Like many nonprofit organizations, Make-A-Wish Illinois wanted to create a bigger impact for wish kids - but the 35-year-old organization felt stuck. In order to grant more life-changing wishes for critically ill children and their families, they needed to re-examine their wish granting process. That’s why Make-A-Wish partnered with Highland Solutions to create a customer journey map that’s helping the organization take its mission to the next level.
The customer journey mapping process gave us ability to visually see the work that we do and to validate the things that we know, believe, or assume to be true. The ability to take a step back and look at where we do well and where we have room for improvement was invaluable and re-energizing.Dina Thachet
Make-A-Wish Illinois
The Process
Make-A-Wish’s customer journey mapping project took about six weeks to complete. Through a series of interactive in-person workshops, stakeholder interviews, and a group mapping exercise, Make-A-Wish identified opportunities for improving the wish experience that they couldn’t have seen otherwise.
Dina Thachet, Medical Outreach Manager at Make-A-Wish Illinois remarked,
“We walked away with many new opportunities to focus on areas we haven't or didn't even realize we should to truly build resilience and promote psychosocial healing. As an organization that values progress, we have even stronger evidence of what we are doing well that we can share with staff and wish granters to validate their hard work and inspire them to continue.”
To help Make-A-Wish apply these insights, Highland worked with them after creating the journey map to distill the recommended changes into a clear plan of action.
The Outcome
Armed with powerful evidence and a clear path forward, Make-A-Wish will be making changes to their wish granting process that they anticipate will have a positive impact on the medical and emotional healing for wish kids. A physical customer journey map now lives in Make-A-Wish Illinois offices in downtown Chicago, where it reminds staff to consider the holistic experience of wish families and provides guidance on how best to serve them depending on where they are in the process.
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Director of New Business Development
