How Toynbee Hall launched mentoring using
The Charity Mentoring Network
Toynbee Hall, a charity supporting people facing poverty, injustice and inequality in East London, joined the Charity Mentoring Network (CMN) in October 2024.
Joseph Appiah, Training, Development and Wellbeing Manager at Toynbee Hall, shares how the organisation launched and promoted CMN internally, along with lessons learned from the experience.
Launch approach
Joseph launched the network in November 2024 with a 15‑minute presentation at an all‑staff meeting. This created interest but no immediate engagement. The presentation needed a call to action, which was a key learning point and something he developed for all following communications.
In January 2025, the network was formally launched to the organisation via email, Teams, and the internal training newsletter explaining what the CMN is and how to sign up. The newsletter shared monthly updates about the benefits of mentoring, sign‑up statistics (number of organisations and participants, for example) as well as links to mentoring resources.
Later in the year Joseph managed a CMN stand at an internal wellbeing fair to share information about the network, resources and mentoring quotes. And in April this year he delivered a short (five‑minute) bite‑sized presentation at an all‑staff meeting of around 80 staff focusing on CMN essentials and sign‑up.
What worked well
The bite‑sized presentations were far more effective than longer presentations. They covered: a description of CMN, key benefits, commitment level, confidentiality, personal testimony and a clear call to action with QR code, which meant staff could sign up immediately.
Joseph says it is important for organisations to understand how their staff prefer to communicate, including preferred communication styles, platforms and message length, so that the message lands well.
And using the network for mentoring helps add credibility when promoting the CMN. This allows him to speak from personal experience. He also shares the mentoring experiences of other members of staff.
Finally, he recommends promoting CMN through existing meetings – all staff meetings and manager meetings – and channels rather than creating additional events. People are very busy and time poor, so go where they’ll be rather than setting up a specific meeting, he says.
Challenges
Admin and capacity are challenges when you are a small training team of three with multiple projects and tight timescales. That means there is limited time for one-to-one nudging and follow‑up with inactive users and that you must be creative with the resources that you do have. This is where AI can help, especially for creating regular communications.
A lack of intranet meant that Joseph had to use different channels to reach colleagues. Understanding how colleagues prefer to receive communications is key, as using the wrong channel can lead to lower engagement. Colleagues often manage competing priorities while navigating a broad range of communications within limited timeframes. Therefore, communications should be relevant, concise and delivered through the most effective channels.
Next steps
Building engagement with mentoring has been a process of continuous improvement for Toynbee Hall. Using the learnings since launching the network, Joseph is now focusing on:
Using Toynbee Hall’s dedicated CMN Teams channel for all employees to do mass nudging (group reminders instead of individual emails) and centralise resources (guides, FAQs, links) in one accessible place.
Actions going forward
- Delivering ongoing bite‑sized comms, including monthly five‑minute segments at all‑staff meetings
- Ongoing visibility of mentoring and social proof including posters in communal areas, developing CMN ambassadors who share their mentoring experiences in meetings and informal chats, laptop screensavers with CMN branding and a call to action
- Creating testimonials and bite‑sized comms for the Teams channel
- Onboarding and line-manager engagement and promote CMN as a part of induction and onboarding
- Regularly talking about CMN in people‑manager meetings, framing it as an extra tool for staff development.
Lessons learned
- Always include a call to action – any communications or presentation about CMN must include an immediate way to act (use a link or QR code)
- Get a mentor yourself so you can share authentic personal testimony. His mentor helped with strategies to secure senior leadership buy‑in
- Use AI to help draft communications quickly and create more engaging, visually appealing materials
- Know your audience and their preferences – staff prefer short, focused updates and clear, essential information
- Go to where people already are – rather than new meetings, target all‑staff meetings and existing manager meetings
- Use managers and ambassadors as multipliers by positioning CMN as a practical support for managers that can help shift some staff‑development conversations into mentoring
- Use ambassadors and testimonials to help normalise and humanise mentoring
- Plan for admin and infrastructure gaps – for example, create a Teams channel for mass nudging and hosting resources.