🔒Make-A-Wish Maine’s new director eager to make more wishes come true

Make-A-Wish Maine, part of Make-A-Wish America, has granted over 1,400 wishes to children with life-threatening conditions since it was founded 25 years ago. Wishes have run the gamut from becoming a superhero for a day to meeting a celebrity like Julie Andrews or Taylor Swift or traveling to a dude ranch or to another country. The Maine chapter aims to grant 75 wishes this year under the leadership of its new executive director, Kate Vickery.

Vickery has been with the nonprofit since March 2005, where she has also served as volunteer director, program director and interim executive director. She sat down with Mainebiz at Portland's Time and Temperature Building as Remy, her fox-red Labrador retriever, also known as the chief hospitality officer, snoozed nearby.

Mainebiz: How many wish requests do you get a year?

Kate Vickery: On average, we are granting approximately 70 wishes a year. And at any given time within the year, we're working with anywhere between 80 to 100 kids who are at some point in the process. Right now we have what we would call a pipeline of 100 kids, which is the highest it's been for us.

MB: Do wishes come from the kids themselves or from family members?

KV: We work really hard to make sure that the wish is coming from the child, though sometimes with little kids it's a little tough. We have trained wish-granting volunteers who work in pairs and go out and meet the wish child and the wish family. They get to know the child and talk to them about what they have for thoughts on their wish and they play games to help with what we call wish discovery. Then they bring that information back to the office, and we do most of the planning and logistics of the wish from here. For us, what is important for these kids in the process is that dreaming or thinking stage.

MB: What types of wishes do you get?

KV: We typically deal with four categories of wishes: 'I wish to go,' about 60% of wishes, 'I wish to be,' 'I wish to have' and 'I wish to meet.' The fifth category is the altruistic wish, which happens every now and then, like the kiddo [Ricky] who wanted to put bleachers and lights on his high school football field.

MB: What's the average cost of a wish?

KV: The average cost is $7,000 per wish. That's offset with in-kind donations, so typically you're talking somewhere between $3,000 to $4,000, with an in-kind, so overall I think we come down to around $11,000 per wish.

MB: Is it getting tougher to raise funds from individuals and corporations?

KV: The nonprofit fundraising environment is challenging, and there's lots of competition because there are so many great organizations out there, especially here in Maine. We're really fortunate that we have the brand we do and the mission that we do. We work really hard to make sure that we're sharing that and the impact that a wish has, not only on the wish family but the community as a whole, because the ripple effect is pretty powerful.

MB: Any concerns about the impact of the U.S. tax reform on fundraising?

KV: I definitely think it will have some sort of impact, but I think we just need to work harder at making sure that people are connected to what we're doing here, and that that's the driving factor behind their charitable giving, in addition to the potential tax write-off.

MB: When you started with Make-A-Wish, did you ever expect to become executive director?

KV: I feel very honored and privileged to assume this role. I'm not sure that I started out in that direction, but I love this mission and I love what we do, and I have had the ability as program director to be involved in hundreds of wishes, so I know the impact that it can have for kids and for other people. There's something very magical and positive about being part of executing a wish, so I think there's a necessity to our mission that goes beyond the cool factor. I believe we have a lot of room for growth, and so I'm anxious to get started.