Make-A-Wish September-May

Anwar Chagollan, Destanie Nieto, Kimberly Larsen

Fall 2014December 5, 2014

Situation

SWOT

Further ResearchGoalsObjectivesTargetsStrategies,Channels,MessagesVideoProductionProcess

Logistics

Blogs

Survey

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Table of Contents

Situation Make-A-Wish’s Mission Statement:

Make-A-Wish grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medial conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.

The problems that our plan focuses on are the two big misconceptions that surround Make-A-Wish Central and South Texas. One is that many people don’t know there is an office in Austin that is funded locally not nationally and two, there is a misconception that the organization only grants wishes to kids that are terminally ill.

What We Learned:

After getting to interview Lauren Bremer, the director of communications for Make-A-Wish, we learned so much about the foun-dation that it was pretty overwhelming. First off Bremer told us about the misconceptions that the foundation were facing. We learned that many people believe that the foundation is funding nationally and do not realize that there is a Make-A-Wish office in Austin. Each chapter of Make-A-Wish is funded locally with receive no help from government funding. The Central and South Texas office in Austin oversees 40 counties from the Killeen area down to Laredo. This chapter of the non-profit grants about 230 wishes a year and it takes an average $5,000 to grant one wish. Additional it takes six to nine months to turn around a wish.

The second misconception that she brought up was that people think the nonprofit only grants wishes to kids that are terminally ill. When in fact they grant wishes to those with life-threatening medical conditions, which is something completely different. We found out that 60 to 70 percent of wish kids go on to live full lives.

Another big surprise we learned was that the Greek organization, Chi Omega’s philanthropy is Make-A-Wish. The money that the sorority raises at their events go directly to the foundation, and they even host events that university students can participate to help donate to the nonprofit.

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SWOT Analysis

* Is a nationally known foundation *Serves children in 40 Texas counties*Every dollar received goes directly to granting a wish * Well established (been around for the past 30 years) *Nonprofit gets various media coverage

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

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*Misconception that the local chapter is funded nationally *Many people believe that wishes are only granted to kids who are terminally ill *People don’t realize that there is an office in Austin *Often associated with only celebrities and theme parks *Don’t have enough funding to grant every kid’s wish

*Wishmakers on Campus *Be more present on various social media sites*On campus brand ambassadors raise awareness about Make-A-Wish and the Wishmakers on Campus program *Advocacy from organizations that get involved *Have the opportunity to help the celebrities’ and organizations’ reputation and image

*There are a lot of non-profits in the Austin area that “compete” for the same attention and donations.*Children are able to seek assistance from other nonprofits and organizations *Bad celebrity reps/associations *Parents who are unhappy that their child has been rejected by the organization for some reason. *Having prior donors and sponsors decide to put their money elsewhere

Further Research To find further research on the beliefs of our target audience about Make-A-Wish Central and South Texas, we conducted a survey on Qualtrics. The survey was distributed across multiple academic Face-book groups and gained a sample size of 46 respondents. From the results, we discovered that 63 percent of the sample believes that Make-A-Wish is funded nationally and 60 percent did not realize there was an office in Austin. Which supports the claim that people have misconceptions on what the foundation is really.Additionally, 40 percent of the participants believed that only 10-20 percent of wish kids go on to live full lives.

Along with Bremer’s interview, we had the opportunity to speak with Taylor Griffin, fellow University of Texas student and the philanthropy chair for Texas Chi Omegas. She gave us more insight on how the sorority donates to the nonprofit, as well as a student’s perspective on why it’s important and fulfilling to be a wishmaker.

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Strategies, Channels, Messages

As a group we agreed that our goal for our video was to inform University of Texas students that there is a Make-A-Wish office in Austin that relies on local donation and funding. Therefore, we began our video by showing their local offices and introducing Lauren Bremer, the director of communications of Make-A-Wish. She immediately informed our audience of their efforts to support children and their families in the Austin area with the money that is given to them from individual donors. We also decided to make the video relatable to other University of Texas students, by praising current efforts from other student organizations on campus, such as Chi Omega, that organize silent auctions where all the proceeds go to the non-profit. Since our target market is tech-savvy, college students, we knew that if we incorporated students from a major university nearby, the video would easily be spread on Facebook or other social media outlets. This would potentially raise awareness of the Central and South Texas offices by 70% and increase donations among students by 30%.

