Make-A-Wish Foundation

The Make-A-Wish-Foundation is an internationally active non-profit organization that has set itself the goal of fulfilling the heart's desires of seriously ill children free of charge. Almost all wishes of the children are fulfilled, unless the fulfillment of the wish would endanger the health of the child. The wishes of the children can be communicated to the organizers by relatives or friends.

The first child to have a wish granted through Make-A-Wish was Christopher James Greicius, a cancer patient whose heart's desire was to be a police officer for a day. On April 29, 1980, he was granted that wish by his mother and two police officers, including a helicopter ride and rides in a patrol car. The three individuals decided to give other children the opportunity to have their wishes granted. Thus, Make-A-Wish was founded in the USA in 1980. The headquarters are still located in Phoenix, Arizona. Over time, Make-A-Wish country organizations have been established in 50 countries, each with the same purpose (as of 2018). The organizations operate with 40,000 volunteers and are funded by donations. By 2018, over 400,000 wishes had been granted.

In June 2008, the German national organization "Make-A-Wish Deutschland e. V." was founded. With its foundation, it had its headquarters first in Hamburg and then in Munich. Since summer 2018, the German country organisation Make-A-Wish has been operating as a non-profit limited liability company. The registered office of the company is in Frankfurt am Main.

There are also national organisations in Austria and Switzerland.

Since 2010, when the Make-A-Wish Foundation celebrated its thirtieth anniversary, "World Wish Day" has been celebrated annually around the world on April 29th as an occasion to draw attention to the work of Make-A-Wish.