Objective
The key purpose for the Make-A-Wish Foundation is to grant the different desires of children experiencing life-threatening illness, an aspect that gives them hope and joy in life. The organization helps to save the lives of children between the age of two and a half to eighteen years and their respective families with the burden of enriching their life experience. The rationale for the experience is a belief that through the concept, children in such conditions and their family are released from the immense stress and filled with hope in life that will surpass their illness. The foundation achieves the above objectives through a range of set strategies that are in harmony with energizing the family, as well as the kids to fight the illness. The long-term goal of the organization is to ensure that every child's wish is revealed and to help more people over the years through the participation (Ourpedo Plans, 2015).
Strategies
For the next three years, the organization will base its respective business operations in the following pillars that will guide towards accomplishing its individual goals.
• Brand management
• Fundraising Effectiveness
• Talent development
• Operational effectiveness
The above initiations will help guide the organization in achieving its set goals with a periodic reporting on the progress of each activity. Moreover, the organization management holds that the above strategies will enable it to realize its set vision in meeting the respective needs of the kids. Brand management as will be used in the study indicates awareness of the need for individual wishes put across by children from various communities. The organization will plan on how to define the different aspirations and the impact of the same on communities. However, as a marketing strategy to reach more people from different societies, the organization plans to enhance its communication strategy by introducing online services, multimedia use and embracing storytelling. However, to experience more awareness of the scheme, the foundation will involve itself in leveraging good relations with different stakeholders such as the entertainment and sports industries in granting wishes (Owens, 2010).
However, for the organization to enhance its capacity of funding wishes, the program managers plans to conduct more fundraising programs in the future that are in harmony with the corporation mandate of impacting positively to communities. However, to enhance on advancing innovation, the organization plans on embracing the donor-centric approach as it will help improve the giving experience practiced by the group. For the case of talent improvement, the group plans to develop the capabilities and skills of their respective leaders through various programs put in place. Through the Make-A-Wish University, the organization will be in a position to train its staff and numerous volunteers on how various operations of the organization are carried out such as granting, fundraising and efficient governance. Moreover, to experience effective management of the organization, the firm intends to embrace the practice of best practices and innovation so as to achieve efficiency (Gibbons et al., 2015). The above strategies will save the institution a lot of funds as it will reduce the operational costs hence more money for granting the many wishes. One of the programs that will be considered to ensure that the objective is attained includes implementation of the Make-A-Wish Suite, which is a useful technique used to serve the purpose.
Organization capabilities
The organization has over 1000 paid employees who work collectively to achieve the organization's goal of wish-granting operations and fundraising. Moreover, the organization has about 61 chapters that are committed to enhancing the necessary human capital that is needed to achieve the organizational mission. However, to adequately meet the increasing number of wishes from various organizations, it is imperative to note that the organization has an added advantage of using the volunteers' services. Make-A-Wish America is in partnership with different corporations in the country who help the firm in meeting its respective goal efficiently as required. For example, the organization has a long-term relation with Macy's, which has a significant impact on the organization as it helps the firm in conducting fundraising programs and creating more awareness. Apparently, the group is renowned for partnering with different celebrities and musicians across the globe, which in turn supports the organization in its efforts to meet their respective needs.
Progress evaluation plan
Make-A-Wish utilizes various approaches in its effort to measure progress in achieving its vision of ensuring that every child's wish is met. However, the organization intends to use disease incidence data, which will help it get a clear picture of the progress in meeting the regional development. The concerned stakeholders regularly evaluate the number of wishes that come from each pipeline and the time the individual wishes take before they are fulfilled. Other aspects of the evaluation of the liquidity and asset management or assessment of the organizational efficiency help stakeholders to monitor the health of their firm. Therefore, it is imperative to appreciate the fact that there are various benchmarks that are used by the above non-profit organization in the consistent evaluation of the performance progress. The different criteria, therefore, assist the team to understand the trend and best practices to be embraced for efficiency purposes. Moreover, Make-A-Wish utilizes a systematic process to collect the data and has also set in place a program to assess the impact they extend to the immediate family and community (Chaola et al., 2015).
Current status
In the organization's strategic plan, the firm expects to accomplish more grants than the previous year, a feature that has proved worth in its effort to meet organizational goals. However, based on last year's plan, the organization was not able to meet its target of making different kids eligible for the wish but expects to surpass the goal in the future. Since its establishment, the organization has existed for about 33 years and has experienced a remarkable success as far as branding of its value is concerned. Moreover, in the U.S, it is ranked top ten in the classification of non-profit organizations that have proved successful in the establishment of their brand in the market.
Regarding talent development, the organization has also proved successful as it has enhanced staff e-learning, which is an initiative that addressed the different performance gaps experienced by the management and finally refined the various strategic goals put in place in achieving its set goal. As mentioned earlier, the organization has over 61 chapters which operate in different populations and regions, an aspect that has made the organization to recognize the fact that various communities require unique approaches of engaging donors and volunteers.
However, the group plans to benchmark different aspects that it will use to measure progress and adopt best practices through which it will achieve its stated vision. Research studies have indicated that wishes act as emotional strength to children and contribute positively towards the ability of a child to cope with an illness. Moreover, the strategy used by Make-A-Wish help to unite not only the family members in developing ties to deal with the disease but also the community in general.
The rivalry as a fundamental aspect of the competitive theory is essential for the management of Make-A-Wish Foundation as through the concept; organizations can develop a compelling competitive advantage. Some of the aspects that contribute to the gaining competitive advantage for the company include an improvement in the product features and setting in place an effective distribution channel. Make-A-Wish organization capitalizes on different strategies to make it excel in impacting positively to various communities, an aspect that makes it be appreciated in the region. This initiative also helps it to counter the aspect of substitute threats as revealed in the model. Moreover, as revealed by the study, the organization has a broad range of stakeholders ready to support the firm in achieving its set goals in different ways. Therefore, adequate analysis of Make-A-Wish Foundation using the Michael Porters model is essential for developing competitive benefits for the organization.
In conclusion, we can assert that there are different goals considered by the Make-A-Wish organization, and acquired over a period of three years (Make-A-Wish, 2013). The goals include both long-term and short-term depending on different issues and the condition for which they are to be met. Some of the key initiatives that help guide the above organization include attainment of brand management, having an effective fundraising program, talent development and finally, realizing an efficient operation system.
References
Chaola, P., Pratoom, K., & Raksong, S. (2015). A Conceptual Model of Strategic Management Renewal Orientation and Firm Performance. Allied Academies International Conference. Proceedings of the Academy of Strategic Management (ASM), 14(2), 18–31.
Gibbons, P., Scott, S., & Fhionnlaoich, C. M. (2015). Strategic management: A perspective on the development of the field of strategic management and the contribution of the Irish Journal of Management. The Irish Journal of Management, 34(1), 22-41.
Make-A-Wish Foundation To Transform San Francisco Into Gotham City For A Day | WMRA. (2013). Retrieved from http://wmra.org/post/make-wish-foundation-transform-san-francisco-gotham-city-day
Ourpedo Plans Online Music Memorabilia Auction to Benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. (2015). Entertainment Close-Up.
Owens, J. (2010). Make-A-Wish Foundation[R] benefit. SkateBoarder, 50.
