Become a Xero For Good Ambassador

The Xero For Good Ambassador Programme provides small businesses with free mentoring from accounting and bookkeeping volunteers. It’s designed to help businesses apply insights from Know Your Numbers, a free educational programme that helps equip small businesses and entrepreneurs with the general financial knowledge they need to succeed.

Xero accounting and bookkeeping partners can sign up for free as a volunteer to support a small business and become a Xero For Good Ambasasdor. Complete the sign-up form on our website.

Mentoring will be done virtually. The provider we’re using to facilitate mentoring between accountants and bookkeepers and small businesses is called Mentorloop, a mentoring software platform trusted by organisations worldwide.

Xero For Good Ambassadors provide each small business mentee with a minimum of 8 hours of mentoring (spread over an 8 to 12 month period) to help them apply and understand the general knowledge they’ve learned from the Know Your Numbers programme. Mentors guide mentees in utilising this knowledge for their business. Ambassadors are not expected to give free financial or accounting advice, only general business support.

The Xero For Good Ambassador Programme is a free service, so mentors must not charge for mentoring services. For small businesses seeking specific accounting and financial advice, we recommend searching for an accountant or bookkeeper in the Xero advisor directory.

No, previous mentoring experience is not required. We’re looking for Xero partners (from practice owners through to new grads) with a willingness to share their experience, knowledge and insights with small businesses. We only ask participants to bring their experiences and an open mind. 

During the registration process, participants will be asked a few questions about their career tenure and expertise to help connect them to a small business seeking mentoring. Mentorloop’s matching algorithm will then match accountants and bookkeepers with small businesses based on their interest to create quality ‘loops’. Loops is the term Mentorloop uses to refer to the matches or pairings between mentors (accountants and bookkeepers) and mentees (small businesses), which is how you’ll see this referenced on the Mentorloop platform. 

Yes, as a Xero For Good Ambassador, you can match with several programme participants. Mentors and mentees can also mark themselves as unavailable if they’ve reached capacity for new loops. Although you can have several mentors and mentees, we recommend starting off with one or two connections to keep things manageable.

Mentorloop is designed to match mentors and mentees. It leverages a unique algorithm to analyse programme cohorts and create connections. This helps participants be matched according to their complementary experience, interests and goals. When a mentor and mentee get matched or paired up together, this is referred to as a loop. You’ll receive a message in Mentorloop introducing you to your mentor if you’ve been matched. 

While the Xero For Good Ambassador Programme is open to all small businesses, we’ll prioritise matching small businesses who are in the most need and don’t have the immediate resources and networks to access support.

You will not be able to choose who you can mentor as Mentorloop’s matching algorithm will match accountants and bookkeepers with small businesses based on their interests. However, when you sign up to the Xero For Good Ambassador Programme, you will be asked if you identify with any groups, which will be considered during the matching process. 

• Women-owned business

• Minority-owned business

• Māori-owned business

• Pacific (Pasifika)-owned business

• LGBTQ+-owned business

• Veteran-owned business

• Disability-owned business

• Create enterprise/artist-led business

• Young person-led business (under 30 years old)

• Startup and early-stage business

• Social enterprise/purpose-led business

• Nonprofit organisation

• First-time business owner

You can close the mentoring relationship (the loop) at any time. You’ll be prompted to complete a survey to provide more information about your experience for the programme coordinators to assess so we can identify areas to improve.

Head to the Mentorloop Help Hub for more information on dealing with bad matches, including signs to move on, how to request a new match, and who to seek support from when needed.

Should you encounter or witness any form of inappropriate behaviour, you must close the mentoring relationship (the loop) immediately. The Xero For Good Ambassador Programme has a no-tolerance policy for disrespect, discrimination, or harassment. We encourage you to complete the survey to provide more information about your experience for the programme coordinators to assess.

The Xero For Good Ambassador Programme is a pilot programme beginning in New Zealand. At this stage, there is no end date; however, Xero may choose to discontinue the programme at any point. Should Xero conclude the Xero For Good Ambassador Programme in the future, participants will be given 60 days notice. This will allow enough time to decide if or how you would like to stay connected to your mentee outside of the programme.

We encourage you to visit our website, knowyournumbers.xero.com, for all the current information. For further questions, please contact xeroforgood@xero.com.