In our 2022 fiscal year, we granted 274 wishes to children with critical illnesses and assisted with 83 wishes from other chapters.

With fewer restrictions on travel and gatherings, we were thrilled to be able to send our wish kids on trips and grant their party and in-person celebrity wishes once again. The return of travel helped us to almost double our wish numbers from last fiscal year.

Thanks to the support of our donors, volunteers, and partners, we are well on our way to pre-pandemic levels of wish granting! 

Wishes are as unique as the child but generally fall into five categories: I wish to have, I wish to meet, I wish to go, I wish to be, and I wish to give.

Research shows that children who have wishes granted build the physical and emotional strength they need to fight a critical illness. This improves their quality of life and produces better health outcomes.

Demographic data by ethnicity is self-reported and optional for each wish family. We are committed to championing diversity, equity, and inclusion in wish granting and continue to serve a diverse span of ethnic groups.

We are a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that relies on the generous contributions of individuals, corporate partnerships, planned gifts, and grants to make life-changing wishes possible. In-kind donations of goods and services also help finance our mission. In normal years, we receive no federal or state funding. However, our grant line for the 2022 fiscal year reflects a COVID-19 PPP loan. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, our grants were received from private foundations and typically represented closer to one percent of our total funds raised.

Like many nonprofits, our program expense ratio was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a comparison, in FY19—the year prior to the pandemic—we used more than 75 percent of our funds in support of wish granting, far exceeding the program service allocation standards set forth by the nation’s leading charity watchdog groups, including the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Wise Giving Alliance.

Although our program expense ratio improved by 9 percent from FY21, we still had limitations in wish granting due to ongoing travel restrictions for cruises and international travel, supply chain and service shortage issues, and wish postponement related to COVID-19. It’s important to note that, as our spending on wish granting was reduced, we also increased our cash reserves during these fiscal years. This was done to ensure that, as restrictions ease and we are able to grant more wishes, we will have the funds to ensure that no child waits longer than necessary to receive a life-changing wish.