Make-A-Wish Aotearoa and Chemistry develop The Waiting Room for annual fundraiser

For Make-A-Wish‘s annual fundraising campaign, it has partnered with creative agency Chemistry to develop The Waiting Room, featuring 20 of the most common wishes from sick kids across Aotearoa.

Since it opened in 1986, the charity’s mission has been to grant life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. The belief is that a wish can provide hope, strength and joy for not only the child, but also their families, volunteers, donors and the broader community. 

Right now, Make-A-Wish Aotearoa is actively working on 170 wishes. But 70 more remain on hold due to a lack of funding. 

The Waiting Room

It was this statistic that inspired the team at Chemistry to develop The Waiting Room. Working closely with the Make-A-Wish Aotearoa team, they identified some of the most common wishes amongst Kiwi kids, featuring everything from superheroes and fairy parties, to meet-and-greets with famous sporting and musical heroes, through to firefighter and pilot experiences. 

Featuring Kiwi personalities like singer Michael Murphy and football ref Beth Rattray, The Waiting Room features 20 of the most common wishes waiting to be granted.

Combined with the hard-hitting message around the 70 wishes on hold, the hope is that Kiwis will rally together to help clear the waiting room and bring joy to some of the most vulnerable lives in the country.

“Our mission is to grant the wish of every eligible child – and Chemistry’s proven ability to create powerful donation campaigns made them the clear choice,” says Melinda Seal, head of fundraising at Make-A-Wish Aotearoa.

“The Waiting Room is a completely fresh approach to fundraising for Make-A-Wish Aotearoa and we can’t wait to see the impact it has around the country.”

Bringing joy

Beatrice Bearne, business director at Chemistry, shared her excitement, saying, “It’s an honour to work with such an impactful New Zealand charity. The work they do to bring joy to Kiwi children and families during such challenging times is deeply inspiring.

“The Waiting Room combines bold creative with top-tier fundraising efforts to hopefully deliver outstanding results for Make-A-Wish Aotearoa.”

The campaign will span OOH, print, digital, social and radio across May.

After appearing in the campaign and being impacted by the work Make-A-Wish Aotearoa do, Murphy wrote and recorded a song, named for the camapign.

It features Murphy’s eight-year-old son Archie, whose best friend had one of his wishes come true thanks to Make-A-Wish Aotearoa.