Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver
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.
B-
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.
28%
CENTS TO THE CAUSE
For a dollar donated, after overhead costs of fundraising and admin/management (excluding surplus) 28 cents are available for programs.
My anchor
OVERVIEW
About Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver:
Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver is a 2-star charity. It has fair demonstrated impact and overhead spending outside of Ci's reasonable range due to high fundraising costs. In 2021, fundraising costs were 60% of donations. Before you give, read Charity Intelligence's report.
Founded in 1978, Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver (BBGV) works to support child and youth development through volunteer-led mentoring programs. BBGV's programs pair children with adults to provide mentorship across a variety of fields of the child's life. BBGV’s mentoring programs served 13 communities in seven cities in the greater Vancouver area in F2021.
BBGV's website reports six mentoring programs: Big Brothers Community Mentoring, In-School Mentoring, Teen Mentoring, Game On (group mentoring focused on physical activities), Mentoring with Math, and Roots Mentoring (indigenous mentoring program). The charity reports it spends 43% of program expenses on Community Mentoring and the remaining on Group (41%), Teen (10%), and School (6%). It is unclear how much of program spending is allocated to the remaining programs mentioned.
In F2021, Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver served 768 children through its programming, a decrease of 20% from F2020. Of these children helped, Community Mentoring reached 327 children.
Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver reported it has 524 mentors and made 89 new community matches in F2021.
Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver has a separately controlled charity, Renew Crew Foundation which operates as a social business. The business picks up donated clothes and sells them to Value Village. The profit is given to Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver. In F2021, 8.4 million pounds of clothing were collected.
My anchor
Results and Impact
In July 2013, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) independently evaluated Big Brothers Big Sisters Canada’s programs. The report found that for every $1 invested in mentoring, there is an $23 return to society. Specific details on this evaluation are not provided. However, it is mentioned that mentees of Big Brothers Big Sisters Canada are 17% more likely to be employed with 13% higher earnings.
While Ci highlights these key results, they may not be a complete representation of Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver’s results and impact.
Charity Intelligence has rated Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver as Fair impact based on demonstrated impact per dollar spent.
Impact Rating: Fair

My anchor
Finances
Ci has consolidated the financial statements of Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver and Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver Foundation. Charity Intelligence did not consolidate the financial statements of Renew Crew.
Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver has donations and special event revenues of $759k in F2021. The charity received $714k in government funding, representing 21% of total revenues. Administrative costs are 12% of revenues (less investment income) and fundraising costs are 60% of donations and special events. This results in total overhead spending of 72%. For every dollar donated, 28 cents go to the cause. This is outside of Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. This is due to high fundraising costs. For comparison, the average fundraising cost for charities on Charity Intelligence's website is 16%.
Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver has $1.6m in funding reserves of which $28k is donor endowed.Excluding donor-endowed funds, the charity could cover 90% or almost one year of annual program costs with current reserves.
Charity Intelligence reported staff and salary information for Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver and Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver Foundation combined.
This charity report is an update that has been sent to Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.
Updated on June 2 2022 by Brenleigh Jebb.
Financial Review
Fiscal year ending July
|
2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
---|---|---|---|
Administrative costs as % of revenues | 11.6% | 15.9% | 14.9% |
Fundraising costs as % of donations | 59.9% | 45.3% | 51.8% |
Total overhead spending | 71.6% | 61.1% | 66.7% |
Program cost coverage (%) | 89.6% | 51.3% | 57.9% |
Summary Financial StatementsAll figures in $s |
2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
---|---|---|---|
Donations | 417,774 | 528,418 | 449,617 |
Goods in kind | 17,835 | 66,175 | 92,995 |
Government funding | 713,749 | 653,033 | 272,940 |
Business activities (net) | 1,825,000 | 1,175,885 | 1,775,000 |
Special events | 341,033 | 459,310 | 570,369 |
Investment income | 40,768 | 34,416 | (1,869) |
Total revenues | 3,356,159 | 2,917,237 | 3,159,052 |
Program costs | 1,762,627 | 2,066,859 | 2,306,997 |
Donated goods exp | 17,835 | 66,175 | 92,995 |
Administrative costs | 385,426 | 457,162 | 471,350 |
Fundraising costs | 454,759 | 447,058 | 528,120 |
Total spending | 2,620,647 | 3,037,254 | 3,399,463 |
Cash flow from operations | 735,512 | (120,017) | (240,411) |
Capital spending | 15,665 | 7,602 | 9,746 |
Funding reserves | 1,607,080 | 1,087,197 | 1,362,870 |
Note: Total revenues and expenses were affected by $1.3m in F2021, $1.5m in F2020, and $2.1m in F2019 during consolidation. These figures represent the transfer of funds between the foundation and operating charity. Ci reported amounts the foundation received from Renew Crew social enterprise as business activities. Ci reported donated goods in kind separately and removed the amounts from special events and fundraising expenses as indicated on the charity's audited financial statements. The foundation's amortization was removed from administrative costs to be reported as a separate cost. The operating charity’s amortization was removed pro-rata from fundraising, administrative and program costs to be reported as a separate cost.
Salary Information
$350k + |
0 |
$300k - $350k |
0 |
$250k - $300k |
0 |
$200k - $250k |
0 |
$160k - $200k |
0 |
$120k - $160k |
1 |
$80k - $120k |
1 |
$40k - $80k |
8 |
< $40k |
0 |
Information from most recent CRA Charities Directorate filings for F2021
My anchor
Comments & Contact
Comments added by the Charity:
Charity Contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Tel: 604.876.2447