Mentoring Program Evaluation Survey: Free Question Templates
A mentoring program evaluation survey is a short questionnaire that asks mentees, mentors and sponsors how the program worked: whether pairs met, whether goals moved, how well the program supported them and what to change. This page gives you five ready-to-use surveys, each question with its answer type, plus guidance on timing, anonymity and reading the results.
Use these surveys for any structured program: employee, student, accelerator or community. They are the survey layer of a wider evaluation; for the full method, see the mentoring program evaluation guide.
How do you use these survey templates?
- Pick the surveys you need. Most programs run the midpoint pulse (Survey 1) and both end-of-program surveys (Surveys 2 and 3). Per-session feedback (Survey 4) and the sponsor survey (Survey 5) are optional.
- Decide anonymous or confidential. Write the choice at the top of the survey, in one sentence. See the guidance below.
- Edit the wording, not the structure. Replace “mentor” and “mentee” with your own terms, and put your program name in the blanks. Keep the answer scales the same for every cohort so you can compare.
- Cut what you will not act on. Each question should feed a decision. If you cannot name the decision, remove the question.
- Schedule sending and reminders before the program starts, as part of your plan for managing the program.
- Read and report the results within two weeks, while people still remember the program.
The template
Answer types used below:
- Scale 1–5 (agreement): 1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neither agree nor disagree, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly agree.
- Scale 1–5 (usefulness): 1 = Not at all useful, 2 = Slightly useful, 3 = Moderately useful, 4 = Very useful, 5 = Extremely useful.
- Yes/No, Multiple choice (options listed), Open text.
- Recommend 0–10: 0 = Not at all likely, 10 = Extremely likely.
Survey 1. Midpoint pulse survey (all participants, 5–7 questions)
Send at the halfway point. Takes about three minutes.
- Program: ________ Role: mentor / mentee Survey closes: ________
| # | Question | Answer type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | How many times have you met your mentor/mentee so far? | Multiple choice: 0 / 1 / 2–3 / 4–5 / 6 or more |
| 2 | Our meetings are happening as often as we agreed. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 3 | My match is a good fit for what I want from this program. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 4 | We have agreed clear goals for the mentorship. | Yes / No / Partly |
| 5 | Is anything getting in the way of meeting? | Multiple choice: Time / Scheduling / Unclear goals / Poor fit / Other: ________ / Nothing |
| 6 | Would you like the program team to contact you about your match? | Yes / No |
| 7 | What one thing would make the second half more useful? | Open text |
Survey 2. End-of-program survey for mentees (about 15 questions)
Send in the last week of the program or within two weeks after it ends. Takes eight to ten minutes.
- Program: ________ Cohort: ________ This survey is: anonymous / confidential
Part A. The relationship
| # | Question | Answer type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | In total, how many times did you meet your mentor? | Multiple choice: 0 / 1–2 / 3–5 / 6–9 / 10 or more |
| 2 | My mentor was well matched to my goals. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 3 | I felt comfortable being open with my mentor. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 4 | My mentor was prepared and available for our meetings. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
Part B. Goals and outcomes
| # | Question | Answer type |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | I made progress on the goals I set at the start. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 6 | Which areas did the mentorship help with? (choose all that apply) | Multiple choice: Skills / Confidence / Career direction / Network / A specific project / Other: ________ |
| 7 | Describe one thing you do differently because of this mentorship. | Open text |
| 8 | I have a clear next step after the program. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
Part C. The program
| # | Question | Answer type |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | How useful was the kickoff or orientation? | Scale 1–5 (usefulness) |
| 10 | How useful were the session topics, guides or materials? | Scale 1–5 (usefulness) |
| 11 | The program team responded when I needed help. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) / Did not need help |
| 12 | The program length was: | Multiple choice: Too short / About right / Too long |
Part D. Overall
| # | Question | Answer type |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | How likely are you to recommend this program to a colleague or friend? | Recommend 0–10 |
| 14 | Would you take part again, as a mentee or as a mentor? | Multiple choice: Yes, as a mentee / Yes, as a mentor / No / Not sure |
| 15 | What should we change for the next cohort? | Open text |
Survey 3. End-of-program survey for mentors (about 14 questions)
Send at the same time as Survey 2.
