What do I do if I feel the conversation is straying into professional advice?

If in doubt about whether the conversation is straying into professional advice, the best thing to do is to remind your mentee of your role as a GET INFORMED mentor e.g.

‘I can help you build your knowledge about social investment but I can’t offer you professional advice. The advice and views provided are my own. Before pursuing a particular course of action you should seek professional advice’

The GET INFORMED mentoring agreement is for 8 hours support. After the agreed period of time you may choose to continue the mentoring relationship by mutual agreement independent of Big Society Capital. Alternatively you may choose to end the relationship after 8 hours or before by mutual agreement.

GET INFORMED should not be used as an opportunity to cross-sell or promote the services of a particular organisation. If you work in professional services you should be careful not to promote the service or products of your organisation in your capacity as a Get Informed mentor.

Having clearly ended the relationship as a GET INFORMED mentor, both parties are free to enter into a separate business relationship if mutually agreed which is entirely independent of Big Society Capital.

What impact are we trying to have through mentoring?

We are trying to increase trustee and non-executive directors’ knowledge of social investment and their confidence in understanding what that means for their organisation (whether this means exploring or eliminating social investment as a tool for financing).

We have taken a baseline of current levels of knowledge and confidence. We will be measuring how this changes throughout the course of the campaign and assessing what has been most successful in increasing knowledge and confidence.