History

We began as the Washington State Mentoring Partnership in 1999.  Back then, the organization was a loose-knit group of like-minded individuals who knew that mentoring could make a positive difference in the life of a young person.  There were no full-time employees and only a modest budget, but there was a great deal of energy and enthusiasm.

In 2003, Lt. Governor Brad Owen stepped forward as a champion of mentoring and so began the second phase of our development.  In 2004, with the support of Costco Wholesale, the state’s Department of Social and Health Services, and the College Success Foundation we hired a small staff and began the work of helping mentoring programs succeed.

For the next three years, we operated as a program of the College Success Foundation (CSF), whose mission is to provide college scholarships and mentoring to low-income, high-potential youth.  The consonance between our missions was obvious and the partnership has been a steady and successful one.  By 2007, however, we had grown large enough that it was time to establish our own nonprofit status.  In order to retain our close working relationship with the CSF, we incorporated as a 501 c 3 supporting organization.  One result of that switch was that we changed our name to Washington State Mentors.

That name says a lot about who we are and from where we’ve come.  All of us who give of ourselves to help young people succeed through mentoring are Washington State Mentors.