The Mentoring Bench gives you one place to manage everyone in your mentoring program, keeping participants available for future intakes when they step back, so you can bring them back quickly without starting from scratch. You can also message participants directly from the Bench, handy for re-engagement check-ins or proposing a new match, without needing to re-enrol them first. If you run more than one program, the Bench works across all of them from a single view.

What is the Mentoring Bench?

Instead of removing someone, you can bench them, pausing their participation while keeping their record intact, so they can pick up right where they left off when the time is right. Reactivation is faster and simpler than removing and re-adding someone manually.

The Mentoring Bench is a list of everyone in your mentoring organisation, mentors and mentees, active and benched. From one place you can see who's active, who's on the bench, and invite people back into an open program in bulk. If you run multiple programs, the bench spans all of them. The Mentoring Bench appears as its own item in the left-hand navigation at the organisation level.

When would I use the bench?

The bench is designed for situations where you want to keep a participant available for the future without keeping them active. Common uses include:

• Parking someone who's taking a break — bench a participant who needs to step back for a while so they're kept out of matching and don't skew your matching data, ready to bring back when they're available again. To identify who might need this, filter the bench for active participants and look for anyone with Loop capacity = 0/∞ and a Last activity date before a threshold you choose (for example, more than three months ago). Those people are still taking up capacity but aren't engaging, benching them keeps your active list accurate.
• Keeping participants ready at the end of a program — when a program closes, bench participants rather than removing them so they're easy to reactivate for a future intake without needing to be manually re-added. From the Participants tab within the program, use Change status to move people to Benched before closing.
• Reactivating participants from a closed program — bring past mentors or mentees back for a new intake without asking them to start from scratch. Filter the bench by the closed program name to see everyone who was part of it.
• Moving people between programs — shift a participant from one program to another yourself, without needing Customer Success to do it for you. Filter by the source program, select the people you want to move, then use the bulk invite flow to send them to the destination program.
• Drawing on a central pool — when you're short on mentors for a new program, invite suitable people who are already benched. Filter the bench by Role: Mentor and Programs (not in): your new program to find relevant candidates quickly.
• Nurturing participants between programs — reach out to someone on the bench with a re-engagement check-in or to propose a new match, without needing to re-enrol them first. Use the email icon in the Bench toolbar to send a message directly.

What common challenges does the bench help solve?

The bench addresses several participant management situations that previously required workarounds or a call to Customer Success:

• Disengaged participants — instead of leaving inactive participants in your program where they affect matching ratios and capacity counts, you can identify them (Loop capacity = 0/∞, no recent activity) and bench them cleanly. Their record is preserved and they're easy to reactivate; your active program data stays meaningful.
• Faster reactivation — benched participants can be reinvited in bulk directly from the Bench, with their profile data pre-filled. Removed participants need to be manually un-removed from within the program first. If there's a chance you'll want someone back, benching them saves time later.
• Copying profiles between programs — when you invite someone from the bench into a new program, Mentorloop pre-fills their signup form using their existing profile data (favouring the most recently updated value for each field). Participants only need to review and confirm, rather than filling everything in again.
• Participant management across programs — if you run multiple programs, the bench is your single cross-program roster. Rather than switching between individual program views to find someone, you can search and filter from one place and click through to any program-level detail from there.
• Program recruitment — when launching a new program or a new intake, the bench lets you identify and invite people who have already engaged with your mentoring before, without any manual list-building or re-importing. Use the Programs (not in) filter to find people in your organisation who aren't yet in the new program.
• Staying connected between programs — previously, benching someone cut off all communication. Now you can message participants directly from the Bench for re-engagement or to propose new matches, without re-enrolling them into an active program just to send a note.

What do the participant statuses mean?

Every participant in the bench has a status that tells you how they relate to your program:

• Active — in an active mentoring loop, or available to be matched in an active program. Active participants count towards your program capacity.
• Benched — participation paused. Their profile and history are kept intact, their open loops are paused, and they won't appear in matching. You can reactivate them at any time, or they can rejoin themselves when they're ready.
• Removed — fully removed from a program. This is the last resort, reserved for cases such as misconduct or someone who has permanently left your organisation. Their profile and activity history are archived and remain visible to you as a coordinator, but their loops are archived rather than paused. Removed participants need to be manually un-removed before they can be reinvited. If there is any chance you may want someone back, bench them instead.

