Quarterly Update

Dear Make-A-Wish Colleagues,

Closing FY 21

September 1^st marked the end of FY21 for us at Make-A-Wish International. It was a year of resilience, tenacity and innovation.

Resilience was shown in our capacity to resist and recover from the difficulties that the pandemic has brought into each of our lives. We have been in ‘recovery’ mode for much of the past year and a half, but have weathered the storm with patience and fortitude. Here, I see the tenacity in our organization – the strength shown by each and everyone of you in striving to achieve our mission of granting the wish of every eligible child in the face of extreme hardship. Then there is innovation, which you will remember as one of our three “i’s”(Innovation, Integration and Inclusion) . Innovation within Make-A-Wish is higher than perhaps at any time before. Our digital transformation is underway, and I can say that our Make-A-Wish family will come out of this pandemic in a position of strength, ready for the future. I thank and commend you all for your continued efforts.

Launching FY22

The strategic direction that was formed in FY21 was a good example of this innovation within Make-A-Wish. The ideas generated by the Think-Tanks helped shape our strategic imperatives: to Increase Fundraising, Strengthen our Affiliates, Continue Digital Transformationand Improve Inter-Connectedness. What is important, however, is how we adapt our direction moving forward – out of Covid. We must focus on the growth of the enterprise.

Achieving this will require us concentrating on these imperatives, especially fundraising. Steps toward this have already been taken - we are strengthening our fundraising department while enhancing our digital marketing and fundraising capabilities. Regarding other imperatives, moving from stabilizing our Affiliates to strengthening them is key. We are doing this through distributions from global campaigns, corporate partners and C-Fund. As for digital transformation, I think you know how important it is to the future of Make-A-Wish’s success.

At the beginning of the new fiscal year, we presented to the International Board our strategy and budget for our FY22 – in addition to our vision for the next 3 years, running through FY23-25. It will please you to know that the Board was unanimous in endorsing our growth plan. How we ensure business continuity, sustain pace of growth, capability and capacity of our Affiliates in the network will define our Affiliate Development and Support (ADS) strategic focus for FY22 and beyond.

Since we are still in a period of recovery, part of FY22 will be spent in this recovery and sustain phase. This means assisting in program recovery for wish numbers and sustaining the momentum for wish journey adoption. I will remind you however, that this phase is a transition. We need to start planning for re-emergence. Make-A-Wish is first and foremost a wish-granting organization, and it is vital to ensure that we grow the number and the impact of wishes to pre-pandemic levels.

Looking Ahead FY23-25

This will be our primary objective for FY23 - to Scale our program and make continuous improvements on existing programs. Several significant initiatives have already been identified to increase our impact and expand our mission outreach and delivery. A lot are included in out Think-Tank project list.

As we launch FY22, we are also gearing ourselves up for a post-covid future. The pandemic will not last forever, and when it is over, Make-A-Wish will be stronger. In line with this and our ‘digital obsession’, we are increasingly becoming more technology focused, we are increasingly becoming better at fundraising online and increasingly raising the standards of our program. I ask you to maintain this momentum and join me in bringing our vision for FY23-25 to fruition – to strengthen, grow and increase with the ambition to grant 20,000 wishes by year 2025.

Best wishes,

Dear Affiliate Community,

I begin this letter with a reflection of the life of our dear friend and colleague – Carole Hakko.

Carole was the founder of Make-A-Wish Turkey and served as a Make-A-Wish International Board member. I cannot understate the impact she has had on Make-A-Wish as a whole. She was an exemplary individual and a great friend. She was also a fighter, and battled pancreatic cancer for the last 2.5 years of her life until she tragically passed away on July 11^th. The contributions Carole made to this organization are vast, and the hole she leaves in our lives is just as large. It is my hope that we can carry her legacy and commitment to Make-A-Wish going forward.

