Message from our Chairman of the Board

Dear Make-A-Wish Colleagues,

Make-A-Wish International has undergone a remarkable evolution in the past two years. The change started with a relocation of our operations and a new CEO, and then in February of this year we celebrated our grand opening of our International office in Hilversum and another change in leadership. Then the year quickly moved into an incredible disruption – the Covid Pandemic.

One of the most profound changes over this time has been the richer understanding of - and a deeper commitment to – sustainability of the Make-A-Wish organization that has come into focus as we have refined – and redefined – how we execute our mission and remain relevant. This is a direct reflection of what it means to be resilient and innovative.

To reiterate, “the only reason we exist is to grant quality wishes to children with critical illnesses”.

What is clearer than before is that we cannot achieve success if we choose to pursue our goals independently. Rather, success requires that we consistently work together to achieve our goals through our integrated networks, and placing a high priority on moving us forward on multiple fronts, including investment in technology, authentic storytelling and innovative and creative wish granting to make the most impact as a global enterprise.

We held our Board meeting last week, and Luciano and his Senior Leadership Team presented the FY 21 Strategic Plan and Budget. This strategic plan was approved by the Board, and as a part of this process, our sustainability commitment is helping us agree on priorities, identify key success factors and support the allocation of resources to the initiatives that we all agree will carry us through and beyond this pandemic.

We feel better informed and confident that this strategic plan will help secure the funds we need in order to achieve the benefits of our choices which will help us emerge through this challenging time stronger than before.

2021 will not be easy, but it will be the foundation for continued success in the years to come. The intent and strategic purpose for Make-A-Wish International has not changed and was reiterated at our meeting: “Support and develop our Affiliates, individually, as a network and community, in order to ensure their long-term sustainability and growth, so to progress and enhance the number, the impact and the quality of wishes.”

This Board is committed to looking forward with a positive outlook and will support this organization in every way that we can.

Best wishes,

September Childhood Cancer Awareness Month campaign (CCAM)

First campaign of FY21, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month highlights the impact of cancer on children and their family and acknowledges the fight against cancer and cancer-related illnesses so many children face.

How is it relevant to Make-A-Wish^®?

• Cancer is the most common condition affecting Wish Children.

• Cancer touches almost every family, it can build relevancy in our communication.

• Cancer brings specificity to our critical illness mission, and our ask.

As a highlight of CCAM, we are celebrating the 500,000th wish of Make-A-Wish. Check out 'Karina's Kamp' in TOP NEWS Section of this newsletter - Join us to celebrate the organization's 500,000th wish - Sept 23!

New Website for Make-A-Wish International

We are in the process of redesigning our Worldwish.org website. Our goal is to increase and improve website conversions, personalization, visual appeal, interactivity, ease of use, mobile experience, and cultural diversity. This new Website will be created in an easy UI for internal management, scalability, responsiveness with all our social media and Salesforce integration. The Go Live goal is end of our Q1 - prior to our busiest fundraising 'holiday' season! After the launch, we hope to establish templates that Affiliates can customize to refresh their sites! Stay tuned...

New Donor Journeys

With our new email marketing tool we will be able to manage donor journeys through the entire donor lifecycle from introduction (acquisition), to engagement, as well as the opportunity to uplift mid-donors to recurring donations. Also, this will allow us to develop baseline metrics to increase effectiveness. Contact one of us in the Marketing & Digital Department for more information on this new tool! lzhao@worldwish.org or shopkins@worldwish.org

Digital 101 Toolkit

This toolkit includes all the basics of digital marketing and fundraising, the purpose is to equip all Affiliates with better digital fundraising capability. Click HERE to access the toolkit.

Storytelling Toolkit and Upcoming Workshop

Storytelling continues to be an important part of how we engage our supporters and showcase the impact of our mission. Due to fewer wishes being granted during COVID-19, capturing and sharing these valuable stories is more critical than ever to support fundraising needs.

Please read this valuable resource: the Storytelling Guidance Toolkit (includes Disney storytelling during COVID guidelines).

This toolkit provides guidance on our current organizational focus with storytelling, as well as tips and tricks on how to capture the best stories possible in an era of social distancing.

Later in the quarter, we will be hosting a Storytelling Workshop for both wish granters and marketing teams! Stay tuned for the date and more information on this workshop!

DISNEY PARTNERSHIP UPDATES

Holiday Campaign:

We're working with the Disney EMEA team on a holiday campaign which will launch in selected markets on the 9th November. The campaign will include various fundraising activations for Make-A-Wish, including the sale of a Mickey Plush, social media activation and a music single linked with Disney's brand campaign.

The main Disney markets activating are UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand. However, Disney will be launching social media activity in wider EMEA markets.

We will reach out to relevant Affiliates with updates, as plans progress.

Product Activations:

In addition to the campaign above, Disney continues to keep Make-A-Wish top of mind and has been working on two additional creative cause-marketing product activations launching internationally in parks, selected shops and online this holiday season. We will share final details re: timing and activation as plans are confirmed.