With the launch of the Mentoring Bench, we ran a one-time status migration across all organisations. Removed participants who were allowed to rejoin, and anyone who was still active in a now-closed program, have been moved to Benched. Their profiles and history remain intact, and they're now ready to be invited into a future program straight from your Bench.

How do I bench or change someone's status?

From the participant management view, use the Change status action to move a participant between statuses, for example, from Active to Benched, or to bring a benched participant back. This replaces the previous "Remove / Unremove" option.

Benching is managed by you as the Program Coordinator. Participants can't bench themselves, and while someone is on the bench they can't take any action other than rejoining a program when you invite them or when they choose to rejoin themselves.

When a participant applies to join a program and you decline their application, they are moved to Benched rather than Removed. Their record is preserved and you can invite them into a future program or intake from the Bench if circumstances change.

How do I send a message to participants from the Bench?

Program Coordinators and organisation admins can email participants directly from the Mentoring Bench, without needing to re-enrol them into an active program first. This is useful for re-engagement check-ins, proposing a new match to a benched participant, or any situation where you need to reach someone who is no longer in an active loop.

To send a message from the Bench:

1. Select the participants you want to message using the checkboxes in the Bench table.
2. Click the email icon in the toolbar (next to the Invite selected participants button).
3. Write your message using the editor. Use the {firstName} tag to personalise by first name.
4. Click Send.

Who can I see from the Bench screen?

The bench opens filtered to show your benched participants, but it holds more than just benched people. It contains everyone in your organisation, active and benched, so by changing the filters you can see your active participants too, not only those on the bench. If you run multiple programs, participants from all of them appear here.

Three things are worth keeping in mind:

• Benched is the default view, not the whole list. When the bench first loads it shows your benched participants, because that's the most common reason to open it. Clear or change the filters to see everyone, including active participants. If you can't find someone you expected to see, check your filters first — they may be active rather than benched.
• You see your programs only. The bench shows participants from the programs you have access to. If your organisation runs programs you're not on, their participants won't appear for you.
• Removed participants are accessible via a status filter. Removed participants don't appear in the default bench view, but you can filter by Status: Removed to find them. From there you can review their record and, if appropriate, change their status to Benched so they become available to invite into a future program.

What does the participant detail view show?

Selecting a participant in the bench shows their activity across your program or programs, rather than a full profile. At a glance you can see their role (mentor, mentee, or both), which programs they're active in, their loop capacity aggregated across all your programs, and their most recent activity. From here you can click through to that participant within a specific program if you need their full program-level detail.

Loop capacity is displayed as current loops / max matches, for example, 2/3 means the participant has 2 active loops and has set a personal limit of 3. ∞ (infinity) means the participant has never set a maximum: they can be added to any number of loops and won't be automatically marked unavailable when matched. This is the default for most participants, since setting a max is optional and many skip it at sign-up.

A capacity of 0/∞ is worth noting: no active loops and no self-imposed limit. Combined with a low Last activity date, this is a strong signal that the participant is disengaged and a candidate for benching. Participants set and update their own maximum under Account settings → Availability → Maximum number of matches. You cannot set this on their behalf, but you can prompt them to, see the FAQ below for how to do this at scale.

Can I filter and export the bench?

Yes. You can filter the bench by Roles, Programs, Programs (not in), Status, Loop capacity, Participant tags, and your program's signup form fields. The bench defaults to sorting by Last activity. You can also export the bench, with the export containing what's currently shown in the table.

The filter dropdown organises options into sections. Under Tags you'll find Participant tags (show participants who have any of the selected tags) and Participant tags (not in) (show participants who do not have any of the selected tags). These are the same tags you use to segment participants elsewhere in Mentorloop, so any tagging you've already done carries straight through.

Under Profile you'll find the fields from your program's signup forms, the same fields you use to filter participants in other parts of Mentorloop. This includes standard fields like Name, Email, Availability, and Biography, as well as any custom fields you've added. Where the same field name appears across multiple programs, Mentorloop combines them into a single filter. The filter type shown (text, options, number, yes/no, countries) reflects how the field is configured in your signup form.

