Children & Youth
Make-A-Wish Foundation
Creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses to enrich the human experience with hope and joy.
Charity Navigator rates Make-A-Wish Foundation 90/100 — reflecting strong financial discipline, transparency, and program delivery against industry benchmarks.
What this charity does
Children and youth-focused nonprofits work across health, education, nutrition, protection, and family support. Strong organizations combine direct services (food programs, mentoring, after-school care) with policy advocacy on child welfare. Many operate through field offices in low-income countries, partnering with schools, clinics, and local family-support networks. Funding supports staff salaries, school construction, nutrition programs, child-protection services, and emergency response when crises affect children disproportionately.
Why it matters
Look for outcome data on children served: graduation rates, growth indicators, mental-health outcomes, longitudinal tracking. Be cautious of organizations that emphasize child photos and emotional storytelling without backing data. The best child-welfare nonprofits report on long-term outcomes (one, five, ten years out), not just immediate services delivered.
Common programs in this space
Make-A-Wish Foundation works within children & youth. These are the kinds of programs typically run in this space — visit their site for current specifics.
- ✓ Childhood nutrition and food-security programs, including school meals
- ✓ Immunization and basic-healthcare access for children under five
- ✓ Mentoring and after-school programs in underserved communities
- ✓ Child protection: anti-trafficking, foster-care advocacy, family preservation
- ✓ Education access: school construction, scholarships, learning materials
How to support beyond a one-time gift
- + Recurring monthly gifts are particularly valuable for child-focused charities — programs span school years and require predictability
- + Sponsor a school, classroom, or specific program rather than an individual child for cleaner accountability
- + Volunteer locally — mentoring, tutoring, and youth-sports coaching all need adults
- + Advocate for child-protection and family-support policies in your state
- + Donate professional skills (legal, medical, technical) through pro-bono platforms
Verify before you give
A few minutes of independent verification pays off — especially for larger gifts. These resources let you confirm the details on Make-A-Wish Foundation: