How Make-A-Wish UK benefitted from tech volunteers

Corporate partnerships with charities come in many different forms. For some, it is purely about fundraising for a cause. For others, it is about volunteering time and skills that charities can benefit from.  

Digital skills are in particularly high demand in the charity sector. The Charity Landscape Report 2022, from Charities Aid Foundation, found that 89% of organisations believe technological change is relevant to their organisation. But such projects take time and money, both of which much of the sector lacks already.  

Fortunately, when it comes to digital expertise, there is pro bono support out there, through Tech for Good programmes like Force for Good, the social impact and professional development opportunity initiative led by J.P. Morgan. 

Force for Good connects developers and digital experts from the bank to charities that need support. Over the course of eight months, J.P. Morgan’s technologists ideate, develop, and implement much needed digital solutions for charities. 

From developing a tool that helped a disaster relief charity deliver resources where they were most needed, to helping Make-A-Wish UK improve their processes so they can grant wishes for more children, the Force for Good programme can help charities wherever they require more specialist skills.  

Throughout the duration of the project, J.P. Morgan’s employees work pro bono on digital solutions for charities to help with their most pressing problems. To date, Force for Good has developed more than 600 solutions worldwide and donated 200,000 hours working on challenging IT and coding projects for charities across the UK.  

Whether charities need help with automating their processes, developing apps, or designing a better website, J.P. Morgan’s developers can help by donating their time to the organisation they’re assisting. They can help charities reach beneficiaries, provide more services, and deliver more impact where it’s needed.  

Make-A-Wish UK wanted to grant wishes to more children living with illnesses and disabilities. Force for Good helped them do just that.  

How Force for Good helped Make-A-Wish UK 

When Make-A-Wish UK approached Force for Good at J.P. Morgan, their main issue was that they were only able to reach a portion of their children who were eligible for wishes. This was because the system they were using to process their gifts-in-kind (a skill or service that might fulfil a child’s wish) was manually delivered.   

More than 60,000 children in the UK have been diagnosed with a critical condition and Make-A-Wish aims to reach as many as possible, giving them the chance to choose a wish that’s unique to them and create happy memories during a difficult time.  

According to Georgia, one of the J.P. Morgan software engineers who led Make-A-Wish’s Force for Good project, the charity wanted to incorporate technology as a priority in order to reach more children in need through their community and connect their data within a centralised hub.  

“Our focus was to create a gift-in-kind donation process that was automated for donors and that would allow staff to manage it end-to-end, from the submission of the gift until its approval,” she explains.  

Georgia and her team decided to create an application based on the technology Make-A-Wish was already using, as their existing data was already housed in their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool). The team focused on delivering a solution that would integrate well with Make-A-Wish’s current technology stack and would be straightforward for Make-A-Wish employees to maintain in the future.  

“Because they were already using a CRM tool, the transition would be easier for them to maintain and make changes in the future, instead of having a custom-built application,” says Georgia. 

Over the course of eight months, J.P. Morgan’s employees with technology expertise worked for four hours a week getting to know more about Make-A-Wish’s unique requirements and becoming familiar with Make-A-Wish’s existing technology before starting work on their solution.  

“We had weekly meetings with the Make-A-Wish team in order to discuss our progress and any changes. They connected us with their tech team as well, who were working on a similar project, so we had a weekly meeting with them too to work together and share learnings.” 

Development of the app started properly in January and February 2022, and the app has since been handed to Make-A-Wish for testing in their sandbox environment. Once Make-A-Wish has ironed out any issues and J.P. Morgan have made any necessary enhancements, the next stage will be using it with the public.  

“The Make-A-Wish team was very enthusiastic about providing us with effective feedback throughout the whole duration of the project, which made the whole experience more enjoyable in general,” says Georgia. “It’s really nice to have a client that’s visibly enthusiastic when you show them your progress. 

“It was really fun and a rewarding experience and I would ask anyone who has the chance to participate to take this opportunity.”