The Programs (not in) filter is particularly useful when launching a new program or intake. Filter by the new program to see everyone in your organisation who isn't already in it, then select and invite them in bulk, no manual list-building required.

If there's a way of filtering the bench that would help you, let us know so we can factor it into future improvements.

How do I invite participants from the bench into a program?

The bench lets you invite people into an open program in bulk, which is ideal for reactivating past participants or running a new intake. The flow works like this:

• Select the participants you want from the bench.
• Choose the open program you're inviting them into.
• Map their existing profile fields to the destination program's signup form.
• Send the invitation.

Where possible, profile data is pre-filled from participants' existing signup forms, favouring the most recently updated value for each field. Participants still complete the destination program's signup form, with the pre-filled fields clearly indicated so they only need to review and confirm.

You can only invite participants into a program you have access to, and can only move people from programs you have access to.

What do the invitation results tell me?

After you send invitations, a results screen shows the outcome for each participant:

• Removed from the target program — they need to be un-removed from within that program before they can be reinvited.
• Already invited or already active — no duplicate invite is sent; resend from within the program itself if needed.
• Previously benched from that program, or new to it — they're reinvited.

Frequently asked questions

Is the bench available on Mentorloop Pro?

Yes. The Mentoring Bench is available whether you run one program or many. The dedicated bench view in the left navigation is an organisation-level view, and the benched status applies to all programs regardless of plan. If you run a single program, you can still bench participants rather than removing them, keeping them available for a future intake.

What can a benched participant do?

While someone is benched they can't take any action other than rejoining a program, either when you invite them back in, or by choosing to rejoin themselves when they're ready. Benching itself is managed by coordinators; participants cannot bench themselves.

What do participants see or receive when they are benched?

Here is what changes for a participant when they are benched:

• Their open loops are paused, no new messages or meetings can be sent or scheduled while benched.
• Any pending Self Match requests are closed.
• They won't appear in matching and won't receive new matches.
• Their profile and history are fully preserved.
• When reactivated, they pick up right where they left off.
• They can also choose to rejoin the program themselves at any time.
• They do not receive a notification by default.

Many of my participants show ∞ for Loop capacity - what does that mean, and what should I do?

The ∞ symbol means the participant has never set a maximum number of matches. Their availability is not self-limiting: they can be added to any number of loops, and Mentorloop will not automatically mark them as unavailable when matched. This is common, setting a max is optional and many participants skip it at sign-up.

It doesn't cause an immediate problem, but it does mean you have less signal about who is genuinely open to more matches versus who is already at their personal limit, and the Loop capacity filter becomes less useful for identifying over-capacity participants.

How participants update their max matches: Direct them to click their name or profile picture (top right) → Availability → enable Maximum number of matches → choose their number. Once set, Mentorloop automatically marks them unavailable when they reach their limit and updates their availability again when a loop closes.

You can't update this setting on a participant's behalf, but you can prompt everyone in bulk. From the Participants tab within your program, use Bulk message to send a message encouraging participants to set their maximum. Their response will automatically be reflected in the Loop capacity column of the Bench.

A participant was removed from a program. Can I bench them instead?

Yes, but this needs to be done from the Participants tab within the program, not from the Bench screen itself. Open the relevant program, go to the Participants tab, change the Status filter to Removed, find the participant, and use Change status to move them to Benched. Once benched, they'll appear in your Bench and can be invited into a future program or intake from there.

Alternatively, you can filter the Bench by Status: Removed to find removed participants directly and change their status from there. If you have a long list of removed participants to convert, contact your Customer Success Manager or Mentorloop support and we can help with a bulk update.

Why do some participants I removed now show as Benched?

With the launch of the Mentoring Bench, we ran a one-time status migration across all organisations. Removed participants who had rejoining allowed were moved to Benched, as were participants who were still marked as Active in a now-closed program. Their profiles and history are fully intact, they're ready to be invited into a future program or intake straight from your Bench.

Are messages sent from the Bench recorded anywhere?

Messages sent from the Bench are not displayed in Mentorloop after sending, there is no sent-message log visible in the platform. If you need a record of what was sent, copy the message content before sending it.