Operational characteristics for successful mentoring programs of new university faculty include clarity of purpose of the program, methods for matching mentors and proteges, mentor training, mentor-protege relationship building, and program effectiveness assessment. Strengths of formal, informal, peer, group or consortia, intra-departmental, inter-departmental, and research mentoring approaches to mentoring from the literature are presented. Using characteristics and outcomes from successful programs, a proposed four-stage model of conceptualization, design and development, implementation, and evaluation can lead to the benefits of socialization into the culture, emotional support, networking, and increased job performance. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)