Feel Good Friday - One Simple Wish

In today’s Feel Good Friday, we’re profiling an organization that grants wishes to children in foster care, One Simple Wish.

Founded in 2008 by foster parent Danielle Gletow, One Simple Wish (OSW) “grants wishes for foster children, children who have aged out of foster care and under-served children and families throughout the United States through a vast network of hundreds of Community Partner agencies in nearly every state.” To hear Danielle explain what inspired her to start OSW, you can watch her 2014 TEDx talk at this link.

With over 500,000 children spending time in foster care each year and more than 22,000 of them aging out without stable, permanent connections, there are plenty of young people with wishes ranging from Barbie dolls and cameras to jackets and household essentials.

The process for connecting the wishers and wish granters is simple. Agencies that work with children in foster care join the OSW Community Partner Network and submit wishes on behalf of children they are helping. Those wishes are posted on the website, people like you search through them and choose one or more to fund, then the wish is granted. At the time of writing this blog (ahem, last night) there were 371 active wishes to choose from.

The latest impact information on the website shows that in 2019, OSW worked with 782 community partners in 48 states to reach over 20,000 children by granting wishes, giving experiences and providing essential items to children in crisis.

If you’d like help One Simple Wish make an impact in 2021 and beyond, you can do that by granting a wish, making a general donation and amplifying their message on social medial. Like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @OneSimpleWish and Instagram @onesimplewish.