Mission
Fostering Wishes is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of our local foster children during their years in the foster system and assisting in preparing them to be self-sufficient upon and after their exit as young adults. Fostering Wishes envisions and “wishes” our vulnerable foster children will receive the support needed to grow into happy, healthy, successful young adults.
Ruling year
2023
Founder/President/Former Foster Parent
Sabine Lemmo
Main address
2495 Royal Oaks Dr
Alamo, CA 94507 USA
EIN
88-3935030
NTEE code
Children's and Youth Services (P30)
IRS filing requirement
This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990-N.
Communication
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Foster children represent one of the country’s most disconnected, at-risk populations. The kids are physically and emotionally taken from their biological parents, often at a very young age, and placed in foster homes. This is traumatic for children. It can greatly impact their cognitive and emotional development if they are not cared for properly in their youth. Although foster care is intended to provide support and stability, many children move seven different times and almost as many school districts. This trauma causes stress, uncertainty, anxiety, and other medical and mental health issues. None of which is from the child’s making. Foster Children do not grow up with anything resembling a “parent” figure. Many foster children have no anchor, no one who loves them unconditionally, no one to help them adjust to all the different stages of life, and no one that supports them through their transition to adulthood. The most vulnerable amongst the vulnerable are the children
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Holiday Drive
Fostering Wishes provides gifts to hundreds of foster children to brighten their holidays. But even more importantly, to these children, the gifts mean they are loved, supported, and cherished by their community and our indeed special. The Holiday Drive is Fostering Wishes’ signature program meaning it’s the first program we developed to help our local foster children.
Fostering Wishes partners with local businesses that either host a holiday “giving” tree and/or display our flyers containing QR codes to direct individuals to our Amazon Wish List. The gifts are then collected and distributed to Foster Children through established and vetted foster agencies. Because of the goodness in people, we manage thousands of gifts that go to hundreds of kids.
We are not only thrilled with helping to make the holidays memorable for so many kids, but we are also delighted to see the community working together and rallying behind our foster children.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of youth receiving services (e.g., groups, skills and job training, etc.) with youths living in their community
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Holiday Drive
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
These are the steps and activities that the nonprofit will take to achieve its goals. They should include who is responsible, what resources are needed, how progress will be measured, and when they will be completed.
Develop and implement a comprehensive marketing and communication plan that showcases our impact, stories, and brand identity.
Expand and diversify our program offerings to reach new audiences, locations, and topics.
Evaluate and improve our program quality, outcomes, and impact using data-driven methods and best practices.
Seek and secure new funding sources and opportunities to increase our revenue and diversify our funding mix.
Recruit, train, and retain qualified and diverse staff, board, volunteers, and interns who reflect our values an, diversed mission.
Invest in technology, infrastructure, and equipment that enhance our efficiency, effectiveness, and safety.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
The below goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound and align with the mission and vision of Fostering Wishes.
Increase the number of foster children we reach by 20% by end of 2024
Initial focus will be to identify additional foster youth in CCC
Introduce new vocational scholarship program targeted at aging-out youth
Launch by January 2024
Minimum of 10 scholarships in 2024
Strengthen the collaboration with other nonprofit organizations and Introduce “AmplifyImpact Network” (or another name) a collaboration consortium of like-minded organizations to drive more impact/leveraging strengths of each org, with a minimum of 3 organizations by 2025.
Launch program for corporate engagement/sponsorship/co-match by the end of 2024
Community Engagement - increase participation of the community including businesses and donors by 20% by end of 2024 through awareness campaigns and local event participation
Volunteer engagement - increase volunteer participation by 50% (new volunteers and less attrition)
Operations - Establish rigorous operational processes to reduce complexity, increase ability to scale. This includes the following by H1 2024:
Rhythm of the business (RoB)
CRM system to manage relationships
Web enhancements
Automated marketing campaignsProject plan
Have Fun!
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have the volunteers to continue with our programs described above and the partners, agencies, local business, foundations, etc to fund the needs.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have provided approximately 10,000 presents worth more than $100,000, 600 duffle bags, $2500 in gift cards, and a collection of resources available to aging out children. We have touched over 3000 kids since 2017.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Fostering Wishes
Board of directorsas of 07/22/2023
Sabine Lemmo
Mia Leondakis
VMWare
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Not applicable -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
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