Make-A-Wish Greater Los Angeles, Inc

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 critical medical condition and produce positive, hopeful mindsets that outlast the illness. The organization's wish-granting activities accomplish this by augmenting traditional medicine, impacting each child's emotional state and the family unit - the child's primary support structure. 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 Greater Los Angeles has completed the strategic plan for the organization's next three fiscal years. In this plan, we are focusing on four pillars: 1) brand management, 2) fundraising effectiveness, 3) talent development and 4) operational effectiveness. 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 Board of Directors. 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. Brand management entails spreading awareness of the need for wishes. To do this, we will concentrate on defining and articulating the "power of a wish" and the impact of that wish on our communities. We will upgrade our online presence and further develop our methods of communicating our mission into 21st Century models of interactive multimedia and storytelling. Additionally, we will continue to leverage our strong relationships with the entertainment and sports industries to assist us in granting wishes and telling our story. To fund more wishes, Make-A-Wish Greater Los Angeles will continue its focus on developing fundraising programs that honor the philanthropic desires of our individual and corporate donors. We will take a donor-centric approach and implement new technologies and infrastructure to enhance the giving experience through a Board-driven culture of philanthropy. In the area of talent development, we will continue our efforts to enhance the capabilities and skills of our leaders through specific leadership development programs. We will also continue to upgrade and reconfigure systems that support our fundraising and communications initiatives. Additionally, we are in the middle of an ongoing study that is providing quantitative measures of the outcomes and overall impact of wishes. This information is providing us with findings to share with our constituents, and serving as a baseline measure to inform us of our progress toward the realization of our organizational vision and strategic goals.

Make-A-Wish Greater Los Angeles employs 25 paid staff members. Collectively, we work to enhance the organization's wish-granting activities and fundraising acumen. Approximately 500 trained volunteers assist in providing the wish-granting experience and supporting the chapter in other capacities, including Board leadership, fundraising and event management, and other work that is vital to our organization. We also partner with 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.

On April 1, 1983 the Los Angeles chapter received its charter and granted its first wish that month to 11-year-old Gary from Ventura.The simple "I Wish to Have…a VCR" was accompanied by a year of free video rentals. More than 34 years later, the chapter has granted over 9,600 wishes.