More time for wishes
Make-A-Wish knows that granting the wish of a critically ill child takes many steps. From fundraising and medical provider referrals to planning and delivering the wish, seamless organization is key to making dreams come true. Make-A-Wish is a nonprofit that works with communities to help children endure challenging therapies through unique experiences that give them hope, joy, and strength.
Because of Make-A-Wish, 13-year-old’s Sadie’s dream of visiting Hawaii recently became a reality. When her neurologist suggested to her parents they apply for a wish, they didn‘t expect it to be such a life-changing, magical experience. Sadie patiently waited for her travel wish to be granted, which gave her something to look forward to every day, especially on the hard days. While in Hawaii, she was super excited to see all the pretty flowers, the gorgeous beaches, and explore the island of Kauai with her parents. One of the many highlights of her trip was learning how to surf followed by a nap in the sun and a yummy fresh dinner.
Sadie’s parents were thrilled to join her in Hawaii on a real family vacation, but they weren’t sure about traveling with a child with epilepsy who needed medication. They also feared someone might tell Sadie she couldn’t do something because of medical concerns, but Make-A-Wish organized everything from start to finish, ensuring that Sadie would be able to experience all the activities she wanted to do. The Make-A-Wish team checked in frequently throughout the trip, and they followed up after, giving Sadie’s parents perfect peace of mind.
To make more trips like Sadie’s happen, Make-A-Wish has leveraged Microsoft technology to streamline its operations, from fundraising to wish fulfillment. With tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure, Power BI, and security products, staff can focus more on mission-critical work. They’re able to grant more wishes like a trip to a theme park, a celebrity meetup, or a photoshoot with a unicorn.
Once Sadie’s wish was granted, the process was very streamlined. We didn’t have to worry about anything we typically would have.
Seamless organization
Before the Microsoft rollout, Make-A-Wish’s national and regional chapters needed an accurate, up-to-date understanding of the organization’s fundraising, engagement, and wish-granting pipelines. Reporting was manual and staff would often spend hours reconciling data. By transitioning to a unified data platform in Azure and Microsoft Fabric, Make-A-Wish now has a single source of truth. This data visibility empowers leadership to distill insights that help support chapters, increase donor value, plan for the future, and fulfill their mission of granting more wishes to children.
Data visibility happens when data gets funneled into centralized storage in Azure cloud, where it’s aggregated and cleansed into data sets. National and regional chapters can access deep wells of data stored in Azure warehouses that provide detailed analytics.
Power BI pulls stored data from Azure and Fabric to create dashboards for every chapter. These dashboards function like real-time report cards and are displayed within offices to show the status of in-process wishes or fundraising streams so staff can track important metrics. Since Power BI operates under Fabric as a unified source, dashboards are connected to multiple data sources and utilitize Power BI’s automation capabilities to better analyze wish granting, revenue, budget, and more. Staff can access this data to compare their benchmarks to national averages and nearby chapters, providing insight into performance. These dashboards also give leadership the information they need to solve challenges and make improvements.
Based on data from the cloud, Azure Machine Learning created a predictive model for the fundraising team that scans donation transactions and identifies supporters who are more likely to increase their giving. This helps staff focus more on building relationships with the greatest potential of generating more wish-granting revenue. Microsoft 365 Copilot also plays a significant role in increasing productivity by assisting staff with drafting emails, updating blog posts, executing strategic planning, and more. It takes notes during meetings, transcribes calls, and tracks follow-up actions, helping staff tackle time-intensive tasks.
Additionally, Make-A-Wish’s IT team developed Wish Helper, a generative AI chatbot built with Copilot Studio that enables self-service IT support. About two-thirds of staff use it on a weekly basis for things like resetting passwords or setting up new Sharepoint folders, and it’s always available for staff working fundraising events or outside regular business hours. The IT team continues to develop the tool and they anticipate improvements that will further allow users to solve their own IT challenges. This will free up time for the IT team to work on other valuable projects like expanding the chatbot to cover HR and finance questions.
We’re seeing a lot of demand for AI, in part because of the success of the chatbot.
Each year, Make-A-Wish grants over 16,000 wishes from enchanted carriage rides to superhero meetups.
Fulfilling even more wishes
Wish-associated travel can be one of the costliest wishes to grant, and 80% of wishes involve some form of it. Thankfully, generous supporters can donate loyalty points and other in-kind gifts that help serve more families on limited budgets. Make-A-Wish’s .NET internet application, Wish Bank, tracked these donations, but it was due for much-needed improvements.
Wish Bank was upgraded with Microsoft Power Platform to enhance security, refine the user interface, enable ongoing adjustments, and improve tracking. The on-premises SQL database was migrated to a newly established Azure SQL database, which includes comprehensive management of data, security, and database administration. The .NET application and its forms were resonstructed using Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate, and Power BI is used for reporting purposes. The Wish Bank now employs shared connectors to the SQL database for data updates, and a Microsoft 365 Outlook connector automates email notifications.
An Azure SQL database houses the gifted points organized by airline, hotel brand, credit card company, and more. External partners require these details to ensure miles are used before expiring, and the centralized inventory empowers staff to use the donations efficiently. The new, intuitive interface streamlines the previously manual process of requesting, approving, and distributing requests for travel points and airline mileage, giving staff everything they need to fulfill wish-associated travel with ease.
Before the upgrade, a developer was required to make modifications to the Wish Bank, but now, staff can easily make adjustment within the low- and no-code Microsoft Power Platform. They can refine the tool as needed, allowing them to add various categories of donations to the Wish Bank and quickly organize them.
To fulfill our mission, people must trust that we can protect their data.
Data protection for families
Make-A-Wish is also dedicated to protecting the privacy of children and their families through industry-leading safeguards. Highly sensitive information like medical records and financial reports must be shielded across the board. By centralizing its apps and data on Azure, the nonprofit was able to diminish its security vulnerabilities of on-premises servers and keep data safe.
Microsoft security products and services guard Make-A-Wish’s operations with Microsoft Defender for Cloud, which uses advanced threat protection, detection, and response for the nonprofit’s cloud applications, storage, devices, identities, and more. Microsoft Purview provides next-level data security that includes a holistic platform for data governance and compliance. Within Purview, policies and procedures are safeguarded, ensuring that only approved staff can access beneficiary information. Data is securely stewarded and retained only as long as it’s needed.
By centralizing its apps and data on Azure diminished security vulnerabilities of on-premises servers, Make-A-Wish protects its digital infrastructure and platforms with Microsoft Cloud’s defenses, and enables secure communication with external partners. Make-A-Wish also creates and hosts several public-facing websites with Azure App Service that utilize built-in security and compliance features.
Make-A-Wish grants over 16,000 wishes a year with the goal of serving every eligible child. Saving money and time through tech means more wishes for children. And that’s what Make-A-Wish is all about.
