SCORE Association

SCORE or the SCORE Association was previously known as the Service Corps of Retired Executives, but is now recognized as SCORE, "Counselors to America's Small Business." It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides free business mentoring services to entrepreneurs in the United States. The organization also presents business workshops and seminars for a fee. Business mentoring services are provided by both active and retired business executives and entrepreneurs who donate their time and expertise as mentors to assist new and established small businesses. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration. It is based in Herndon, Virginia.

According to the association, it is “dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide.” It attempts to realize this goal by “providing resources and expertise to maximize the success of existing and emerging small businesses.”

The SCORE Association was founded in 1964. In the 1970s, when SCORE chapters were formed, the organization expanded its services to offer workshops and seminars on a variety of business topics. In 1996, SCORE began providing small business advice via email to meet the changing demands of the information technology age. To date, SCORE has served more than 8.5 million clients.

SCORE has approximately 370 chapters throughout the United States and its territories and over 11,200 volunteers. Many local chapters also have branch locations throughout the regions they administer.

SCORE began providing online counseling services on June 11, 1997. This feature of the organization, better known as Ask SCORE, garnered more than 1.6 million hits and more than 3,000 online counseling cases within the first 90 days. At its inception the site listed 140 online counselors. Today, there are nearly 1,500.

In a mentoring relationship with a SCORE mentor, that person is not allowed to be paid for any services. This is to protect clients from people who might become a SCORE mentor in order to get business leads. SCORE mentors must resign as a SCORE volunteers before being hired by their protégé.

...
Wikipedia