A mentorship program website that makes matching by hand workable
A mentoring programme lives or dies on its matches, and good matches need the same information from both sides. The website explains the programme to two audiences, mentors and mentees, gives each its own sign-up form with parallel questions, and sends every answer to a spreadsheet where a person does the matching. Anticode builds that well. Matching, messaging and member logins happen elsewhere.
Two audiences, two pitches
Mentors and mentees read the same site with different questions. Mentors want to know the time commitment, what support they'll get and whether they're qualified. Mentees want to know whether they're eligible, what they'll get and whether it costs anything. Give each a clearly labelled section from the top of the page, with its own call to action, rather than mixing both into one block of text.
| Mentors | Mentees |
|---|---|
| Time: hours a month, for how many months | Eligibility: who the programme is for |
| Format: video calls, in person, messages | What a typical month looks like |
| Training or a briefing before starting | Whether it's free, and any commitments |
| Safeguarding rules, if mentees are young | How matching works and how long it takes |
| What to do if a match isn't working | What to do if a match isn't working |
Parallel questions make matching possible
The trick is to ask both sides the same questions in mirror form, so each answer lines up in a spreadsheet column. A mentor's "areas I can help with" should use the same options as a mentee's "areas I want help with".
| Mentor form | Mentee form |
|---|---|
| Areas you can help with | Areas you want help with |
| Your field and experience | Your field, or the one you want to enter |
| Preferred format | Preferred format |
| Availability (days, times, time zone) | Availability (days, times, time zone) |
| Anything you'd prefer in a mentee | Anything you'd prefer in a mentor |
Write the options as a fixed list on the page and ask people to use those words in their answers, so the column can be filtered. Free text for "anything else" catches what the list misses.
Matching in the spreadsheet
- Send both forms to the same Google Sheet, on separate tabs, and add a status column (new, matched, active, finished, withdrawn).
- Filter mentees by area and format, then look across to mentors with the same area and overlapping availability.
- Pair them, note the pair in a matches tab with a start date, and email both with an introduction.
- Check in after the first month. Rematching early is kinder than letting a poor pair limp on.
- At the end, ask both a few questions about how it went, and use the answers to improve next round's forms.
For a few dozen pairs this takes an afternoon per round. Beyond a hundred, a dedicated mentoring platform that suggests matches starts to earn its cost.
Building it with Anticode
Describe the programme: "a mentorship program website for a women in engineering network, with sections for mentors and mentees, how matching works, and a separate sign-up form for each". The Architect plans the sections first, and multi-page sites work if you'd like About or FAQ pages apart from the home page. Because the built-in contact form only asks for a name, email and message, each sign-up is a custom form tied to its own site function, with up to 30 plain-text fields; the thank-you page shows each function's heading and message, so mentors and mentees can be told what happens next.
Sign-ups are saved in your dashboard, sealed at rest, and can be emailed to you. With the Google Sheets connector, which works through a small Apps Script web app in your sheet, each one arrives as a row; the form submissions to Google Sheets guide shows how. Each is sent once, without retries, so check counts against the dashboard before each matching round. A site that collects personal data also can't be published until the account owner and the person publishing have two-factor sign-in on. See volunteer sign-up page for a related setup.
Limits
- No automatic matching. Pairs are made by a person, in the spreadsheet.
- No messaging between members, and no member directory. Introduce pairs by email.
- No member logins or private areas. Published pages are public, so keep mentors' contact details off the site.
- No session booking between pairs. They arrange times themselves.
- No file uploads, so no CVs; ask for a profile link instead.
Questions people ask
How long should a mentoring relationship last?
Many programmes run for three to six months with an option to continue. A fixed end makes it easier for volunteers to say yes.
Do we need safeguarding checks?
If mentees are children or vulnerable adults, almost certainly. Check the requirements where you operate before you recruit.
Can mentors see the list of mentees?
Not on the site, and they shouldn't. Share only their match's details, with consent.