Illinois · Nonprofit
BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 105 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,929,779 to it, the largest being Ulta Beauty Charitable Foundation ($3,012,336). 61 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.1M
- Funders on record
- 105
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $2.9M
What Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago does
Mission
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.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Big brothers big sisters of metropolitan chicago is an affiliate of the oldest, most respected mentoring organization in the us. We are a mission driven, performance-based organization that is professionally managed and provides high quality 1:1 mentoring services to over 1,600 children in metro chicago and their families across four counties: cook, dupage and lake counties in illinois and indiana. As metro chicago and northwest indiana's largest donor and volunteer supported mentoring network, big brothers big sisters makes meaningful, monitored matches between adult volunteers ("bigs") and children ("littles") from age seven through high school graduation. Private corporate, foundation and individual contributions provide over 80% of our revenue base upon which we build programming that meets the needs of each child individually. Our programs are proven to keep kids in school, out of trouble and on the path to post-graduate success.
$4,996,770 spentof which $133,001 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,996,770.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $5.4M to $6.3M (+17%).
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: 2017 2% · 2018 7% · 2019 9% · 2020 8% · 2021 24% · 2022 13% · 2023 2% · 2024 21% · 2025 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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
Jeremy Foster
Executive director/CEO
Board chair
Robert F Hallberg
President/chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 21 funders to 48 funders, grant income rose $318k → $1.8M.
23 of 105 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 METROPOLITAN CHICAGO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 105 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 METROPOLITAN CHICAGO has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
59% 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 METROPOLITAN CHICAGO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 25% · 2018 37% · 2019 24% · 2020 19% · 2021 30% · 2022 18% · 2023 14% — diversifying over time.
“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
47% of BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
90% of BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO's grant income comes from Illinois funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $4.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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.
Government funding BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $500k on record.
- Department of Justice$500k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
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 Illinois
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
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 METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: 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 METROPOLITAN CHICAGO?
- BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO (Illinois) receives grants from 105 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,929,779 to it, the largest being Ulta Beauty Charitable Foundation ($3,012,336). 61 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO have?
- IRS filings report 105 organizations giving $12,929,779 in grants to BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO, 61 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO?
- Ulta Beauty Charitable Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $3,012,336 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BIG BROTHERS-BIG SISTERS OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Illinois. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago →
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 105 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