Founded 2020 — Los Angeles
WELISTEN.WEBUILD.WESTAY.
Six years ago we showed up with index cards that asked one question.
What do you need? The answers built everything that came next.
Three pillars. One community.
What we do.
Mission
IBTU builds trusted, place-based programs that support youth, families, and neighborhoods through education, health access, and crisis response — designed with dignity, informed by community, and built to last.
Vision
A city where every family has barrier-free access to the resources, care, and community infrastructure they need to thrive — not just survive.
EST. 2020EIN 85-3136505501(c)(3)
Four operating principles shape every program we run — place-based, whole-system, designed with dignity, and staying long enough to make trust compound.
PARTNERSHIP
IS OUR
SUPERPOWER.
Most nonprofits operate in lanes. Government is one lane, corporations are another, schools a third, clinical providers a fourth, brands a fifth, faith communities a sixth, families and individual donors a seventh. The lanes rarely cross. The walls between them are exactly where families fall through.
We don't operate in lanes. We bridge them.
On any given day at the Hub you'll find a Congressional aide doing a site walkthrough, a corporate brand team unloading product donations, a university-trained clinical team setting up a screening table, an LAUSD principal walking parents through after-school enrollment, a council district staffer dropping off constituent intake forms, and a small business owner asking how to host a partner activation. They're all in the same room, building the same thing. We're the connective tissue.
GovernmentCorporationsSchoolsClinicalBrandsFaithDonors
Federal recognition from the U.S. Congress sits alongside state recognition from the California Legislature, city recognition across Los Angeles council districts, county recognition from the LA County Board of Supervisors, university clinical alliances, and LAUSD contracts across seventeen campuses.
Partnership for us isn't logo placement. It's role assignment. A corporate sponsor brings staff to the floor. A government office brings constituent visibility. A clinical provider brings licensed practitioners. A brand brings the cultural reach that gets the work covered in places nonprofits don't normally reach.
Meet our Board
Tap a card to read the full bio. Seven leaders across the sectors our work depends on — community organizing, education, public health, government affairs, philanthropy, and the arts. They back this work with experience, networks, and time.
OUR JOURNEY.
Six years. One operating word — place-based. From index cards on Western Ave to a permanent Hub at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, 34 school sites, and a fire response that held because the infrastructure was already there.
WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED?
It's Bigger Than Us is founded in Los Angeles in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest. Tyrone Nance wants to move from screaming and marching in the streets to executing actual change. On Western Ave, a small group of friends print index cards and walk door-to-door asking one question. An Instagram support group for Black men turns into a crowdfund that raises $10,000 in five days. Tyrone and ten Crenshaw High classmates hand out fully loaded backpacks to Crenshaw students and donate the remaining $5,000 directly to the school. The first proof that listening could move money.
SAME PLACE, SAME HANDS, SAME WEEK.
Tap to learn moreSAME PLACE, SAME HANDS, SAME WEEK.
The Weekly Food Distribution Network launches. What was one-off becomes consistent — same place, same hands, same week — and the rhythm becomes the foundation everything else gets built on. By the end of the year, more than 33,000 families have been served annually.
33,000+ FAMILIES · WEEKLY DISTRIBUTIONS
FIVE THOUSAND PEOPLE, ONE DAY.
Tap to learn moreFIVE THOUSAND PEOPLE, ONE DAY.
The 3rd Annual Back 2 School Festival lands at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza — and crosses 5,000 attendees in a single day. 5,000 Adidas backpacks are distributed. A job fair runs with 80+ vendors. A health fair runs alongside. LAUSD schools attend for the first time, opening the door to the school-based programming that scales over the next four years. This is the day Back 2 School stops being a single distribution and becomes the model.
5,000 ATTENDEES · 5,000 BACKPACKS · 80+ VENDORS
THE WORK GETS AN ADDRESS.
Tap to learn moreTHE WORK GETS AN ADDRESS.
IBTU opens its first permanent headquarters in Leimert Park. The school program scales to eight LAUSD sites, serving 9,800 students. Peak food year — 54,000 families, 410,000 pounds of food distributed. The 4th Annual Back 2 School Festival returns to Leimert Park. The City of Los Angeles signs IBTU's first Full City Council Recognition (CD8). Supervisor Holly Mitchell presents the Bridge Builder Award.
8 SCHOOLS · 9,800 STUDENTS · 410,000 LBS FOOD
MIAMI, THE COAST, AND THE BRANDS.
Tap to learn moreMIAMI, THE COAST, AND THE BRANDS.
The work crosses state lines. Multistate expansion to Miami with Baby2Baby — 498,075 items distributed. Coastal Care launches — monthly community clean-ups along the Pacific. 14,150 students served across the school program. Top 100 California Nonprofit. Corporate partnerships deepen with lululemon and Baby2Baby. Institutional health partnerships open with Charles Drew University and USC All of Us.
PACIFIC PALISADES + EATON.
Tap to learn morePACIFIC PALISADES + EATON.
January 7–8: the Palisades and Eaton fires displace thousands of Los Angeles families overnight. IBTU mobilizes within 72 hours. The infrastructure built over five years — partner network, volunteer base, weekly operations cadence — gets stress-tested in real time, and holds. 5,000+ families stabilized. 3,500+ volunteers activated across all relief phases. 15,000+ meals served. $4.5M in-kind value mobilized.
5,000+ FAMILIES · $4.5M IN-KIND · 72-HOUR MOBILIZATION
FROM LEIMERT PARK TO BALDWIN HILLS.
Tap to learn moreFROM LEIMERT PARK TO BALDWIN HILLS.
Within ninety days of the fires, IBTU upgrades from the Leimert Park headquarters to a new permanent Hub at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza — the operational center for fire relief and long-term recovery. HIPAA-compliant case management from the first visit. Verification-based delivery instead of a paperwork gauntlet. The Hub serves 324 active clients across 7,581 assistance instances — 23.4 visits per client average.
324 CLIENTS · 7,581 INSTANCES · 23.4 AVG VISITS
MORE STUDENTS THAN ALL PRIOR YEARS COMBINED.
Tap to learn moreMORE STUDENTS THAN ALL PRIOR YEARS COMBINED.
Students served across 34 school sites in a single year — more than every previous year added together. The Alliance Charter partnership expands to 25 campuses with a $1.9M Sol de Janeiro distribution. The US Congress presents IBTU with the Inaugural Changemaker Award. Jennifer Hudson features Molly and Tyrone for the wildfire response. 75+ media placements. 2.47M Instagram reach.
34 SCHOOLS · 2.47M REACH
COMMUNITY IS THE
INFRA-
STRUCTURE.
Tap to learn moreCOMMUNITY IS THE INFRASTRUCTURE.
Six years from index cards on Western Ave to a permanent Hub serving hundreds of clients a week. The 7th Annual Back 2 School Festival expands to five cities. Three pillars, more than thirty school sites across three districts, hundreds of partners. We don't drop in. We build in.
COMMUNITYIS THEINFRASTRUCTURE.
Six years in. Still listening. Still building.