Make-A-Wish Foundation International

The Make-A-Wish mission is: Together, we create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.
The children we serve are fighting for their lives, and their families are doing everything that they can to help them in their battles. We believe that these children and their families deserve the chance to enjoy once-in-a-lifetime experiences that relieve them of the immense stress accompanying the treatment of a life-threatening medical condition, and produce positive, hopeful mindsets that outlast the illness.

A wish brings so much more than a moment of joy: it's an incredible journey from anticipating the wish, to the wish itself, and well beyond. Wishes are an essential complement to the medical process, and recent studies confirm what many wish families have told us for years: that wishes do have a powerful, positive impact on really sick kids. They are less anxious, eat better, sleep better, and feel more hopeful than their peers who don't have a wish. A wish helps seriously ill children cope and motivates them through the challenges of their illness.

By granting the child's one heartfelt wish, and involving the entire immediate family in the process, we re-empower the child to fight his/her illness and energize the family - and the community - to support the child. Our long-term goal, or vision, is to be able to make every eligible child's wish come true. By granting increasingly more wishes each year to qualifying children, we anticipate that, one day, we will be able to fulfill every eligible child's wish and propagate the joyful outcomes to an ever-wider community of participants and witnesses.

Make-A-Wish International has completed a new strategic plan for the organization's growth. In this plan, we are focusing on four pillars which represent our long-term vision: 1) Sustainable Resource Growth, 2) Increase Impactful, Quality Wishes, 3) Collaborative, High-Performing Talent, 4) Technology, Scalable and Easily Implemented. We have outlined a series of initiatives for each of these efforts and a specific individual has been identified to oversee each activity. Importantly, we will be reporting our progress on each initiative on a quarterly basis to the organization's International Board of Directors as well as the affiliates around the world. We believe that executing on these initiatives will lead us on a path to achieving our vision of making every eligible child's wish come true.

We will work together on accelerated, sustainable growth of resources and revenue for the enterprise. Recognize that we are a superior brand and must maintain a tight focus on our biggest collective fundraising opportunities. International will adopt a resource development philosophy and help train and build sustainable growth for all affiliates. Resources will come from increasing our brand presence, and our brand needs to show impact, relevance and need while being consistent and bold. Our goal is the be the Global Benchmark Children's Charity.

In the area of increasing the number of quality wishes, with consistent quality and execution across the enterprise, we will focus on a strategy moving us towards an organization concerned with outcomes (changing lives) rather than just interventions (wishes). Move us from 'nice to have' to 'must have' and supports our new brand positioning more effectively. Recognize we are the leader in granting life-changing, true wishes and our largest growth will need to come from underperforming and emerging markets, while maintaining the quality of our current operations.

With strategic pillar #3 focused on talent development –including board, staff and volunteers – we will continue our efforts to enhance and focus on innovative, collaborative, high-performing talent, who can achieve goals while being accountable. If we are to become a Global Benchmark Children's Charity, we need to assemble a 'Global Benchmark Pool of Talent' that exists across Make-A-Wish International and affiliates. Retention of top talent is a must. Training is essential. Recognize that we are unified, yet diverse, and leverage all human resources to achieve our plan.

We will also improve and focus on operational capacity that is scalable, consistent and easily implemented by both our mature and startup affiliates. Innovation and technology to support the strategic pillars and to increase the impact and potency of the organizational vision are essential. All members of Make-A-Wish are connected with the right business intelligence and technology tools anywhere, anytime, to any device.

Make-A-Wish employs nearly 450 paid staff between the international office and our 39 affiliates. Collectively, we work to enhance the organization's wish-granting activities and fundraising acumen. Our 39 affiliates are at the forefront in cultivating the necessary human capital to execute on our mission. Approximately 8,800 trained volunteers assist in providing the wish-granting experience worldwide. Volunteers also help in other capacities, including Board leadership, fundraising and event management, and other work that is vital to our organization. Our international office is guided by a Board of Directors that is comprised of some of the most accomplished and influential leaders in the world and representatives from our affiliate community. Similarly, each of our 39 affiliates has a board of directors made up of local community leaders. Make-A-Wish has forged strong relationships with many corporations at the global level, and scores more among individual affiliates. For example, our 30-year relationship with Disney, Inc. is an invaluable partnership, as a significant percentage of all wishes we grant involve a Disney theme park. We also partner with hundreds of celebrities, including musicians, actors, professional athletes and other public figures who graciously provide their time and talents to grant wishes and otherwise help us to fulfill our mission. In our last fiscal year, our revenues at Make-A-Wish International were more than $9.3 million through generous donations from individuals and corporations and affiliate fees. As a result of the efforts of our staff, volunteers and partners, Make-A-Wish is able to commit approximately 86% of these funds to our program activities. This speaks to our integrity and dedication to our mission, which the public recognizes.

Each year since 1980, Make-A-Wish has granted more wishes than in the previous year, advancing toward our vision of being able to make every eligible child's wish come true. Last year, the 39 affiliates of Make-A-Wish International reached approximately 15,000 eligible children with life-threatening medical conditions, so continued progress on our strategic plan is critical.

For the past several years, Make-A-Wish has been engaged in an essential conversation about our brand strategy. We have heard from hundreds of affiliate and chapter staff, donors, volunteers, medical professionals, in addition to our wish families. At the same time, our collective teams have exhausted hundreds of hours conducting and analyzing primary and secondary market research. The results of this work is the International version of the Make-A-Wish Brand Book, which we released in 2017. The Make-A-Wish brand is incredibly powerful and holds a significant presence in this world. We are all fortunate to play a part in its bright future. This brand book helps define the qualities that are so important to our brand and arms each of our affiliates with guidance to ensure we continue articulating our brand consistently in all that we do.