invent the wheel".  This is the thinking behind the work I've done for so long. It is the reason for my library. I hope someone with higher visibility than I have will build an even larger library, and include links to my website in it. 

Finally, I wrote this article in January 2024 showing how one person was raising money for Democratic candidates throughout the country.  This is an example that could be duplicated to support youth serving programs in multiple locations.  This is another project that a billionaire could easily fund.

In my own work I've never been able to get enough people together for an on-going basis, just to talk about ways we create and share the knowledge I've been collecting with more potential users.    If you're interested in taking a role please reach out to me. You can find me on any of these social media platforms.  I'm available for an on-line conversation on a daily basis.

We need everyone's help.

Thanks for reading. I know this is a long article and the links take you deeper and deeper. So don't try to read it all in one day. Make it part of on-going learning.  

Or make it a learning competition, as I describe on this page. You don't even need to be a billionaire to fund this!

I've been critical of Project 2025 and the billionaires behind it, but what if a few billionaires adopted the ideas in this article and supported them for the next 50 years.  This needs continuous support beyond one President.  

Can you help me do this work (and pay my bills)? Visit my FUND ME page and add your support.  Thank you.