How much does Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America give?

Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America reported 139 itemized grants totaling $20,950,555, out of $28,874,687 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 104 and 141 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Youth Development (82%), Human Services (12%), Community Improvement (5%).

Who are Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Bbbsa Charitable Foundation Inc ($4.6M), Family Service Agency of Dekalb County Inc ($4.3M), Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City Inc ($4.1M).

Does Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 1% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Inspire Brands Foundation Inc, Youth Collaboratory Inc, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio Inc.

Where is Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America based?

Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America is based in FL.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America

Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America at a glance Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is the nation's premier mentoring organization.

$29M

Granted FY2025still arriving

139

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$1.2M

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Youth Development$113MHuman Services$17MCommunity Improvement$7.4MHealth$619kReligion$31k

02FY2025 · 139 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured

The 139 grants below total $20,950,555, the rows itemized in this filing. The $28,874,687 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $7,924,132 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k20 grants · $147k
$10k–50k37 grants · $1.0M
$50k–250k61 grants · $8.4M
$250k+21 grants · $11M

$84,088

Median grant

States reached

$51M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
BBBS of New York City Inc	$1,180,997
BBBS of Eastern Massachusetts	$1,065,907
BBBS of Metropolitan Chicago	$999,660
Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star	$841,414
BBBS of Kentuckiana Inc	$681,953
BBBS of New Hampshire	$598,898
BBBS of Orange County	$581,192
BBBS of Coastal & Northern New Jersey	$564,150
BBBS OF METRO ATLANTA INC	$508,067
Kansas BBBS Inc	$474,543
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami	$473,309
BBBS of Greater Los Angeles	$439,301
Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region	$427,862
BBBS of Acadiana Inc	$411,829
BBBS of Greater Birmingham Inc	$364,251

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $803k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 52% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$132M · 160 repeat orgs$6.9M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +24% since the first grant, against +14% for those funded once.

160 repeat relationships: 122 still active in FY2025, 38 since wound down; 17 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

160

Total granted

$132M

$5.0M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+24%

+14%

Still filing today

88%

77%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 91% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.0M went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Youth DevelopmentHuman ServicesHealthReligionCrime & LegalPhilanthropyOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

FS
FAMILY SERVICE AGENCY OF DEKALB COUNTY INC
8× · 2017–2025 · $4.3M · revenue +248% · 81% of their budget
BB
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS LONE STAR
7× · 2018–2025 · $4.1M · revenue +54%
CA
CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES INC
6× · 2017–2025 · $4.0M · revenue +65%

Funded once

BC
BBBSA CHARITABLE FOUNDATION INC
one grant, 2024 · $4.6M · 81% of their budget
BB
BIG BROTHERS AND BIG SISTERS OF THE CENTRAL BLUE RIDGE INC
one grant, 2023 · $66k · revenue -2%
BO
BBBS OF SOUTHCENTRAL WEST VIRGINIA
one grant, 2017 · $51k

How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kennebec Valley

To create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of area youth.

—

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Manitowoc County Inc

To provide children facing adversity with strong, enduring, professionally supported one on one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.

—

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ba Brunswick

To create and support one to one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.

—

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Montana

Create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.

—

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit

To provide children facing adversity with safe, strong, and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever

—

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine

Role models (bigs) in one-to-one friendships in seven counties throughout Eastern, Coastal, and Central Maine. They partner with parents, in conjunction with over 30 schools and hundreds of volunteers and generous partners in our community…

—

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ozaukee County Inc

Creating and supporting one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.

—

Big Brothers & Sisters of Butte

Big brothers big sisters is the only prevention program in montana proven to affect a broad range of social issues. program evaluations consistently show that after entering the program, children are less likely to become delinquent, use…

—

Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago

Create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite and empower the promise of youth. we nurture children, strengthen communities and believe that inherent in every child is the ability to succeed and thrive in life.

—

Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Great Lakes Bay Region

To provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.

—

Big Brothers Big Sisters Services Inc

Big brothers big sisters services, inc. (the organization) is a private, nonprofit corporation chartered in north carolina in 1976 and is a member of big brothers big sisters of america. its purpose is to provide children facing adversity…

—

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Montana

Create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Florida Inc; the most unlike its peers is Family Services of Westchester Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

195 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 195 of the 203 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

178/195

Grantees still filing

123/195

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$97,816,090Youth Development$37,093,993Crime & Legal$2,167,209Human Services$839,486Health$307,605Religion$266,481Philanthropy$114,871

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Inspire Brands Foundation IncGA81.6× affinity46 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Inspire Brands Foundation Inc · Youth Collaboratory Inc · Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio Inc · Tickets for Kids Foundation · The Papa John's Foundation Inc · Publix Super Markets Charities Inc · The Gap Foundation · Global Impact · Panera Bread Foundation Inc · The Jcpenney Foundation · Union Pacific Foundation · Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

4get no government money at all

105report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

2rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Play a game based on Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home