Customer case study

Case Study: SEO Scholars

The Challenge

The Challenge

Tyler Negron, Senior Manager of Mentor Programs at SEO USA, highlighted several challenges with the previous mentorship platform:

  1. High Costs: Initially, the platform's cost was shared across programs at SEO. When one program stopped using the software, the financial cost became unsustainable.
  2. Ineffective Reporting: Reports generated were difficult to read, requiring extra effort to locate and interpret critical data.
  3. Poor Matching System: Despite built-in matching features, Tyler's team achieved better results by manually matching mentors and mentees outside the platform.
  4. Lack of Support: Customer service failed to address recurring issues, such as access to historical data, leaving Tyler's team with unresolved problems.

SEO needed a cost-effective, user-friendly solution with robust matching and reporting tools to effectively support its mentorship program.

The Solution

SEO partnered with Together, impressed by its intuitive platform, reliable tools, and dedicated support. Together's features addressed SEO's key challenges with:

The Results

Switching to Together has delivered impressive results for SEO, benefiting both Scholars and the mentorship team.

Overview
Industry
Year founded
Number of employees
Technology used
No items found.

Program Overview

Geography
No items found.
Download PDF

Set your Organization Apart with Mentorship

Book a Demo

Case Study: SEO Scholars

By switching to Together, SEO USA transformed its mentorship program, leading to stronger relationships, reduced administrative workload, and a greater impact on student mentees.
Book a DemoDownload Case Study
Case Study Summary
SEO USA, a nonprofit committed to closing the academic achievement gap, supports underserved high school students through its free eight-year academic SEO Scholars program. One of the program’s cornerstones is the 11th grade mentorship initiative, where over 200 Scholars are paired with volunteer mentors. These mentors guide students through enrichment programs, such as internships and study-abroad opportunities, while helping them develop critical soft skills. However, the mentorship platform previously used by SEO fell short in cost, functionality, and service. To overcome these obstacles, SEO partnered with Together mentorship software to deliver an improved mentorship experience, driving better outcomes for scholars, mentors, and program administrators alike.

Switching to Together for Smarter, Stronger Mentor Matching

The Challenge

Tyler Negron, Senior Manager of Mentor Programs at SEO USA, highlighted several challenges with the previous mentorship platform:

  1. High Costs: Initially, the platform's cost was shared across programs at SEO. When one program stopped using the software, the financial cost became unsustainable.
  2. Ineffective Reporting: Reports generated were difficult to read, requiring extra effort to locate and interpret critical data.
  3. Poor Matching System: Despite built-in matching features, Tyler's team achieved better results by manually matching mentors and mentees outside the platform.
  4. Lack of Support: Customer service failed to address recurring issues, such as access to historical data, leaving Tyler's team with unresolved problems.

SEO needed a cost-effective, user-friendly solution with robust matching and reporting tools to effectively support its mentorship program.

"When I started at SEO, my direct report was the algorithm herself. We would export all the data. She would put the two Excel sheets next to each other and she would go between them ... she would go, 'I know that these two would go well together.'"

Tyler Negron, Senior Manager of Mentor Programs

The Solution

SEO partnered with Together, impressed by its intuitive platform, reliable tools, and dedicated support. Together's features addressed SEO's key challenges with:

Efficient matching

Together's admin-led approach to matching allowed SEO to combine notes from their intake interviews with Together's algorithmic suggestions to form optimal matches.

Clear, actionable reporting

Together's easy-to-read reports empowered SEO to monitor program impact and iterate accordingly. For example, Tyler uses mentor relationship scores to keep a close eye on the health of mentor/mentee pairings throughout the program. If she sees a mentor relationship rating drop below an 8 out of 10, that is her signal to check-in on participants and intervene as needed.

Resources

Scholars who missed in-person sessions could access content directly in Together, saving time previously spent on email follow-ups.

Badges and certificates

Scholars appreciated being recognized for milestones, fostering motivation and pride.

"Instead of taking maybe a month to do matching, it takes maybe a week or two, if that—sometimes that extra week is just because the Scholar hasn't done their homework."

Tyler Negron, Senior Manager of Mentor Programs

Let's make mentorship easier Thinking about launching a mentorship program? In a quick, no-pressure chat, we’ll share best practices, insights from top companies, and how Together can help you hit your goals.

The Results

Switching to Together has delivered impressive results for SEO, benefiting both Scholars and the mentorship team.

High attendance rates

Together has helped maintain an 85% attendance rate for mentoring sessions, a significant achievement for a program with over 200 student participants.

Streamlined management

The SEO team's workload has lightened with Together's tools, freeing up time to focus on maximizing the impact of the program.

Stronger relationships

Mentor-mentee pairs benefit from better matching and proactive support, resulting in more impactful mentorship outcomes.

Transformative student experiences

Stories abound of individual Scholars being positively impacted by the program. Sharing Scholar testimonials has become a highlight in SEO's weekly grade team meetings. One particularly impactful story that Tyler shared involved two mentees competing for the longest sessions with their mentors—one session lasting 405 minutes long.

"What's really crazy is that these two Scholars were incredibly anxious before the program. When I had interviews with them, they said things like, 'I'm afraid that I'm not going to get a mentor who looks like me, or someone in my field. I'm afraid that they're not going to like me' ... we were so happy to see their feedback saying, 'I love when we meet for our sessions. My mentor read me so well, she was telling me I shouldn't be interested in boys right now. My mentor was great, she talked to my mom for me to let me study abroad.'"

Tyler Negron, Senior Manager of Mentor Programs

Conclusion

Together mentorship software has become a cornerstone of SEO USA's efforts to empower underserved students. By addressing key challenges in cost, reporting, matching, and service, the platform has improved program efficiency and fostered stronger mentor-mentee relationships. As a result, SEO USA's mentorship program continues to transform lives, helping Scholars achieve their academic and personal goals while strengthening the organization's impact.

‍

When asked what advice she would give to other organizations considering mentoring software, Tyler said, "I would say consider the care you're getting, because I was just getting surface-level care with our previous provider. They would meet with me whenever I asked them to, but when they said they were working on something, the actual deliverable never came, and this was after months of trying to work with them and then realizing it's just not going to work out. We weren't getting the things we needed or paid for."

‍

With Together, Tyler said, "it's not just lip service, it's actual service. And when you're in nonprofit, you're already a person who is in service, so you need someone, a partner, so that you can both be in service of the people, a.k.a. the kids that you work with. It's just so helpful to have a partner that's bi-directional, not just one way."

Set your Organization Apart with Mentorship

Book a 20-minute demo to discover how to create mentoring programs that employees love with Together.
Book a DemoDownload Case Study
Together Platform
Product
Role
Use Cases
Terms of Service
Resources
Contact
Resources
Copyright © 2024 Together (US) Inc. All rights reserved.