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Maine · Nonprofit

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME (Maine) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,618,465 to it, the largest being United Way Inc ($360,269). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$675k
Funders on record
38
Grants received
$1.6M
Net assets
$1.4M
23/38 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 97%
01What it does

What Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME does

Mission

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Maine is committed to making a positive difference in the lives of young people, focusing on prevention, primarily through professionally supported mentoring relationships between youth and adult volunteers. Mentors guide their mentees in many ways which help improve their self-esteem, resilience, problem-solving, and aspirations for their future. Youth with mentors are shown to have better school attendance, are more likely to graduate on time and pursue higher education, apprenticeship or other skilled trade.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. BBBSSM creates and supports one-to-one mentoring relationships between youth age 7-17 with caring adults who assist them in reaching their potential. Mentors help their mentees stay on the path to graduation and develop a plan for their future. Studies show youth with mentors have lower levels of stress, depression, and other mental health incidents. They also have healthier relationships with peers, do better in school, and engage in fewer risky behaviors. Our professional program staff are responsible for screening volunteers, youth and families to ensure they are a good fit for a mentoring relationship, making meaningful and enduring matches, then providing monthly support to the mentor, the mentee and their family to ensure the best in industry standards are being met and the one-to-one relationship is serving the individual needs of each youth.

    $478,973 spent$1,241 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $478,973.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($649k) Expenses 100 ($792k) Net assets 100 ($2.0M)2018 Revenue 77 ($503k) Expenses 85 ($672k) Net assets 97 ($1.9M)2019 Revenue 74 ($483k) Expenses 87 ($692k) Net assets 76 ($1.5M)2020 Revenue 88 ($574k) Expenses 89 ($701k) Net assets 75 ($1.5M)2021 Revenue 86 ($561k) Expenses 81 ($640k) Net assets 85 ($1.7M)2022 Revenue 24 ($156k) Expenses 27 ($218k) Net assets 61 ($1.2M)2023 Revenue 114 ($743k) Expenses 104 ($825k) Net assets 66 ($1.3M)2024 Revenue 104 ($675k) Expenses 97 ($771k) Net assets 70 ($1.4M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (104)Expenses (97)Net assets (70)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2018 to 2019, from $2.0M to $1.5M (−21%).

$2.0M
$2.0M
$1.5M
$1.5M
$1.7M
$1.4M
$1.5M
$1.6M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

99% of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (73% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,456 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 8 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$143k
’17
−$169k
’18
−$209k
’19
−$127k
’20
−$79k
’21
−$62k
’22
−$82k
’23
−$96k
’24
0.5
months of
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

Nicole Avery

Executive Director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed2121212014101111
Joined·+2+1+4+0+4+2+3
No longer listed·2156813
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $183k → $285k.

9 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 Southern ME’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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 Southern ME has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

67% 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 Southern ME.

22%
largest funder
47%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 50% · 2019 40% · 2020 36% · 2021 32% · 2022 20% · 2023 26% — 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

42% of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

89% of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME's grant income comes from Maine funders.

ME
MT
WI
NY
MA
TX
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Maine out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $574k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME's funding base is broadening — from 11 funders to 17 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−14% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve0.5mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,356 unclassified nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME

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 Maine

Nationally

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

62% of spending goes to programs.

Program 62%Management 8%Fundraising 30%

Governance

10
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

93%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME: 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.

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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 Southern ME?
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME (Maine) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,618,465 to it, the largest being United Way Inc ($360,269). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME have?
IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $1,618,465 in grants to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME?
United Way Inc is the largest funder on record, with $360,269 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern ME find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maine. 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 Southern ME →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 38 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