Relaunching a mentoring program means preparing your current program for its next cohort or a fresh round of matching. Whether you're relaunching to make way for a new cohort, or to inject some new energy into an Always-On program, the process comes down to four steps: cleaning up your current program, restarting marketing and recruitment, communicating clearly with participants, and mapping out your timeline. Here's how to make sure your relaunch goes as smoothly as possible.

How do I clean up my program before relaunching?

Close existing loops

Existing loops may need to be closed before you relaunch with new matches. Give participants plenty of notice so they can wrap up with their mentoring partners, send thank-you messages, and exchange contact details.

• Set a clear date, then close all active loops directly from your Loops page on that date.

Bench inactive participants

Before relaunching, identify who wants to continue and step back those who don't. The right way to do this is to bench participants who are opting out or disengaged, not remove them. Benching preserves their profile and loop history, keeps them available for a future intake, and means you can reinvite them in bulk from the Mentoring Bench without starting from scratch.

• First, check for participants who have remained unmatched. Find them using your filters, tag them, and send a bulk message to confirm whether they want to continue, so you can prioritise them for matching when the program relaunches.
• Tag participants as responses come in, so you can bench those who have opted out in one go.
• For Always-On programs, or where you want to keep all participants in the program, ask them to mark themselves as Available or Unavailable for matching before the program closes.
• To bench participants in bulk: go to the Participants tab, select those stepping back, click Change status, and choose Benched. You'll have the option to notify them by email, useful if they may not be expecting it.

Tip: For scenarios where you'd prefer mentors to stay and take on new mentees, communicate with mentors and mentees separately.

Advice from our Customer Success team:

This might also be a good time to invite your mentees to level up and become a mentor for the next intake!

Export relevant data

Export your program data before relaunching so you have a historical record. We recommend exporting at least twice during a program, once at the midpoint and once towards the end. This lets you review engagement mid-program and make changes where needed.

Remember: you don't lose historical data when you relaunch. As long as participants remain part of the program, all closed loop data stays accessible to Program Coordinators. If someone is benched or made unavailable, their data is retained. Only if someone permanently leaves the program is their data deleted.

Disable your signup form

If you need to prevent new sign-ups while you prepare to relaunch, temporarily disable your signup form. Note: participants who are benched and allowed to rejoin can still re-enter the program even while the signup form is disabled, disabling the form only prevents new people from signing up.

How do I market and recruit for my relaunch?

From here, you can restart marketing and recruitment for your program as normal. To add a little more sparkle to your efforts, ask a couple of participants from the last intake to share their experiences, these mentoring champions can help make the program more attractive to potential participants.

You can also use the Mentoring Bench to recruit from your existing pool. Filter by role, programme, or status to find past participants who aren't yet in the new intake, and reinvite them in bulk. No manual list-building required.

Make intake dates clear

If you're running your program in cohorts or an on-off format, make start and end dates clear from the beginning. This sets expectations for participants on how the program runs and what they should expect from their mentoring relationships.

Advice from our Customer Success team:

"We have had programs that run in cohorts create a clear timeline of events, either on a simple Word document or Google Slides, before launch, with specific comms mapped to key dates. Some have had set mentors stay on for each cohort, meaning they only need to invite a new cohort of mentees!"

For a refresher on running a mentoring program with only 30 minutes a week, click here.

What should I say to participants during a relaunch?

Struggling to think of what to say? Try out some of our message templates below.

Closing loops

• Hi,
  
  {Program Name} and Mentorloop would like to thank you for your participation in the {Cohort/Year} {Program Name}.
  
  We had {number of participants / number of matches / average MQS} in the mentoring program, highlighting the value this program provides.
  
  In preparation for the next iteration of the program, we recommend you log in to Mentorloop one final time to contact your mentoring partner, thank them for their time and close your existing loops. Don't forget to fill in the close loop survey so that we can get some feedback on how your mentoring relationships went. If you plan to keep in touch, it's also worth exchanging contact details.
  
  Otherwise, we will be closing all existing loops on {DATE} in order to facilitate another round of matching.
  
  We hope you've enjoyed participating in the program and we look forward to setting up your next mentoring relationship. If you'd like to take a break, just reply to this email and we can hold your place on the bench, ready to bring you back when the time is right.
  
  Thanks,

Matching, manually or by algorithm

• Hi,
  
  It's time to meet your match! On {DATE}, we'll be matching you with someone from within your program. It may be worthwhile allowing some time in your schedule for the first meeting.
  
  We're hopeful that this match is a life-changing connection, but it may also just be the next step in building out your personal advisory board.
  
  Don't forget to review your profile and make any necessary updates before {DATE}, so that we can match you to the best of our ability!
  
  Thanks,

Matching opt-out

• Hi,
  
  {Program Name} and Mentorloop would like to thank you for your participation in the {Cohort/Year} {Program Name}.
  
  We had {number of participants / number of matches / average MQS} in the mentoring program, highlighting the value this program provides.
  
  We hope that you've enjoyed participating and we look forward to setting up your next mentoring relationship!
  
  Alternatively, if you would like to take a break, simply mark your status as Unavailable.
  
  Thanks,

How do I map out my relaunch timeline?

Mapping out a clear timeline in advance helps you communicate with existing and new participants, as well as any stakeholders involved in the relaunch. The example below shows how you can plan key milestones to set yourself up for success.

Relaunch FAQs

Do I lose historical data when I relaunch my program?

No. As long as participants remain part of the program, whether active, benched, or removed, all closed loop data stays accessible to Program Coordinators. Only if someone permanently leaves the program is their data deleted.

Can participants come back after being benched?

Yes. Benched participants can rejoin themselves at any time, or you can reinvite them in bulk from the Mentoring Bench. When reinvited, their existing profile data is pre-filled in the signup form, they just need to review and confirm rather than starting from scratch. This is one of the key reasons to bench rather than remove participants at the end of a cohort.

Should participants update their profiles before the next round of matching?

Yes. Profile contents act as matching criteria, so encouraging participants to review and update their profiles before you rematch helps ensure accurate matches for the new intake.

How much notice should I give before closing loops?

Give participants plenty of notice and set a clear closing date. This gives them time to wrap up with their mentoring partners, send thank-you messages, and exchange contact details before the relaunch.