Make-A-Wish International Covid-19 Response
Challenge
The purpose and strategy of Make-A-Wish International is to support and develop our 39 Affiliates countries, individually, as a network –and as a community, in order to ensure their long term sustainability and growth, so to progress and enhance the quantity, the impact and the quality of wishes.
The international central office has undergone 2 years of leadership and change-management transition, even before Covid hit the scene in 2020. We moved our operational head offices from Phoenix, Arizona to The Netherlands in 2019, and have had 2 new CEOs in that short time frame. Our Affiliates had shared their challenge of working with an American based entity, not only time zone issues, but cultural differences were apparent through the years. The federated model of our organization also seemed to challenge them and brought about a lot of mistrust as to what value they received in return for their dues. The TRUST factor was essential to our success, not only in building our strategic capacity – as our main purpose states – but it was hindering our growth, as well as theirs.
With the hiring of our second CEO in 2 years, his aim was to rebuild that missing ingredient of TRUST with the Affiliate leadership and community. Then Covid hit one month after he started. But, he saw this as an opportunity!
When the global pandemic began to affect our mission by forcing us to cancel programs, wish activities, events, etc… The impact was, without a doubt, at global enterprise level, and we needed to act and respond to the challenge at the enterprise level to ensure that we did whatever it took to protect and preserve our organization, at the international and local level. The CEO called for the support of everyone. Our goal was to leverage the strength of the network, work as one, and support each other, so that we could mitigate the impact of this unexpected threat.
Actions
Make-A-Wish International immediately established a Crisis Management Unit (CMU) which was made up of CEOs from diverse time zones, culutures, languages, ethnicities from Peru, Greece, Israel, Ireland, and New Zealand - representing Europe, Middle-East, APAC, LATAM.
The CMU had very clear objectives:
- Situation Review
- Impact Analysis
- Definition & Recommendation of Internal/External Communication Plan
- Definition of Contingency/Containment
- Remedial Actions
- Ongoing Monitoring
We asked the collaboration of everyone in being available for conference calls, replying promptly to emails, supply required data, and ensuring that it was reliable.
Not only did the enterprise respond, they began to build that TRUST that was lacking for so many years. The main workstreams that evolved from this effort identified three work-streams to accelerate and produce some tangible resources and guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 3 areas of focus were:
- Internal Management How do we speak to staff and keep volunteers engaged Share knowledge, case studies Cost containment measures
- Innovation Let's think creatively on how our 'new normal' could work Adapt new ideas on how to keep donors engaged How wishes were going to be granted – bring the wish to the kids What can we work differently and still focus on our mission
- Finance Create forms of financial support Decide the governance, attributes, rules for asking
Each of these Work Streams worked within three Domains:
Global
For things that will work globally, and can be applied regardless of status, maturity and size of Affiliate.
Local
Things that need to be “customised” given local profile of Affiliates.
Specific
To be applied to those who are in particular status given the current situation.
Quote
The achievements of our CMU were numerous and impactful! The organization was stabilized, innovative wishes continue to take place, the C-Fund for Affiliates in need is making an instant impact, and most importantly, the level of TRUST of the international central office has increased tremendously.