Why Donate

Your donation has the power to change lives

Through our city-wide mentoring programs and our unique training center, Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City serves about 3,000 of the more than 428,500 children currently living below the poverty line in our community, which includes 149,000 single-parent families. These underprivileged youth live in the roughest neighborhoods and are confronted with negative influences like school violence, crime, drugs and gangs every day.

In each of these households is an overworked, overstressed and underpaid parent, grandparent or guardian unable to help their children expand their horizons, realize their potential and enrich their futures. These mothers, fathers and others turn to BBBS of NYC, and we turn to you for your support.

Our vision is to ensure that every New York City youth who needs and wants the positive influence of a Big Brother or Big Sister will have one. Your generous donations can help make our vision a reality.

As a donor, you will see the tremendous value and measureable results of your contributions, and will learn that the power of your dollar is exponential. Not only will you change a disadvantaged child’s life, you’ll have a lasting impact on every life that child touches now and in the future. When you donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, that’s your legacy.

Giving Power

The power of your gift will enable BBBS of NYC to:

• Provide expert support, counseling and educational services. Our trained Social Workers closely supervise each Big and Little in our mentoring programs, giving advice and suggesting activities to ensure that the match relationships are safe, fun and rewarding. They also connect our families to counseling, support groups and a host of social services.
• Carefully and rigorously match children with adult mentors. BBBS of NYC set the standard for the mentor screening process, fingerprinting each volunteer and conducting the most thorough background checks in the nation against national criminal and sexual offender registries to ensure the safety of the children we serve. Each volunteer candidate is interviewed for suitability by at least 2 Social Workers, and every family meets with our Social Workers to ensure that they are prepared to welcome a Big Brother or Big Sister into their lives.
• Organize group activities and educational services. BBBS of NYC sponsors many educational trips to museums, zoos, aquariums, and gardens, group tours to college campuses, and seminars on important issues for youth like pregnancy prevention and avoiding gang violence.
• Engage children waiting for mentors. We create and host a variety of educational and recreational activities for children waiting for positive adult role models so they can become part of the BBBS of NYC family, even before they experience the power of the mentoring relationship.
• Conduct volunteer recruitment and community outreach efforts. These important events, tablings, materials and other initiatives bring us closer to our ambitious goal of providing mentors to all children who need caring adult role models in their lives.
  
  And, your gift will empower our children to succeed:
  
• 67% of the children in our programs improve their school attendance
• 69% improve their grade
• 91% of our Littles increase their self-esteem

These impressive outcomes demonstrate the powerful changes, remarkable improvements and personal transformations in the children we serve.

Learn How to Donate