Charity Information

Where your money goes

Make-A-Wish UK grants over 1,000 wishes each year – but around 8,000 children in the UK are diagnosed with a critical illness annually. That means thousands of families are still waiting for the life-changing power of a wish. Whist we’re doing everything we can to grant more wishes, each one comes with a cost. That’s why we rely on the generosity of people like you to make them possible.

We also invest in fundraising to ensure that there is enough money available to grant the wishes of the children who will turn to us in the future. For every £1 donated, 51p goes directly towards the charitable activities** of Make-A-Wish UK.

We invest most of the remainder into our fundraising activities and we’re currently in the middle of a period of investment to generate better long-term, sustainable growth. Last year*, this meant we gained more than 7,500 new regular donors and for every £1 we invested in fundraising, we generated £2 of income.

We also seek to generate support through offers of gifts in kind, which reduces our dependency on cash donations and ultimately helps us increase the number of wishes we can grant. In 2023/24 we generated gift-in-kind support to the value of £1.31m*. There are many ways you can help us to raise funds.

We’re committed to responsible fundraising – see our Fundraising Promise.

Donation transparency

Processing fees

We want every penny of your donation to make a difference to the lives of critically ill children. The only fees deducted are those charged by our payment providers, for example some credit and debit card companies or PayPal. These fees typically range from 0.5% to 2.9%, depending on your payment method.

Make‑A‑Wish UK does not charge any additional fees.

If you choose to cover these fees at checkout, 100% of your donation will go directly towards granting wishes.

Use of donations

We’re committed to being transparent about where your donations go and how we use them so that you can give with confidence.

We use your donations to grant once-in-a-lifetime wishes for children aged 3-17 (inclusive) living with critical illnesses across the UK. If more funds are received than needed for a specific appeal or wish, or if plans change, any surplus will be directed to our general charitable purposes so we can continue granting wishes wherever the need is greatest.

* Based on figures from annual accounts for the year ending 31st August 2024.

** “Charitable activities” includes Wishgranting expenses, donations in kind, the wish provision for wishes in progress, Wishgranting staff costs as well as some other miscellaneous costs.