I’d also like to welcome the newest member of our Board, Victor Nichols. Victor is a global executive and advisor with a history of diverse operating assignments. Though he was only voted onto the Board in September, he has already been involved with us via the Think-Tank idea sessions and project teams - which we hosted this spring/summer in preparation of our strategic planning. Before having officially started, he is already embodying the qualities we associate with Make-A-Wish. Please give him a warm welcome.

Moving on, while Covid is a reality and will probably be in our lives for a long time, we cannot stay in “defend and contain” mode. Within the constraints of this new reality, we MUST create a new “normal” and find ways to re-energize our organization in every respect. Fundraising, Wish Granting and Financial Liquidity - wherever we are falling behind- we must strive to get back to pre-pandemic levels, within the next 2 years, at the LATEST.

In our recent Board meeting, Make-A-Wish International presented an ambitious plan for growth and organizational development. The Board has approved this plan, while stressing the importance of alignment with our Affiliates. Each Affiliate must also develop and execute it’s own 3 year plans, which we hope will be bold and worthy of our vision.

Thank you,

Save the Date for the 2021 Leadership Conference!

We invite you to save the date for the 2021 Virtual Leadership Conference. Once again, we will convene virtually to celebrate, engage, and learn right alongside our peers from the entire Make-A-Wish enterprise. Additional information will be coming soon, for now mark your calendars for November 1-4, 2021 and plan to join us! Feel free to reach out to your Regional Directors for more information.

We are excited to announce that we have engaged with world-renown motivational speaker, Simon Sinek, in conversation our CEO, Luciano Manzo as they talk about leadership and motivation during uncertainty. This session will be on Tuesday, 2^nd November at 9am PST. Complete conference schedule (including Make-A-Wish America's sessions) coming soon.

Simon Sinek is a British-American author and inspirational speaker. He is the author of five books, including Start With Why and The Infinite Game. In 2009, Simon Sinek gave the talk “How great leaders inspire action” to an audience of 50 people in a small room at TEDxPugetSound. It quickly became the second most-watched talk on TED.com. We are all looking forward to welcoming Simon to the Make-A-Wish virtual stage!

Welcome the new Make-A-Wish International staff

April has joined the Marketing/Digital team at Make-A-Wish International from the Canadian Affiliate, where she worked as a fundraising manager in Western Canada. April has taken on the role of Gaming and Influencer Community Manager because it combines an area of fundraising she finds very innovative and exciting – streaming and digital fundraising - with her favorite hobby – gaming. With over 20 years in non-profit work, April has experienced many aspects of what it takes to be a successful charity and she is excited at the chance to have a truly global impact with Make-A-Wish International. She will be based out of Calgary, AB, Canada.

Arsalan has joined Make-A-Wish International as our new Administrative Office Assistant. He will provide support to the International SLT and take on special projects as assigned. Born and raised in Pakistan, Arsalan came to the Netherlands for his undergraduate degree, which he completed in summer 2020. Arsalan carries a strong desire to pursue humanitarian work and is knowledgeable about international affairs, politics, and history. He is also part Kashmiri. A key strength is his knack for storytelling. He will be based out of our Hilversum office and work closely with the SLT.

Warm Farewell to Make-A-Wish International Veteran, Avril Lee!

Please join us in thanking Avril Lee for her contributions to Make-A-Wish International and our Affiliates for the past 12 years!

It is with regret that we announce that after 12 years of service, Avril Lee, our regional director for Europe, will be leaving Make-A-Wish International at the end of October, to resume her legal career. Avril will be greatly missed for her wealth of historical knowledge about Make-A-Wish. We would like to thank Avril for her 12 years of exemplary work to help in the growth of Make-A-Wish International and its Affiliates. We wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors! In the meantime, please reach out to Luciano for any questions.

We have another team member leaving from the Technology department, Deb Papay. Deb has decided to return to the corporate sector and continue her passion for Salesforce. She will be missed! Feel free to contact Carly Galli with any questions.

We wish them both - all the best!

