Mentors International was officially founded in 1990 by a group of businessmen with extensive international business and humanitarian experience in developing countries. This spearheading group knew that the pervasive poverty in developing countries could be alleviated by building grassroots enterprises using the principles of microcredit and self-reliance.

Mentors has now established a total of seven partner organizations, one in each of the largest cities of the Philippines (Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao), and one each in Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador, and Honduras. Each organization has its own local board of directors and indigenous staff, but is a legal subsidiary of Mentors International and is supervised by the U.S. management team.

Mentors also provides start-up support, training, operational funding and loan capital for its partner organizations. As of March 2010, over 1.7 million individuals in these countries have broken the cycle of poverty and learned to make a difference in their communities through the formation of small businesses with loans funded by Mentors. Mentors extends loans to people of all creeds and faiths and strives to mentor clients with proven business principles to ensure prolonged success.