In this paper we consider the existence of a positive solution to boundary-value problems with non-local nonlinear boundary conditions, the archetypical example being −y″(t) = λf(t,y(t)), t ∈ (0, 1), y(0) = H(φ(y)), y(1) = 0. Here, H is a nonlinear function, λ > 0 is a parameter and φ is a linear functional that is realized as a Lebesgue—Stieltjes integral with signed measure. By requiring φ to decompose in a certain way, we show that this problem has at least one positive solution for each λ ∈ (0, λ0), for a number λ0 > 0 that is explicitly computable. We also give a separate result that holds for all λ > 0.