Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and Northern Florida, Inc.

Our vision is to grant every eligible child's wish. Recently, the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of America commissioned an assessment that predicted a consistent increase in the number of medically eligible children in our chapter territory. Specifically, we learned that our chapter currently could grant an annual average of 600 wishes based on present and projected need. Our ultimate goal is to reach all medically eligible children in our community to grant their wish.

Strategy A: Maintain strong relationship with existing referral sources through education and training. Strategy B: Regularly measure wish metrics to monitor performance (i.e. cost per wish, volunteer per wish) Strategy C: Ensure sufficient in-kind resources are available to deliver high quality wishes. Strategy D: Continue working with wish team to ensure wishes are happening in a timely fashion. Strategy E: Develop a Medical Outreach plan to implement in targeted areas where the number of referrals has decreased or community development efforts have increased. Additionally, in terms of funding, we need to raise our budgeted revenue of $5.7 million to be able to grant 320 wishes to children in the 54 counties we serve in FY16. Focus on medical outreach and volunteer training so that as we increase the number of wishes we grant, we have the infrastructure to support the increase.

Our chapter has four offices operating to reach and engage the 54 counties we serve. We have wish granter volunteers that are trained in all of our counties to reach our wish families. Additionally have advisory boards set up in each regional office to assist with developing fundraising efforts. We are a nationwide organization that has the support, branding, and resources from a National level.

We continue to find new funding sources and are expanding our events to not only produce more revenue to go toward our mission, but to increase the awareness of our mission. We have a powerful mission and we want others to understand the true impact of a wish on the communities we serve. Our number of wishes granted continue to rise and we anticipate to grant over 300 wishes in FY14. One of our biggest obstacles is the rising costs of doing wishes and educating the public on the costs that we incur on wishes. The average cost of a wish if $7,000.