AI Mentorship Matching reads your mentorship enrollment responses and suggests mentor-mentee pairings for you, complete with the reasoning behind every match!
What Is AI Mentorship Matching?
When you run a mentorship program in Donut Journeys, participants fill out an enrollment form in Slack to join. AI Mentorship Matching reads those answers and handles the pairing for you.
How it works:
Participants select a role (mentor or mentee) and answer your form questions when they enroll.
When responses come in, Donut suggests mentor and mentee pairings based on their form answers and role requirements.
You review every match before saving, and you can rematch any time.
You stay in control the whole way, so you're signing off on pairings instead of building them by hand.
Step 1: Create Your Mentorship Journey
Go to your Donut dashboard and select "Donut Journeys" in the left sidebar menu.
Select "Prebuilt Journeys" and choose the "Peer Mentorship Program" journey, "New Manager Mentorship" journey, or click "Blank Journey" to start from scratch.
If you're creating a Blank Journey, provide a title (e.g., "Mentorship Program") and select the "Mentorship" category.
Customize the Building Blocks and messages to fit your mentorship program's goals and timeline.
Step 2: Turn On AI Matching in the Enrollment Form
Open the "Enrollment Form" tab.
Add a Form title and Form description so participants know what they're signing up for.
Turn on the Mentor & mentee matching toggle. This lets participants select a role when they enroll.
Check the ✨ Use AI to make matches box.
Under Role selection question, fill in the requirements for each role, like the Mentee and Mentor descriptions.
Step 3: Add Your Form Questions
Under Form questions, add the questions participants answer when they enroll.
These answers are what Donut reads to suggest matches, so the more substance you collect, the better the suggestions.
Add at least one short-answer question so participants can describe their goals or challenges in their own words. You can also pull ready-made questions from the Question Library.
When your form is ready, click Share to enroll and share it in a channel or DM. That's it! Participants enroll in Slack, and Donut starts suggesting pairings as responses come in.
Step 4: Review and Save Matches
Once people have enrolled, Donut suggests mentor-mentee pairings from their form answers and role requirements. To review and save them:
Open your mentorship Journey and go to the "Mentee Cohorts" tab.
Click into the cohort you want to review.
Review Donut's suggested matches. Each one shows the reasoning behind the pairing, so you can see why two people were matched.
To break a match, click the scissor icon. To create a new one, use the dropdown to pick a partner.
Click Save when you're happy with a pairing.
Saved matches turn a darker green, so you can tell at a glance which pairings are locked in. You can come back and rematch any time as more people enroll.
✅ You need the Mentor & mentee matching toggle on and Use AI to make matches checked before Donut can suggest pairings.
Want the full program walkthrough, from enrolling participants to adding content? See How to Run a Mentorship Program with Donut Journeys.
Why Use AI Mentorship Matching?
Better pairings, less guesswork: Donut reads what each person wrote and suggests matches based on the substance of their answers.
See the reasoning: Every suggestion is drawn from form answers and role requirements, so you can review pairings with confidence.
You stay in control: Review every match before saving, and rematch any time.
It all lives in Donut: Enroll, match, and run your program from the same mentorship Journey.
FAQs
What plan is AI Mentorship Matching on?
AI Mentoship Matching is available on all Donut plans.
Do I have to accept the matches Donut suggests?
No. Donut suggests the pairings, but you review every match before it's saved and make the final call.
How does Donut decide who to pair?
It looks at participants' form answers and the role requirements you set, then suggests pairings based on what each person shared.
Can I rematch after saving?
Yes. You can rematch any time with the "Rematch with AI" button in the top right corner of the Mentee Cohorts tab.
What makes a good enrollment form?
Include at least one short-answer question so participants can describe their goals or challenges in their own words. Richer answers give Donut more to work with, which leads to stronger suggested matches.
Where do participants fill out the form? In Slack. Once you share the form, mentees and mentors enroll themselves right from your selected channel or DM.
❓ Questions? Concerns? Click the Donut icon in the lower right corner to get in touch with our support team.