Goals, Objectives, Target Audience

Goal:Inform our audience that there is a Make-A-Wish office in Austin that relies on local funding. Objective: Raise awareness of the Central and South Texas Make-A-Wish office by 70 percent.Increase donations and involvement among college students by 30 percent.

Target Audience:UT Students and clubs and organizations on campus

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Video Production Process

Before getting right to work with Make-A-Wish, the team had some obstacles such as scheduling conflicts and other diffculties. It would have saved us some time and we proba-bly would not have missed a lot of the Make-A-Wish events that occurred while we were waiting for the other non-profit to respond. However, once Make-A-Wish agreed to work with us, we quickly scheduled an appointment with Lauren Bremer, communications director at the Austin location. We began our video but showing our audience their location and then followed that with hard-hitting facts about the nonprofit. First we highlighted the Wishmakers On Campus program at University of Texas that encourages col-lege students to be involved in the organization which led us to interviewing, Univeristy of Texas and Public Relations stu-dent, Taylor Griffin. She is the philantropy chair for Chio Ome-ga and helped coordinate during Chio Omega’s silent auction where all proceeds go to the Austin Make-a-Wish location.

The second challenge we faced was being unable to follow a child’s wish being granted. In hindsight it makes sense because it’s an invasion of privacy especially since is such an emotional and touching part in the child’s life. We applaud the organization’s decision to protect that. During the inter-view, Lauren expressed her disappointment when families turn away from the organization due to a common misconception, so we aimed our efforts at informing our audiences with facts that specifically addressed it. We informed our audience of the application process and specified which kids were eligible for the program. Finally, we ended our video with a link to the organizations website that led families or potential donors directly to the organization to encourage community involvement.

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Logistics

Since our video is aimed at college students, the best time to use the video would be during the fall and spring semesters. We would schedule the campaign two weeks into the semester to wait for the students to settle in. Since there is no specific event dates targeted, the video is timeless and could be used for various academic years to come. Besides cost incurred in video camera rental, there is no additional costs that would need to be taken to execute our plan.

In today’s age of social media, the video would receive even larger exposure and reach different social circles with the easy click of a mouse to retweets or share our video. Using social media and online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, You-Tube, Vimeo, and even Instagram, we can launch our media to our followers. After reaching our initial followers through our video, our social reach circle would expand thanks to people sharing the video with their peers. Extra employees, volunteers or paid brand ambassadors would not be needed for further exposure of the video exposure.

There would be various measures to see the outcomes of the plan. One of them would be to see the discrepancies in the amount of donations before and after the release of the video. We would then continue to see if the video keeps getting peo-ple to donate. Another measure would be to count how many views the video gets as semesters go by. With this, we can get a quantifiable measure on educating students that there is Make-A-Wish office here in Austin. Another measure is to count the philanthropic efforts done by various student organizations to raise money for the local Make-A-Wish. We would measure if there is an increase in these efforts after the initial video, and then through its continuity.

Link to video: http://vimeo.com/113686037

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Blogs

Making the Wish HappenStudent Volunteer, Kimberly Larsen

When I first started working with Make-A-Wish, I realized how little I knew about the organization. The only thing I was certain about the nonprofit was that the organization’s main focus was kids. After extensive research, I started learning more and more about everything the organization had to offer to our community.

It was not long until it became evident that the non-profit’s mission was a very respectable one. It serves as an outside support system, or second home, for the kids and their families who find themselves going through some hard times. The organization is constantly finding new and exciting ways to encourage children, be-tween the ages of 5 and 12, to keep smiling while they continue fight-ing.

The Make-A-Wish foundation, in central Texas, was to see im-provement in spreading awareness of the application process to fami-lies in the area. When I interviewed Lauren Bremer, communications director for Make-A-Wish, she expressed her concern of a very common misconception. She has seen families to turn away from the organization because people believe a child needs to be giv-en a “death sentence” to be considered eligible for the program.

After our interview, there was no doubt in my mind that we had to dedicate a segment of our video to address one of Lauren’s biggest concerns. Facts show that 70% of the kids move on to live full and healthy lives after Make-A-Wish and if parents were properly informed of this, they would most likely be more willing to consider the organiza-tion.

Lauren also shared that the nonprofit did not receive any gov-ernment funding, which made it hard for them to make ends meet. The organization is fueled by local or individual donations. In the past, they have had plenty of volunteers during each event, however the organi-zation needs help meeting the minimum requirement of raising $6,000 to $7,000 to grant a wish of a single child.

