If if wasn't for my Big Brother Mark, I'd probably be in a gang - or juvenile hall - today. It was a great day when I met Mark.

             — Little Brother Rickey

Where does my money go?

A volunteer match takes professional support to succeed. 

Your donation pays for the staff to manage our mentoring programs, who:

• Provide the crucial lifeline of regular, ongoing support, which nurtures a quality relationship between a volunteer and a child
• Maximize child safety
• Provide mentor training and orientation
• Recruit volunteers
• Interview potential "Bigs"
• Run a criminal background check on a volunteer
• Thoroughly check volunteer references
• Interview families and children
• Make matches
• Coordinate school- and site-based programs
• Provide ongoing site-based activities
  

Your donation and our volunteers mean fewer kids in trouble in the Bay Area's five counties.  Your support of BBBSBA returns many times the investment. In fact, a recent study shows that kids in Big Brothers Big Sisters programs return more than $4,096 a year in direct cost benefits to the community.

More Kids with a "Big" means:

• Fewer Bay Area kids using drugs
• Fewer Bay Area kids in gangs
• Fewer Bay Area kids drinking and driving
• Fewer Bay Area kids dropping out of school

More Kids with a "Big" means:

• More Bay Area graduating High School
• More Bay Area kids who get along better with their families and friends
• More Bay Area kids making positive life choices
• More Bay Area kids who do better in school

You can make an impact today. Donate Now.

The proposed 2008 California State Budget allocates $216,000 per child per year to lock a kid up in the California Youth Authority.  To give a kid a mentor and provide the professional support necessary to ensure a quality mentoring relationship in our program only costs $5,000 per child - for three years.

That’s a bargain, and it’s only going to get better.  The costs of incarcerating a child are going up.  But in 2006 we restructured for greater effectiveness – and our costs are going down. 

At Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area, we’re committed to efficiency.  We use volunteers and partner institutions to leverage the efforts of our professional staff – and stretch your dollar further.  That’s why we can do so much with so little.