In the next 20 minutes, a child will learn they have a critical illness. Twenty minutes later, another. As long as children face this devastating reality, they'll need WishMakers – the everyday people who take action to make wishes possible – to help give them a piece of their childhood back. Every day, Make-A-Wish grants 89 wishes globally, on average, because of WishMakers.
Historically, Make-A-Wish celebrated World Wish Day annually on April 29 – the anniversary of the first wish granted in 1980. But we knew we needed to do more.
While Make-A-Wish consistently scores over 90% in brand awareness and affinity, consideration to act in support of the mission (i.e. donate) is under 50%. Recognizing an opportunity to close this gap, we evolved World Wish Day into World Wish Month to build on existing momentum and satisfy the critical need for more WishMakers.
We established three internal goals to guide the creation of World Wish Month: (1) increase engagement and revenue from corporate partners, (2) increase alignment and collaboration across the enterprise (chapters and affiliates), demonstrating "one Make-A-Wish," and (3) inspire action among individual supporters, filling the pipeline to address mission critical needs.
Launched in 2024, World Wish Month is now the annual time when the Make-A-Wish community invites the world to join our mission. Our long-term goal is for World Wish Month to become a universally recognized annual platform that drives corporate revenue, feeds our donor pipeline and inspires engagement at every level.
This movement came to life through a 360-degree activation strategy designed to engage supporters wherever they are: local events, PR, social media, digital, advertising, PSAs, celebrity/influencer engagement, direct response, mini-campaigns, alumni involvement, corporate activation and broadcast/livestream events worked in tandem to create momentum, maximize reach and make participation seamless.
The campaign's creative embraced a bold, whimsical approach to show that it takes a village of everyday heroes to grant wishes. WishMakers were invited to participate in the shared creation of a mosaic image that visually represented how their engagement helps create something larger than themselves, and this content – including a series of videos featuring WishMakers – was shared across a range of mediums.
The campaign's rallying cry, "WishMakers Wanted," infused urgency across all collateral. Calls to action were strategically tied to key campaign dates (i.e. corporate activations, community events, etc.) and customized for chapters and audience segments, ensuring relevance across diverse channels. Where space allowed, a long-form message reinforced the deeper purpose: "As long as children face devastating critical illnesses, they'll be counting on WishMakers like you to create the hope and strength they need to fight."
We knew corporate partners would be the primary revenue drivers in this campaign, so we positioned World Wish Month as a "sponsorable property" with existing Make-A-Wish activations and investment(s) that partners could easily opt into rather than building something from scratch. We provided an easy umbrella CTA and “need” that partners could leverage with customers, consumers and employees. They could easily “plug and play” the campaign into their unique activations and CTAs; it could also be used in various scenarios to suit individual objectives and preferences, such as by partners who actively solicited donations or matched/ran cause marketing campaigns.
As a decentralized organization with 57 chapters in the U.S., we knew it would be a challenge to ensure all branches of our organization felt truly included in this activation. To combat this and secure buy-in from chapters nationwide, we created an umbrella campaign that offered customizable resources, including a comprehensive guide with an overview of national activation and PR plans, inspiration for chapter planning and fundraising, creative assets and other tips to build successful local activations. There was a great deal of communication required to educate team members, but it paid off – in 2025, 100% of chapters participated, versus 93% in 2024.
Expanding to a monthlong mission-focused effort required a shift in strategy – it was critical that we designed and implemented a community-driven model that could evolve and expand with every annual iteration. To ensure success, we evaluated our approach against six criteria: scalability, visibility, evergreen potential, shareability, mission understanding and community-building. Recognizing the need to "own" April as a key supporter period, we invested in both paid and earned media, as well as other channels/activations, to drive awareness and participation at scale.
This approach created a sense of urgency, inspiring immediate action and engagement, and laid the foundation for World Wish Month to become an annual, universally recognized campaign.
In 2024, the campaign’s inaugural year, more than 1 million WishMakers took action for wish recipients across the country. To kick off momentum, 100+ VIP supporters gathered in New York City, reinforcing the campaign's significance. 32 corporate partner brands participated, helping us exceed revenue goals by 18%. National paid and in-kind media (digital, social, radio and out of home) delivered 206M impressions. Earned media efforts drove 7,000+ placements, resulting in a staggering 3.7B potential impressions. On social media, 25 celebrity WishMaker testimonials fueled 40% of engagement, contributing to a total reach of 7M and 445K engagements across our social channels. The website saw a 51% engagement rate, reflecting strong audience connection and intent. And ultimately, the evolution of World Wish Day into World Wish Month inspired widespread adoption across the enterprise, with 54 U.S. chapters and 38 international affiliates aligning efforts under a unified campaign identity.
In 2025, we saw incredible success including 32M impressions and nearly 1M engagements across Make-A-Wish social channels and 100%-chapter participation. 22 corporate partners – including American Airlines, Red Robin, Royal Caribbean International, The Walt Disney Company, Topgolf, WWE and more – helped us exceed revenue goals by 23%.
By strategically pivoting from a one-day celebration to a month-long campaign, Make-A-Wish established a dynamic, ownable platform that strengthens brand equity, fuels revenue growth and deepens supporter engagement. We are now capitalizing on April's giving potential while continuing to improve upon a scalable foundation for long-term growth - ensuring our mission remains top-of-mind year after year.