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Blogs Because Make-A-Wish needed more local donations, we tai-lored our video to encourage more student organizations from the University of Texas to donate to the organization. We did so by prais-ing student groups, like Chi Omega, that currently support the organi-zation efforts through yearly fundraising auctions. All of the proceeds, which last year happened to be over $30,000, went to the local offices here in Austin. Through their example, we tried inspiring other students like them to participate.

The organization’s 30-year success in gaining loyal supporters showcases how the organization has touched the hearts of so many. We can only hope that our video reaches out to those in wanting to help so that another kids wish can be granted.

Before I started working on the video for a service learning class, Public Relations Techniques, at the University of Texas at Austin I figured I would bawl from stories we would hear about the wish kids. I also thought I had a pretty good understanding of how the Make-A-Wish foundation worked and whom they helped. I assumed that the foundation just granted wishes for children that were terminally ill, but boy was I wrong! While I might still shed a tear or two, at least it isn’t out of sadness, but out of the pure joy this foundation brings to chil-dren across Central and South Texas.

After sitting down with the Director of Communications Lauren Bremer, our group found out that 60 to 70 percent of the wish kids they help go on to lead full, happy, healthy lives. This wasn’t the case 30 years ago when the Austin chapter first started but because of ad-vancement in treatment and technology the foundation is now able to help more kids. While the doctors take care of the physical part, Make-A-Wish takes care of the mental and emotional aspect, which is just as important.

“Just like the doctors are treating them with medicine, we like to think that the wish in some way is a form of medicine because it’s giv-ing them something to look forward to,” said Lauren.

Green House Over Mickey MouseBy Destanie Nieto, Student Volunteer

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Blogs It was great hearing that the majority of wish kids go on to live a long, happy life. It was even better finding out that some wish kids give back. Lauren told us a very touching story about a young boy with an extremely rare medical condition. A symptom from his condition is onset morbid obesity. He had to teach himself to eat healthier be-cause his body doesn’t recognize when to stop. His wish was to have a green house and a picking farm where he could grow his own fruits and vegetables, so he could further learn how to eat healthier and share with his community.

Wish experiences changes the lives of the kids Make-A-Wish serve. It’s great to know the nonprofit is helping out so many kids, not just terminally ill. I find it incredible to see kids choosing to give back to the community instead of wishing for a trip to Disney World or something. Making a change in not only their lives but in those that surround them.

Being constantly exposed to an organization’s message can make you believe you know the inside and outs of them. I genuine-ly thought I knew what Make-A-Wish was and how they operated. I thought Make-A-Wish was contacted when terminal diseased children on their last days, to grant them a wish, for example, attend a concert, meet a celebrity, or visiting Disneyland. I had the whole system wrong. When we decided to work with Make-A-Wish, I thought it would be an easy project since it was a well known national organization and that it would be a rewarding experience. Personally, I like to help vari-ous cancer organizations since I have family members that have suc-cumbed to the deadly disease. I am even a registered Be The Match donor for blood cancer patients. I was really excited for the chance to work with Make-A-Wish. My teammate Kimberly and I drove to their offices, which was inside a Chase building, to interview Lauren Bremer, Make-A-Wish’s communications director. We talked to her about the ideas we had for the video and what type of content it should have.

Finding BlissBy Anwar Chagollan, Student Volunteer

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Blogs As she continued talking about the organization, I discov-ered that my preconceived notions about Make-A-Wish were wrong. I learned a lot of things that day. I learned Make-A-Wish isn’t just a big national organiza-tion. They have various headquarters in each state. The one here in Austin is responsible for 40 counties. It takes about $5,000 to fulfill someone’s wish. Not all of the kids pass away either.

The most heartwarming thing is how unselfish some of the dreams are. I figured most children would want to meet a celebri-ty or go to a theme park. One child, Sergio, suffered from an ex-tremely rare disease that makes him gain weight uncontrollably. His wish was to be able to have a green house to grow produce for his health and to also educate the community about living a healthier lifestyle. As Lauren talked about her experience with Make-A-Wish and her journey from intern to communications director, you could see she was full of pride. Her job was to bring smiles and once in a lifetime memories to not only the ill children but also the families. Lauren found bliss in her job and she aided me in finding it too.

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Survey

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