| # | Question | Answer type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | In total, how many times did you meet your mentee? | Multiple choice: 0 / 1–2 / 3–5 / 6–9 / 10 or more |
| 2 | My mentee was a good match for my experience. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 3 | My mentee came to meetings prepared. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 4 | My mentee made progress on their goals. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 5 | I had enough time to mentor well alongside my other work. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 6 | Before the program, I knew what was expected of me as a mentor. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 7 | How useful was the mentor training or briefing? | Scale 1–5 (usefulness) / I did not attend |
| 8 | How useful were the session topics, guides or materials? | Scale 1–5 (usefulness) |
| 9 | What did you gain from mentoring? (choose all that apply) | Multiple choice: New perspectives / Leadership practice / Satisfaction from helping / Network / Nothing in particular / Other: ________ |
| 10 | Was there a point where you needed support and did not get it? | Yes / No. If yes: ________ |
| 11 | How likely are you to recommend mentoring in this program to a colleague? | Recommend 0–10 |
| 12 | Would you mentor again in the next cohort? | Yes / No / Maybe |
| 13 | What should we keep exactly as it is? | Open text |
| 14 | What should we change? | Open text |
Survey 4. Per-session feedback (3 questions)
Send right after each meeting. Takes under a minute. Usually named, not anonymous.
| # | Question | Answer type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | This meeting was useful. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 2 | Did we agree on next actions with an owner and a date? | Yes / No |
| 3 | Anything the program team should know? | Open text (optional) |
Survey 5. Program manager and stakeholder survey (optional)
For sponsors, line managers of participants, coordinators or funders. Send after the final report is shared.
- Name and role (optional): ________ Relationship to program: sponsor / manager of a participant / coordinator / funder
| # | Question | Answer type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The program met the goals agreed at the start. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 2 | I received enough information about the program while it ran. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 3 | Have you seen changes in participants that you link to the program? | Yes / No / Not sure. If yes: ________ |
| 4 | Running the program took a reasonable amount of time from participants. | Scale 1–5 (agreement) |
| 5 | Should the program run again? | Multiple choice: Yes, as is / Yes, with changes / No / Not sure |
| 6 | What would you change in scope, audience or format? | Open text |
How should you run the survey?
Anonymity. Choose one and say it in plain words at the top. Anonymous: nobody can trace answers. Confidential: the program coordinator can see who answered, results are reported only in groups. In small cohorts, report group results only when enough people answered that no individual can be identified, and do not report open-text answers that reveal who wrote them. Where data protection law applies (for example GDPR in the EU or KVKK in Türkiye), state who sees the answers and how long you keep them.
Timing. Midpoint pulse at the halfway mark. End-of-program surveys in the last week or within two weeks after the end. Stakeholder survey after the final report goes out.
Response rate. Announce the surveys at kickoff. Keep them short. Send the link with a closing date and one or two reminders. Leave five minutes at the closing session to fill it in. Tell the next cohort what changed because of the last one’s answers.
Keep scales stable. If you change a question, its results are no longer comparable with earlier cohorts. Change wording only when the question is genuinely broken.
How do you read the results?
- Start with response rate. Report how many people answered out of how many invited, for mentors and mentees separately. A low rate means the results describe the people who answered, not the program.
- Report distributions, not just averages. “Seven of twenty mentees disagreed that their match fit their goals” says more than an average of 3.6.
- Compare mentors and mentees. When the two sides answer the same question differently, for example on how often pairs met, look closer.
- Link answers to activity data. Check survey answers against meeting records. Pairs that report poor fit and met rarely are your matching review list.
- Treat the 0–10 question as a trend, not a score to benchmark. Compare it with your own previous cohorts. Published figures from other programs or industries are measured differently and are not a fair comparison.
- Read every open-text answer. Group them into themes and count how often each comes up. Quote short, anonymized examples in the report.
- Close the loop. List two or three changes you will make. The guide to reporting mentoring results shows how to turn this into a report for leadership.
How should you adapt the templates?
Match the program type. In an employee mentoring program, add a question on whether the participant’s manager supported the time spent. For students, ask about career direction or study choices. For founders, ask about a specific business decision the mentor helped with.
Group programs. Replace “my mentor” with “my mentoring group” and add one question on whether everyone in the group had a chance to contribute.
Short programs. For a program of three months or less, skip the midpoint pulse and rely on per-session feedback.
Do not add questions you cannot act on. A shorter survey with a high response rate tells you more than a long one few people finish.
More templates and guides for every stage of a program are in the guides library.