Dear Colleagues,

I am inspired on a daily basis by stories of people caring for loved ones, making an impact to those in need and striving to do the right thing in their communities, and all of this in the face of daily stressors caused by the global pandemic….wait a minute, all of you at Make-A-Wish do this every day, even before the pandemic! Thanks to all of you for keeping the mission foremost in our constituents’ lives, even if it’s virtually!

We create and share this Quarterly Update so you can keep your hand-on-the-pulse of our global effort, accomplishments and timely announcements. I want to announce some important dates and conference changes so you can adjust your calendars and feel secure that the health and safety of our staff and boards is paramount in our planning.

Please save the date on your Zoom calendars for our next virtual CEO Summit on 18-19 May. We have sent an announcement about the Think-Tanks for planning FY 22 and beyond. These Think-Tanks will be key to helping us steer the direction and strategic imperatives that will advance us for the next 3-5 years, as we remain aware that we will still be facing some restrictions, limitations and challenges that could become structural. The CEO Summit will be a culmination of these Think-Tanks and provide the longer-term roadmap for the next phase of our growth and challenge us to deliver on new and innovative ambitions.

As for the Annual Leadership Conference in November, we have been carefully monitoring the current conditions related to the Coronavirus, and just as the health and safety of our wish kids is paramount, so is that of our employees. We have made the thoughtful decision to shift the 2021 Annual Leadership Conference to a virtual event and postpone the in-person conference and celebration to 2022.

Make-A-Wish America and Make-A-Wish International will be hosting the virtual conference November 1-4, 2021 (final dates tbc) which will be similar to what we did last year in October.

In the meantime, we will continue to exchange ideas, explore new ways of doing things, celebrate our mission and connect virtually. We are also foreseeing another CEO Summit in February 2022, hopefully IN-PERSON (keeping our ‘wishful’ thinking alive!) Something to look forward to!

Planning, strategizing and discussion groups are all essential to our growth, but if you read the Business Intelligence (BI) report below, you will notice that wish granting is dropping by 40-50%! Let’s all continue to embrace technology and be creative as we continue to push our life-changing mission forward by granting more wishes.

We will be celebrating World Wish Day next month which is our annual celebration of Chris Greicius’ wish which inspired the Make-A-Wish movement which today, encompasses the shining stars all around us—the people and organizations who have the power to bring renewed hope to children, families and communities who need it most. Together, they have helped Make-A-Wish transform countless lives over the past 41 years.

April 29^th is our ‘birthday’, so let’s celebrate and lift the global consciousness by creating hope around the world with the message “Don’t Wait for Hope, Create it!” Helping more kids find hope is something we all have the power to do!

We have many opportunities before us. We need to continue to work together to bring these to fruition and see the tide rise, which will raise all ships! We will continue to drive change and to think about how we define success through the impact we are making, alongside growth and innovation. Our attitudes and actions matter. Our wishes matter.

Best wishes,

Dear Affiliate Community,

Last year, we had to implement a short-term ‘emergency’ strategic plan by adjusting our resources and deliverables to meet the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Even though uncertainty continues, it is time to begin to turn our attention to the future. Luciano and the team will be reaching out through Think Tanks and the CEO Summit to engage your collective experiences, insights and innovation to forge ahead.

To stay relevant, we MUST continue to grant wishes.

Today, leadership is more critical than ever. As leaders, we need to collectively continue to reinforce and build a resilient organization. Meeting face-to-face this year will continue to be challenging, but we must not allow it to deter us from our mission.

The Board understands and empathizes with the stress and pressures that everyone is facing. We are here to support you as much as possible. I also want to appeal to the Affiliate Boards to support and encourage your teams to lean on you to help exploit local opportunities or cooperate to explore them at the regional or even global levels.

If I were to select three priorities for the foreseeable future, they would be:

1. Continue to drive the mission values and unified culture of Make-A-Wish

2. Fundraising

3. Wish Granting

April 29^th is quickly approaching, and the anniversary of our founding is certainly a time to celebrate! Let’s make this year’s World Wish Day a resounding success!

I am encouraged by the roll-out of the vaccine worldwide, which gives me hope that we will be ‘seeing’ you very soon!

Best regards,

We are now granting wishes in North Africa!

The Affiliate Development and Support committee has recently granted permission to our UAE Affiliate to grant wishes in Egypt (in addition to Jordan and Yemen). Stay tuned for more updates as we bring you our first wish story from the continent!

Welcome!

Please welcome Deb Papay as a new addition to the Technology and Innovation team! In her role of Senior Business Analyst, she will be assisting the Affiliate network and our International team with technical solutions, onboarding, training, and system support. She is also a certified Salesforce Administrator with 12 years of CRM experience in corporate financial management working for companies such as Lexis-Nexis and Premier Health. Deb resides in Ohio with her husband and two children. She enjoys hiking, biking, geocaching and traveling in her free time. Welcome, Deb!

New Fundraising Team Members

Please welcome Aliénor Descours de Guernon and Elina Nesimioglu to our Fundraising team!

Aliénor has joined the Corporate Alliances team and will be primarily focused on developing new corporate opportunities. Alienor is based in Singapore and has a vast of experience of developing and managing partnership in the not-for-profit sector. Alienor will be responsible for creating new and dynamic partnership opportunities across the world and will be working closely with the Affiliate network and the Regional Directors.

Elina has joined as our new Fundraising Database and Supporter Care Manager. Elina will be focused on our data management, building relationships with our donors and provide high quality donor stewardship. Elina will be based at the International office in Hilversum, Netherlands.

Please join me in welcoming Alienor and Elina to the Make-A-Wish Team!

Fairmont Hotels

Fairmont partnership was due to launch in May 2020 however due to the Coronavirus the external launch was be postponed. We now have confirmation from Fairmont that we will be externally launching the partnership from June 2021. So please watch this space and be ready to brief your marketing teams, to support the launch of this partnership later in the year.