MentorLink - NGO Mentorship and Scholarship Platform

MentorLink is a production-oriented MERN platform designed for NGOs to manage mentorship operations, scholarship workflows, and beneficiary engagement with structured, measurable processes.

Deployed context: Mudita - An Alliance for Giving, Pune.

Live Deployment

• Frontend (Vercel): https://mentor-link-bay.vercel.app/
• Backend API (Render): https://mentor-link-8ypw.onrender.com/
• API Base URL used by frontend: https://mentor-link-8ypw.onrender.com/api

Executive Summary

MentorLink solves a practical NGO operations problem: manual mentor-mentee coordination does not scale. The platform digitizes onboarding, matching, sessions, modules, progress tracking, and scholarship intake in one system.

Key outcomes:

• Role-based portal for admin, mentor, and mentee workflows
• Automated mentor-mentee matching using weighted criteria
• Session planning and completion tracking
• Learning module distribution and access
• Need-analysis driven guidance model
• Scholarship application flow with acknowledgement email and admin notification

Core Features

1. Role-based Access

• JWT-based authentication
• Role-aware routing and permissions
• Protected APIs for administrative operations

2. Automated Matching Engine

• Weighted multi-criteria scoring
• Criteria: language, domain alignment, mentor workload, mentor experience
• Supports automatic assignment and manual override

3. Session Management

• Session scheduling between mentors and mentees
• Status lifecycle tracking
• Feedback and progress capture

4. Need Analysis

• Structured mentee self-assessment
• Captures skill-gap signals used by matching logic

5. Learning Modules

• Admin-managed module library
• Resource distribution to mentees

6. Scholarship Application Workflow

• Public scholarship application modal on Get Involved page
• Backend persistence in MongoDB
• Email acknowledgement to applicant
• Email notification to admin inbox
• Admin APIs to list, review, and update application status

Technology Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 18, React Router v6, Tailwind CSS
Backend	Node.js, Express.js
Database	MongoDB Atlas
Authentication	JWT, bcryptjs
File Handling	Cloudinary
Email	Nodemailer (SMTP)
Deployment	Vercel (frontend), Render (backend)

Project Structure

mentor-link/
  client/
  server/
  docs/
  assets/

API Summary

Auth

• POST /api/auth/register
• POST /api/auth/login
• GET /api/auth/me
• POST /api/auth/forgot-password
• PUT /api/auth/reset-password/:token
• PUT /api/auth/update-profile

Sessions

• POST /api/sessions
• GET /api/sessions
• GET /api/sessions/stats
• PUT /api/sessions/:id/status

Admin

• GET /api/admin/stats
• GET /api/admin/users
• POST /api/admin/auto-match
• GET /api/admin/match-suggestions/:id
• POST /api/admin/manual-match

Scholarship Applications

• POST /api/scholarship-applications/submit (public)
• GET /api/scholarship-applications (protected)
• GET /api/scholarship-applications/:id (protected)
• PUT /api/scholarship-applications/:id/status (protected)

Matching Logic

Score model:

Score = Language(30) + Domain(40) + Workload(20) + Experience(10)

Purpose:

• Improve assignment quality
• Reduce admin coordination effort
• Prioritize compatibility and operational fairness

Deployment Architecture

Recommended Hosting

• Frontend: Vercel
• Backend: Render
• Database: MongoDB Atlas

Environment Variables

Frontend (client/.env)

• REACT_APP_API_URL=https://mentor-link-8ypw.onrender.com/api

Backend (server/.env)

• PORT
• MONGO_URI
• JWT_SECRET
• JWT_EXPIRE
• CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME
• CLOUDINARY_API_KEY
• CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET
• EMAIL_HOST
• EMAIL_PORT
• EMAIL_USER
• EMAIL_PASS
• EMAIL_FROM
• CLIENT_URL

Existing Domain Strategy (muditaalliance.org)

You can keep the current Mudita website fully live and launch MentorLink in parallel.

Recommended DNS strategy:

• Existing website remains at: muditaalliance.org
• MentorLink frontend: mentor.muditaalliance.org
• MentorLink backend API: api.muditaalliance.org

Current live pilot URLs:

• Frontend: https://mentor-link-bay.vercel.app/
• Backend API: https://mentor-link-8ypw.onrender.com/

Benefits:

• Zero disruption to existing website
• Clear separation between public website and application
• Easier operations, scaling, and rollback

Scalability Roadmap

Phase A - Pilot

• Small user base
• Low-cost infrastructure
• Focus on workflow validation and feedback cycle

Phase B - Growth

• Upgrade backend to always-on paid plan
• Upgrade Atlas tier for performance and backups
• Add monitoring and alerting
• Add endpoint rate limiting and anti-abuse controls

Phase C - Scale

• Horizontal backend scaling
• Improved observability and incident response
• Dedicated transactional email provider
• Stronger compliance and audit trails

Indicative Costing (Monthly)

These are approximate and depend on usage.

Pilot

• Total range: USD 0 to 120

Growth

• Total range: USD 120 to 490

Scale

• Total range: USD 400 to 2300+

Detailed assumptions are documented in:

• assets/Documentation/DOMAIN_SCALING_COSTING.md

Local Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• MongoDB Atlas connection
• SMTP credentials

Install

npm run install-all

Run development

npm run dev

Default local URLs:

• Frontend: http://localhost:3000
• Backend: http://localhost:5000

Production build check

cd client
npm run build

Readiness Status

Current validation snapshot:

• Frontend production build: passing
• Backend route loading: passing
• Scholarship workflow modules: present
• CORS hardened for multi-origin and preview domains

Documentation Index

Stakeholder and Ops Documentation

• assets/Documentation/README.md
• assets/Documentation/DEPLOYMENT_READINESS_REPORT.md
• assets/Documentation/DEMO_PLAYBOOK_MUDITA.md
• assets/Documentation/DOMAIN_SCALING_COSTING.md
• assets/Documentation/RUNBOOK_PRODUCTION.md

Academic Documentation

• docs/phase1/Synopsis.md
• docs/phase2/Report.md

Author

Jaykumar Kale
B.E. Information Technology, PICT Pune
GitHub: https://github.com/Jaykumar-Kale

License

MIT