For a complete overview of operating statistics for 2010, see our 2010 MEF Fact Sheet.

Last summer, MEF students celebrated 10 Years in a Row of 100% High School Graduation Rate and 100% College Enrollment.


MEF's high-quality programs are worth $2,000 per student. Thanks to our generous sponsors, programs are offered to families at an 87.5% discount with an average program tuition of $250 for the entire academic year. 


In the past 10 years alone, our Parent Program has dedicated nearly 30,000 hours to serving parents and has spent nearly 5,000 hours in direct contact with parents. 


Named "The Most Exemplary Youth Mentoring Program in the City of Chicago," upon receiving the 2006 Thomas A. Demetrio Award, offered through the Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Bar Foundation's Lend-a- Hand Program.


MEF alumni enter college at nearly five times the rate of their peer group nationwide.


MEF students graduate from high school at twice the rate of their inner-city peers in Chicago.


Listed in the Guide to Effective Compassion, which "recognizes the nation's most compassionate and effective human service initiatives."


Named by Philanthropy Magazine in 1999 as "one of sixteen cutting-edge programs...doing exceptionally effective work" in the United States.


Profiled as a leader in the field of education by the BBC in a program called Earth Report, broadcast intemationally in 1998.


Chosen by the National Science Foundation as a site for exploring the integration of technology into education.


Selected as one of fifty model programs in the country to be featured at the President's Summit on volunteerism in 1997.


Volunteer base of 433; Volunteer-to-staff ratio of 27:1.


In Fiscal Year 2009, fully eighty percent of MEF's annual expenses, including the value of donated volunteer hours, were program-directed.