Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area is a top-rated, 5-star charity. It is financially transparent and has Average demonstrated impact. It has an excellent results reporting grade and its overhead spending is within Ci’s reasonable range. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area has $2.5m in reserve funds which can cover one year of annual program costs.

Founded in 1994, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area (BBBSC) helps young people realize their full potential through mentoring. BBBSC assists young people who report Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). ACEs are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood, including abuse, neglect, substance abuse, household violence, mental health issues, divorce, and imprisonment or death of a family member.

BBBSC reports that having one ACE increases the chances of having another one by 84%. It adds that children with ACEs are more likely to experience mental health issues or substance dependence later in life. The charity states that, according to Canadian Institute for Health Information (2022), a quarter of child hospitalizations in 2020 were related to mental health conditions. BBBSC found that 45% of children and youth that filled out its intake ACEs questionnaire experience mental health disorders. The charity adds that, according to Statistics Canada (2021), nearly a quarter of youth aged 15 to 24 are experiencing loneliness. The charity’s intake ACEs questionnaire found that 61% of respondents face social isolation. A StatsCan survey (2019) found that 7 in 10 youth aged 12 to 17 report experiencing bullying within the last year. Similarly, 71% of BBBSC’s intake ACEs questionnaire participants report experiencing bullying.

To tackle these issues, BBBSC runs two main programs: mentoring in the community and mentoring in school. The charity does not state how much it spends on each program. In both programs, children build one-on-one relationships with their mentors through shared activities and time spent together. Community mentoring for youth aged six to 24 occurs on evenings and weekends. Mentees and mentors meet weekly for one year and engage in activities like sports, cooking and cultural events. School mentoring occurs during school hours for children aged six to 12. Students meet with mentors weekly for one year and engage in educational activities like puzzles, board games and science experiments.

In F2023, BBBSC reports creating 886 matches between mentors and mentees, 71 more than in F2022. Of these matches, 515 were in school programs and 371 were in community-based programs. 80% of matches were in Calgary and the other 20% were in Airdrie, Cochrane, Rockyview, Okotoks and Foothills.

The charity served 824 children of which 459 were in school-based programs and 365 were in community-based programs. 68% of the charity’s mentees are five to 12 years old and 32% are 13 to 24 years old. In addition, 53% of mentees are ethnic minorities and 1% are Indigenous. The charity benefited from 34,479 volunteer hours during F2023.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area reports that, according to Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation (2022), over one million children in Canada do not have sufficient literary skills, a statistic made worse by the pandemic. To address this, in January 2022, the charity adopted the wee read program through the “Dandelion Project”. The program focuses on implementing reading activities during weekly mentoring sessions to help develop children’s reading confidence. The program is still in its preliminary stages.

In F2023, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area had total donations and special events revenue of $1.8m. The charity also received $1.2m in government funding, representing 40% of total revenue. Administrative costs are 15% of revenues (less investment income), and fundraising costs are 19% of donations. This means that for every dollar donated, 67 cents are available for programs, which is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

BBBSC has $2.5m in reserve funds, which could cover 101% or a year of annual program costs.

At the time of this profile update, the charity’s F2023 T3010 filing with the CRA is not publicly available. As such, the most recent staff compensation information is from F2022.

Ci has sent this profile update to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 15, 2023 by Victoria Allder