About

What is Mentoring?

Mentoring is a supportive learning relationship between an experienced leader who shares knowledge, skills and knowhow with another leader who is ready and willing to benefit from the exchange in order to enrich their professional journey. Mentoring involves listening with empathy, sharing experience (usually mutually), professional friendship, developing experience through reflection, and providing wisdom and encouragement, in order to support the mentee in achieving objectives agreed at the start of the mentoring process.

Mentoring at the Financial Alliance for Women

The Financial Alliance for Women’s Mentoring Program capitalizes on the deep expertise in our network by providing a platform for peer-to-peer sharing between experts, program managers, and members from different fields. It is built on the recognition that many of our members have developed unique expertise in what it takes to launch and scale women-centered strategies—and are eager to pass on their learnings to others. The program connects member experts from the Alliance (Mentors) with Alliance members (Mentees) working towards a specific objective, such as developing or enhancing new segments, or growing an under-developed aspect of their women-centered strategy (Mentees).

A High-Impact Mentoring Experience Driving Professional Growth

Across 19 cohorts, the Mentoring Program, brought together 208 mentoring pairs across 86 financial institutions in 57 countries globally. By connecting mentees with practitioner mentors from other institutions, the program fosters meaningful one-on-one engagement to support the advancement of women-centered strategies. Mentors and Mentees consistently report high satisfaction, rating the program 4.9 out of 5, and highlighting the ease of connection with each others and the quality of program management.

Beyond satisfaction, the program delivers tangible professional impact. Mentees gain new perspectives, strengthen critical skills, and apply their learning within their institutions. Mentees reported gaining new perspectives, strengthening critical skills, and applying their learning within their institutions. Confidence in advancing their programs increased, supported by practical tools, tailored guidance, and access to global expertise.

The strength of the mentor–mentee relationships, combined with a highly personalized and peer-driven approach, enables participants to translate insight into action—reinforcing the Mentoring Program’s role in building leadership capacity and accelerating progress in serving women customers and entrepreneurs.

Why Participate

Benefits for Mentees (Individuals and Institutions):

Learn from best practices and real-world experiences across institutions
Receive feedback on ideas and plans, and gain expert perspectives on key challenges in building your program
Build knowledge, skills, and confidence to advance your women-centered startegy
Gain exposure to different market nuances and operating environments
Strengthen professional networks and connections within the Alliance

Benefits for Mentors (Individuals and Institutions):

Build new insights into strategies, initiatives and challenges
Strengthen leadership and mentoring capabilities, including coaching and teaching skills
Expand professional networks and deepen relationships within the Alliance
Build understanding of different cultures, markets, products, and operating environments
Transfer mentoring practices and capabilities to their own teams, strengthening internal capacity

Mentoring Tracks

The objectives that mentors and mentees work towards fall into two main tracks:
Women-focused customer programs, and internal diversity and inclusion (or DEI)
initiatives.

Women’s Markets Program (focused on strategies to win with women customers)

For institutions starting journeys to implement, develop and embed customer-facing Women’s Markets programs or seeking to expand existing programs by diversifying financial products, increasing non-financial services, incorporating data-driven learnings, and more.

Employee Value Proposition Strategy (focused on workforce)

For institutions developing or implementing internally-facing gender strategies, or
growing a new under-developed aspect of existing employee value proposition
strategies —building the pipeline of female employees into leadership positions, setting
internal scorecards and targets, and more.

Time commitment

The Financial Alliance for Women run 2 mentoring cohorts each year exclusive to its member institutions. In order to maximize the benefits of the program, Mentors and Mentees commit to:

Participate in a Program Orientation and Mentoring Training session at the beginning of the Program
Engage in six 60-90 minute mentoring sessions over a 6-month period
Participate in an end-of-program survey evaluation

Languages

The primary language of the Mentoring Program is English. However, depending on mentor availability and language capabilities, mentees may also be paired with mentors who speak Spanish, French, or Arabic, enabling more effective communication and engagement.

For further information and to submit completed application forms, please contact:

– peerlearning@financialallianceforwomen.org

What the Participants Say

“It was a very useful experience. The mentor understood our status and willingly shared all the best practices and her know-how.”

“I loved it. It was an enriching experience both professionally and personally. The program allowed me to broaden my perspective, strengthen my skills, and connect with valuable people. I felt supported, heard, and positively challenged. Without a doubt, it was an experience that significantly contributed to my growth.”

“It was a very useful experience. The mentor understood our status and willingly shared all the best practices and her know-how.”

“At the very beginning I was not sure if I had to differentiate the value propositions for micro and SMEs. I had a session with [my mentor]… to discuss how they were managing on their side…It gave me the idea that we and they were doing the same thing…so then I just fine-tuned my decision.”

“…it helps you to grow as a person and it improves your network. Being a mentor gives you more confidence and it indirectly causes you to mature as a person…It increases your network basically and increases your opportunities.”