Please note the following updates about the Disney partnership are strictly confidential and for internal information only.

Disney - Skills-based Volunteering

Disney have kindly offered to put a call out for their staff to sign up for skills-based volunteering opportunities, supporting Make-A-Wish.

ACTION: If you have any specific projects you think would benefit from a skilled Disney volunteer, please email Elise Murray at emurray@worldwish.org by the 28th September. Please include a summary of the project, an outline of the skills required and the expected amount of time required from the volunteer.

If you have any questions about the Disney partnership, please contact Elise Murray, Corporate Alliances Manager at emurray@worldwish.org

The Theodore J Forstmann Charitable Fund

Make-A-Wish International is managing and reporting on a $1,000,000 grant over five years for India, Pakistan, Columbia and Peru. This funding will help to increase their wish granting capacity and to sustain that level beyond the foundation’s investment. To find out more about how we can work together to secure global grants please contact Twyla Jenner tjenner@worldwish.org

Scentsy Campaign Update: 1^st August -31^st January

Scentsy continues to work with us to spread joy and hope. We are currently involved in a charity cause warmer Dare to Dream, from 1 August 2020 to 31 January 2021. For every Dare to Dream Warmer sold, Scentsy will donate to Make-A-Wish to help grant wishes for children. We will be promoting our partnership throughout the Autumn/Winter and will provide you with tools to share the promotion. To date, Scentsy has raised over $200,000 for UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico and Make-A-Wish International.

If you have any questions about the Scentsy partnership, please contact fkearney@worldwish.org

Wish Cloud

We are excited to announce our newest member using the Make-A-Wish Cloud, Make-A-Wish New Zealand. We want to take a minute to thank the team in New Zealand for all their time and dedication to making this another successful onboarding! We look forward to working with you and hearing your feedback.

Fundraising Cloud

We are also actively working with Make-A-Wish Portugal and Make-A-Wish Israel to onboard the Fundraising Cloud. Both of these affiliates are using the Wish Cloud, so they will be able to see the full benefit of integrating wishes and fundraising efforts within the Make-A-Wish Cloud.

Volunteer Management

The newest Make-A-Wish Cloud module is now available, Volunteer Management! This module will allow you to manage your volunteers, from recruitment to retention. We look forward to working with several affiliates this year to onboard this new module.

Digital Focus

We continue to build a framework that is secure and scalable - focusing on digitally lead initiatives including a website redesign, an integrated email marketing platform and an enhanced P2P fundraising solution. With these connected data driven experiences, we are bringing actionable insights to end users. Intuitive, easy-to-use fashion is the name of the game and integration is the key to moving forward.

We look forward to the year ahead!

New IT Team Member

Please join me in welcoming Paul Ginsberg to Make-A-Wish International! Paul's background includes Salesforce administration with specialization in the non-profit industry. As an active volunteer, he writes for a variety of online publications and is heavily involved in the Dutch Salesforce community. We look forward to his contribution as a Salesforce Administrator!

Welcome to the Make-A-Wish International Team!

Starting in September, we welcomed Camila Triana to our team as the Regional Director of Affiliate Development and Support, Latin America.

Camila started conversations with Make-A-Wish International in 2014 to become an Affiliate, and founded Make-A-Wish Colombia to benefit the thousands of children that are diagnosed each year with a critical illness in Colombia. She was the CEO of Make-A-Wish Colombia until her transition to the International team in September 2020.

Camila’s background includes a degree in International Marketing and logistics Manager from Universidad de la Sabana, with an Executive Masters in Management from The London School of Economics and Political Science.

ACT Regions: Asia/Pacific

Board Governance Training

The first board governance training was conducted for the Purple ACT group on the 1^st September by our CEO, Luciano Manzo. There were a total of 16 participants in this group. For the recording of the session and the slides, please refer to this link. If you are interested in attending this session, please contact your respective regional directors.

This is it, Fiscal Year 2020 is over for Make-A-Wish International! Now is the time for year-end closing, never an easy exercise. But it also gives us the opportunity to reflect on the year that has passed: from a transition from the US to Europe, a new finance team, a new Planning & Reporting process, trying to overcome a pandemic situation. This has definitely been a busy and challenging year!

Finance Toolkit Is Coming Soon!

We have updated the Finance Toolkit, it should be available very soon to all Affiliates.

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 21 Budget

Our Strategy and Budget for FY21 are done and Finance's main priorities will revolve around:

• Continuing with our financial planning process and trying to help Affiliates develop theirs

• Maintaining our high level of accuracy and delivery for financial statements, especially keep our high percentage of Affiliate distribution

• Supporting the other departments (Fundraising, Marketing, ADS, IT) in their day-to-day operations

Let’s all keep up the good work for our next fiscal year: future is still challenging, but we will continue to work and help each other, make our brand strong and grant wishes!

As usual, do not hesitate to reach out to me (lqueromes@worldwish.org) or Silvia (accounting@worldwish.org) if you have any questions.

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, As part of their FY20 support, our long-standing partner, Disney, generously contributed to this fund!