California · Nonprofit
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES (California) receives grants from 95 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,094,313 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($5,000,000). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.0M
- Funders on record
- 95
- Grants received
- $14M
- Net assets
- $11M
What Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles does
Mission
To help at-promise children and youth in los angeles reach their fullest potential through professionally supported, one-to-one mentoring relationships that strengthen their social, emotional, cognitive and behavioral competencies. Youth served by bbbsla demonstrate improvement in their commitment to school and academic achievement, increased understanding of healthy standards of behavior; enhancement of resilience, self-efficacy and sense of the future; and a great sense of self-worth. From july 1, 2024 - june 30, 2025, bbblsa served 1,228 children and youth (ages 6-22) across los angeles county through six evidence-based mentoring programs that prepare children and youth to be college, career and life ready.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Community based mentoring: from july 2024 - june 2025, bbbsla served an estimated 751 children and youth ages 6-18 in the community-based mentoring program, the agency's largest program. This year-round program matches children and youth with professionally screened adult mentors to cultivate positive and healthy relationships aimed at improving social, emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes. In addition to providing ongoing match support and recommendations for mentor-mentee outings, bbbsla organized special events and activities in collaboration with community organizations, corporate partners, and other supporters to enhance the mentoring experience. Additionally, the agency employs a full-time family engagement coordinator position to holistically support families, littles, and bigs by offering tailored resources and workshops on topics they identified as areas where they need assistance.
$1,648,228 spent$11,160 earned by the program52% of program spendingSchool based mentoring: from july 2024 to june 2025, bbbsla served an estimated 186 children and youth in the school based mentoring program. Through this program, and in partnership with schools across los angeles county, bbbsla provided weekly one-hour mentoring sessions to elementary students in grades 2-5 by pairing them with professionally screened adult mentors in the school setting. An additional component of our school-based mentoring program is the high school bigs program, a unique initiative where high school students volunteer as mentors for elementary students. These one-hour weekly sessions run throughout the school year, with all mentoring activities guided by on-site bbbsla staff using a staff-curated, evidence-based curriculum. This year, we operated four active high school bigs programs at mckinley, la verne heights, grace miller, and tracy elementary schools. Further expanding our impact, bbbsla partnered with the city of long beach to introduce mentorship programming for middle school students. In this initiative, middle school students are matched with city employees who serve as mentors. We operated three active middle school programs at lindbergh, franklin,…
$507,217 spent16% of program spendingWorkplace mentoring: from july 2024 to june 2025, bbbsla served an estimated 101 high-school aged youth in the workplace mentoring program. During this period, bbbsla successfully delivered approximately 8 months of the workplace mentoring program across 5 program sites, providing an estimated 1,012 hours of impactful mentoring sessions. In partnership with los angeles county schools and corporations, bbbsla's program connects high school students from under-resourced schools with employees from partnering corporations. Twice a month, students visit workplace sites for one-hour sessions led by bbbsla staff. Each student is matched with an employee mentor for the duration of the school year. These sessions combine group learning activities guided by a staff-curated, evidence-based curriculum with personalized one-on-one mentoring, fostering meaningful relationships and impactful learning experiences
$300,873 spent9% of program spendingOther accomplishments: from july 2024 to june 2025, bbbsla supported 190 youth through two additional one-to-one mentoring programs: 1) the college pac (preparation, access, and completion) program, and 2) the women in entertainment mentoring program. Furthermore, graduating bbbsla youth are eligible to apply for scholarships and academic enrichment grants to help them pursue higher education at the college or university of their choice, empowering them to achieve their academic and career aspirations.
$738,962 spentof which $180,818 as grants23% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,195,280.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $8.4M to $14M (+70%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 13% · 2022 8% · 2023 5% · 2024 0% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Lauren Plichta
CEO
Board chair
Megan Colligan
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 15 funders to 26 funders, grant income fell $1.1M → $941k.
26 of 95 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 95 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 35% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
70% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 27% · 2019 27% · 2020 25% · 2021 23% · 2022 83% · 2023 27% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
29% of BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
61% of BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $5.4M that is directly attributable, 80% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,152 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,152 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
49% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
88%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES?
- BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES (California) receives grants from 95 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,094,313 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($5,000,000). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES have?
- IRS filings report 95 organizations giving $14,094,313 in grants to BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES, 52 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES?
- The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $5,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER LOS ANGELES find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 95 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing