2018 Affiliate Awards Voting

Open voting period: 27 September to 12 October

Innovation in Fundraising Award

This award acknowledges an innovative and impactful campaign implemented by an affiliate that went above and beyond the standard methods of fundraising.

Please review the nominees below and then cast your vote for the Innovation in Fundraising Award at the end of the page.

Make-A-Wish: Wish Universe

Nominating Affiliate: Make-A-Wish Spain

Make-A-Wish Spain has a campaign through which we sell paper stars to companies in order to raise funds. Even though companies love this campaign, it has a few barriers that make its implementation complicated: logistic problems when having to distribute the stars among employees in different delegations, payment procedure, etc.

In order to overcome these difficulties, last year we decided to move our star campaign towards a digital environment. Having no budget, we convinced a communication agency to develop for us a “Wish Universe," an adaptable microsite where a company can have its own planet, and directly support a wish child.

The mechanism is easy. When a company “buys a planet” (at 3.000 €), a wish kid is allocated. Employees receive an e-mail from the company saying, “Houston, we have a wish to grant” and in just one click, they meet the child firsthand through a video presentation. They are then invited to send a support message to the child, along with a micro donation, which appears in the child’s universe in the form of a star. Stars make the planet and the child's life shine! An example: eulen.universoestrellas.com

The Wish Universe has a triple impact:

1. It provides emotional support to the wish child and his/her family, thus reinforcing the Wish Journey

2. It helps to raise direct funds from companies. It's easy, cheap to adapt and implement for each company. It creates a motivational atmosphere inside the company, fostering employee engagement and sense of belonging

3. It contributes to our Individual Donor Strategy, as employees leave their personal data, and we run a telemarketing campaign right after the wish to turn these one-time donors into regular donors

So far have developed only three Wish Universes, raising a total of 19.170 €, acquiring 10 new regular donors and making three wish kids really happy. Modest numbers so far, but its potential is big as a universe!

Christel Vansteelandt

Nominating Affiliate: Make-A-Wish Belgium-Vlaanderen

Big Mike is a huge piggy bank where people can put in coins or children have their picture taken, for a very small amount. It is then put on Facebook and seen by many people. One of our volunteers goes to public market places, parkings of event places , exhibitions of theme parks, etc.

Big Mike is transported on a trailer and is really big and impressive. He gets all the attention and gives us a lot of visibility. Between his arms, we put a plasma screen showing different videos of who we are, what we do and beautiful wish granting, as well the name of our partners/sponsors.

We hope not only to attract the attention for new fundraising actions, but also to recruit volunteers and, why not, maybe potential wish children who until that moment didn’t know of our existence and mission.

Make-A-Wish Hong Kong

Nominating Affiliate: Make-A-Wish Hong Kong

The team of eight created an inaugural 1-day Wish Carnival at the harborfront to celebrate Make-A-Wish Hong Kong's 20th Anniversary. The event drew nearly 9,000 attendances, 400+ individual and corporate volunteers, over HK120K donations, nearly 50 artistes and KOLs supporting the events and over 30 media clippings. A new audience group, family, was targeted, with 10+ family websites/blogs featuring the events.

Make-A-Wish at Schools

Nominating Affiliate: Make-A-Wish Portugal

We started this program in 2014, and it has been growing constantly year after year, not only considering the number of schools who’ve been participating, and consequently the number of students involved; but also the dimension of partners, raised funds and number of wish referrals.

In 2017/2018, we involved 225 schools from almost all districts of Portugal. 120 000 students spread Make-A-Wish’s mission and participated in the activities. We communicated with schools 20 wishes that were granted thanks to their donations. The total amount raised was 115 181€.

There are two main activities throughout the year: during Christmas (xmas) time with the Xmas Decoration contest and in April, with World Wish Day (WWD) celebrations. Last year, during the xmas activity that consists of the decoration of a school space with Make-A-Wish stars (1€), we raised approximately 91000€. From the WWD celebrations activity, which we named Blue Day at Schools, we invited all members of the school community to ask for three wishes while putting on a Make-A-Wish bracelet (1€). At the same time, all students and teachers were dressed in blue and sang Make-A-Wish’s Portugal hymn and some of them made a choreography.

Each member of the school community knows the impact of the activities. We communicate each month by email one wish that was granted thanks to the xmas contest or the WWD celebrations activity. From three to three months, we send three A3 posters to the school address. We also send certificates after the activities.

In 2017, this programme was recognized from the Ministry of Education as an important tool to incentivize the practice of citizenship and social responsibility.

There is one person in our team responsible for the whole program and its execution.

“You can make the school community to involve in such an intense way that we all get more united and motivated to do more and better! You are amazing people which fill us with pride and encourage us in a way that sensitizes our students to do good and think about others. And also encourage adults who are so busy with so many things that forget about solidarity.” - teacher’s testimony

View the Video Here.

Slo-Pitch for Kids

Nominating Affiliate: Make-A-Wish Canada

For the past 12 years, Slo-Pitch for Kids (SPFK) continues to support Make-A-Wish® Canada’s British Columbia & Yukon chapter with the annual slo-pitch event.

In 2018, $240,000 was raised bringing the grand total to over $1 million raised since 2007.

SPFK brings together up to 500 players across 34 teams to participate in the tournament each year in July. The teams that participate in the tournament hold individual team fundraisers throughout the year; everything from variety shows to silent auctions and more. Come tournament weekend, all of the money raised throughout the year goes into the collective SPFK fundraising pot.

During event weekend, SPFK donates funds from refreshments and raffle ticket sales to help raise the final fundraising tally even higher. What stands out most about this group is their continued dedication and passion for the Make-A-Wish mission. The same teams return almost every year for the event and they work together to make each tournament bigger and better. Not only are these people part of their individual slo-pitch teams, they also offer their support as volunteers and participants at other Make-A-Wish fundraisers and do an incredible job as ambassadors for the organization. SPFKers are now part of our chapter’s family. They are on our Board of Directors, our committees, they are volunteer wish granters and our champions in their communities.

Slo-Pitch for Kids Website: http://slopitchforkids.org/

2018 Video: https://www.facebook.com/MakeAWishBCYK/videos/1866231286767965/

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