We are excited to be able to give the Affiliate community a year of Masterclass for FREE!

MasterClass is proud to partner with Make-A-Wish International to offer no-cost Annual Memberships to the entire MasterClass platform for one year. Use your mobile, desktop, or smart TV to access online classes taught by the best in arts & entertainment, writing, business, food, home & lifestyle, music, sports & gaming, and more. Launched in 2015, MasterClass is the streaming platform where anyone can learn from the world’s best. With an annual membership, subscribers get unlimited access to 100+ instructors and classes across a wide range of subjects, including Arts & Entertainment, Business, Design & Style, Sports & Gaming, Writing and more. If you haven't activated your FREE subscription, please contact your regional directors for more information!

Fendi Kids

We are pleased to share that this month we have secured a new global collaboration with the luxury fashion house Fendi for the sale of a limited-edition bespoke Make-A-Wish x Fendi t-shirt for their kids & baby clothes lines. The campaign will be launched in November 2021 and carry on all the way to end of April 2022, with hopes for an extension of the project depending on performance. The Fendi Kids stores are based in the UK, Italy (2 stores), Singapore, China (3 stores), Dubaï, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. We are in the midst of finalizing the details, so to the Affiliates concerned, watch this space, some more communications will be coming your way soon. This opportunity would not have been possible without Sune & Violantina from Make-A-Wish Italy who have connected us to Fendi's team and been wonderful in supporting the building of the project - thank you very much Sune & Violantina!

Apple – EMEA Network is Ready!

After many weeks of work in order to facilitate the setup of the local Business Accounts and their connection through the network, we are pleased to share that the EMEA Network is now in place with 12 Make-A-Wish Affiliates benefitting from the top tier discounts for every Apple purchases for tech-related wishes.

This is the first phase of our project, and we will be collecting feedback and evaluate the impact of this partnership by the end of the year to then explore its expansion to more European countries and more regions. We would like to highlight that this opportunity would not have been possible without the sharing of data and knowledge between Make-A-Wish International and the network of affiliates.

Indeed, the Apple partnership is a prime example of the positive outcome from sharing wish data and information about existing and past relationships between all offices. With this knowledge, Make-A-Wish International is able to build powerful proposals based on existing successes and compelling wish data which helps in convincing partners to connect the dots. Thank you to all of you for the immense efforts and we look forward to the next phase!

This is it, already: Fiscal Year 2021 is over for Make-A-Wish International! Again, it was a busy & challenging year, with the pandemic still impacting our activities: but we also were able to continue working and helping each other, making our brand stronger!

Affiliate Distributions

The last Affiliate distribution of the fiscal year is planned for end of September-early October, we want to finish the closing first to have all data.

FY 22 Strategy and Budget

Our Strategy and Budget for FY22 are done and approved by our Board. Finance's main priorities will revolve around:

§ Continuing to improve our financial planning process and internal controls – and helping affiliates when necessary

§ Maintaining our high level of accuracy and delivery for financial statements and process, especially keep our high percentage of Affiliate distribution and a clean Audit report

§ Improve the data collection at enterprise level to be able to present aggregated numbers

As always, we will also keep on supporting the other departments (Fundraising, Marketing, ADS, IT) in their day-to-day operations.

C-Fund Still Available

The C-fund has already been helping a few Affiliates to navigate through these Covid times: the fund is still open, and all information to apply can be found HERE. If no more application are received, the C-fund committee will review the purpose of the fund to be able to use any amount still available.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me (lqueromes@worldwish.org) or Silvia (accounting@worldwish.org).

The European Commission adopted its decision on 4 June 2021 concerning modifications to the standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to non-EU countries. As a consequence, the Framework Agreement signed in 2018 by the Affiliates and International will require some amendments. The International office will reach out to the Affiliates in the next few months with an addendum. If your Affiliate has a data protection officer (DPO) who would like to work with International on this subject, please contact us at privacy@worldwish.org, as soon as possible.