Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada
STAR RATINGCi's Star Rating is calculated based on the following independent metrics: |
✔+
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
Audited financial statements for current and previous years available on the charity’s website.
A
RESULTS REPORTING
Grade based on the charity's public reporting of the work it does and the results it achieves.
Fair
DEMONSTRATED IMPACT
The demonstrated impact per dollar Ci calculates from available program information.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Charity's cash and investments (funding reserves) relative to how much it spends on programs in most recent year.
83%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 83 cents are available for programs.
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OVERVIEW
About Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada:
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada is a 3-star charity with Fair demonstrated impact. It is financially transparent, has overhead spending within Ci's reasonable range, and has a strong results reporting grade. The charity has $5.4m in reserve funds, which can cover nine months of annual program costs.
Founded in 1964, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada (BBBSC) supports the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) network of agencies across Canada. It provides funding, staff training, national standards, policies, and a database for agency members. BBBS agencies work with kids who face challenges such as poor living conditions, family violence, mental health issues, difficulties in school, or identity challenges. Through mentorship, BBBS aims to reduce and avoid these risks to improve a child's chances of success.
In F2022, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada granted to 97 agencies in its network. The agencies provided mentoring for 26,435 children in 1,100 communities. The charity reports that 73% of mentees are coping with mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression. Mentor-mentee pairs are formed based on common interests and meet at least twice a month for at least a year. In F2022, 48% of mentoring was group-based, 31% was community based one-on-one mentoring and 20% was school-based one-on-one mentoring. The group-based mentoring includes the Go Girls! and Game On! programs, which teach teenagers about healthy living habits.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada provided 56 education and training virtual events for agency staff. It also granted 29 scholarships to youth and distributed 500 beds to children in the communities it supports.
In F2022, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada granted $3.0m to member agencies. The biggest grants went to BBBS Toronto ($367k), BBBS Peele ($308k) and BBBS Hamilton and Burlington ($182k).
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Results and Impact
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada reports that for every dollar invested in its mentoring programs, between $18-$23 is returned to society through taxes, higher incomes, volunteerism and charitable donations, based on a study released in 2013.
In September 2021, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada reported that 70% of its mentees who had regular contact with mentors during the pandemic reported feeling less worried or anxious compared to non-mentored youth.
While Charity Intelligence highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada’s results and impact.
Charity Intelligence gave Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada an impact rating of Fair for demonstrated social impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: Fair

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Finances
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada is finanially transparent. Its audited financial statements are publicly available on its website.
In F2022, Big Brothers Big Sisters of of Canada had total donations of $3.0m. The charity also received $4.1m in government funding, representing 51% of total revenues. Administrative costs are 8% of revenues (less investment income), and fundraising costs are 9% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 17%. For every dollar donated, 83 cents are available for programs, which is within Ci's reasonable range for overhead spending.
BBBS has $5.4m in reserve funds, which could cover 74% or nine months of annual program costs.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada had a separate foundation that was wound up in July 2022.
This charity report is an update that has been sent to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada for review. Comments and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on July 18, 2023 by Victoria Allder.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending December
|
2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
Administrative costs as % of revenues | 8.3% | 7.4% | 5.9% |
Fundraising costs as % of donations | 8.6% | 8.9% | 6.0% |
Total overhead spending | 16.9% | 16.3% | 11.9% |
Program cost coverage (%) | 73.5% | 78.1% | 62.4% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $000s |
2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
Donations | 2,960 | 2,795 | 2,512 |
Government funding | 4,059 | 5,174 | 5,107 |
Fees for service | 877 | 842 | 830 |
Investment income | 42 | 18 | 1 |
Other income | 567 | (140) | 769 |
Total revenues | 8,504 | 8,689 | 9,219 |
Program costs | 4,277 | 4,071 | 4,529 |
Grants | 3,035 | 3,587 | 2,739 |
Administrative costs | 703 | 639 | 543 |
Fundraising costs | 254 | 250 | 151 |
Total spending | 8,270 | 8,547 | 7,963 |
Cash flow from operations | 234 | 143 | 1,255 |
Capital spending | 8 | 3 | 2 |
Funding reserves | 5,378 | 5,981 | 4,533 |
Note: Ci adjusted for deferred revenue and included this in other income as it is unclear from the audited financial statements whether this is government or non-government revenue. This affected revenue by $567k in F2022, ($140k) in F2021 and $769k in F2020. Ci included unrealized gain (loss) on investments in revenues, affecting revenues and expenses by ($14k) in F2022, nil in F2021 and nil in F2020.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
1 |
$120k - $160k |
5 |
$80k - $120k |
4 |
$40k - $80k |
0 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2022
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Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
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