Anne Grey brings over 25 years of experience in non-profit leadership to her new role, having held prominent positions at organizations such as Vivalon, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. At Vivalon, Anne successfully led the organization through a critical period of growth. Under her leadership, Vivalon saw a significant financial turnaround and was recognized as the Best Nonprofit Organization by the Marin Independent Journal. In 2020, Anne was named one of OC Register’s Most Influential People, a testament to her leadership and impact in the community.
Anne, who maintains residences in both Irvine, CA, and Rancho Mirage, CA, also emphasized the unique advantage her reach and influence in both Orange County and the Inland Empire will bring to the community that Make-A-Wish serves.
Anne holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of San Diego and an MBA from Pepperdine University. She is actively involved in the community, serving as a member of the Junior League of Orange County, is a Puppy Den Volunteer for Guide Dogs of the Desert, a member of the Salton Sea Triathlon Club, and Coachella Valley Area Panhellenic.
In this episode:
- Meet Anne Grey
- Anne’s transition to Make-A-Wish
- The impact of a wish on a child’s life
- Her mother’s influence in shaping her path towards nonprofit work
- Mission and Impact of Make-A-Wish
- Fund Raising and Community Support
- The Wish Alumni
Episode:
Narrator  Welcome to The Norris Group real estate podcast, a show committed to bringing you insights from thought leaders shaping the real estate industry. In each episode, we’ll dive into conversations with industry experts and local insiders, all aimed at helping you thrive in an ever-changing real estate market. continuing the legacy that Bruce Norris created, sharing valuable knowledge, and empowering you on your real estate journey. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a newcomer, this is your go-to source for insider tips, market trends and success strategies. Here’s your host, Craig Evans.
Craig Evans  Hey everyone. It is great to be on. Many of you have seen that we have officially launched I Survive Real Estate last week, leading up to the event, though, we are going to have some great shows on our podcast, not only to preview the panelists, but also to revisit some of the Rohny winners. But first in our line of shows leading up, we wanted to be one of the first to introduce President and CEO of Make a wish for OC & IE, it is my pleasure to introduce to our audience Anne Grey. Anne Grey brings over 25 years of experience in non-profit leadership to her new role, having held prominent positions at organizations such as Vivalon, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. At Vivalon, Anne successfully led the organization through a critical period of growth. Under her leadership, Vivalon saw a significant financial turnaround and was recognized as the best nonprofit organization by the Marin Independent Journal. In 2020 and was named one of OC Registers most influential people, a testament to her leadership and impact in the community. Anne, who maintains residences in both Irvine and Rancho Mirage also emphasized the unique advantage her reach and influence in both Orange County and the Inland Empire will bring to the community that Make-A-Wish Serves and holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of San Diego and an MBA from Pepperdine University. She is actively involved in the community, serving as a member of the Junior League of Orange County. Is a Puppy Den Volunteer for guide dogs of the desert, a member of the Salton Sea Triathlon Club, Coachella Valley Area, Panhellenic. That was a that was a mouthful. Anne, again, it is great to meet you. Welcome aboard to Make-a-Wish. You know, I survived. Real estate is on its 17th year, and we’ve raised $1.2 million for great charities and partners, just like Make-a-Wish Gloria was great to work with, but we are eager to get to know you as well. So we wanted to have you on and talk about make a wish, and also introduce our audience to the new president and CEO. So with that being said, Can we dive into who you are?
Anne Grey  Yes, thank you so much for this invitation. It’s such a privilege to be with you, and I just can’t wait to dive right in. So I’m…
Craig Evans  Awesome!
Anne Grey  …ready to go tell me.
Craig Evans  I mean, you know, listen, you’re not jumping into an unknown, everybody knows the brand Make-A-Wish, right? Everybody knows its goal and its vision and what you’re trying to achieve. How is that transition going so far?
Anne Grey  So it’s been going great. It’s day eight for me. I am really thrilled with the team here, and the staff and volunteers have just given me such a warm welcome and are so supportive. And it’s really the perfect timing, because our new fiscal year starts September 1, so it’s a great time to be part of Make-A-Wish, and we have so many children waiting for wishes. All of us come to work every day, just reared and ready to go.
Craig Evans  You’ve been in the nonprofit space, really, for quite a while now, what led you to choose nonprofit sectors over public or other private sectors?
Anne Grey  So it started, actually, when we moved out to California. My mom, Mary Doyle, who’s unfortunately no longer with us, she was part of starting a nonprofit in Costa Mesa, California, called Share Ourselves with their founder, Jean Fortbath, and she took us to everything, all of the outings they did to help the community the Donation Center, different visits to make sure that people had a roof over their head. And was just always very involved philanthropically, and as my you know, as I grew up and I got involved in things in college, I was always gravitating toward philanthropy, and so right out of college, I began working in the nonprofit sector. But I really do attribute my mom to really showing us the impact you can make that no matter how small or how large you do. Something, it’s going to change someone’s life.
Craig Evans  You’ve been a part of a lot of worthy causes with everythingfrom Alzheimer’s Association to the American Heart Association, and now moving in to make a wish. How is it working with all those demographics?
Anne Grey  It’s really a very similar actually, there’s really a common denominator that, you know, the work that happens in the nonprofit sector really can make a lasting impact. In my early career, I worked a lot in health nonprofit funding for medical research, and that’s a very long time horizon, and really important work, and being able to see some of the efforts that were ideas, you know, in the early days. Now, you know, my husband has type one diabetes. I worked in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation space for a long time, and seeing him wearing the closed loop insulin pump that we talked about as a vision, you know, is really inspiring. And so some of that long horizon medical research has really come to fruition. So that’s really rewarding in Alzheimer’s disease research is so important, and the impact that it has on people’s daily lives is so important. And I really, as I learned and early on, as I shared before with my work, with my mom, of the immediate impact of work, I really gravitate toward that and the immediate impact of a wish on a child and their future, because our studies have shown that a child looking forward to a wish is more compliant with their medical treatment, their appetite returns, their positive outlook returns, and it really does help with their care andtheir journey through the debilitating illness that they have, and the wish is just something that really impacts them in positive ways that can enhance their lives greatly. And so that immediate impact, whether it’s a long horizon in some of my earlier work, or a shorter impact in the work I’ve done more recently with older adults and now children. It’s just really heartwarming. And so there’s really that common denominator of those things thatyou can do that make a difference for people, and really being able to feel that and Make-A-Wish, especially that the impact is immediate on these kids.
Craig Evans  Tell me about Vivalon. What did vivilon do and what was its real mission?
Anne Grey  Sure. So Vivalon as a 70 year old non profit, very beloved in Marin County. It was formerly known as whistle stop. They changed their name right before the pandemic, and it was founded by a very visionary woman who really saw that older adults had three critical needs, transportation, access to good nutrition and social connection. And so those were the components that Vivalon was founded on 70 years ago, and today that’s still the core of Vivalon’s mission, making sure that people have transportation. We had a fleet of over 100 busses that made sure that people got where they needed to go, and we had Meals on Wheels, we had social connection programs. We built a healthy, aging campus. So just a lot of really important work, really core to the tenants of that mission.
Craig Evans  How hard was it to leave Viviana and that, that part of the state?
Anne Grey  Well, you know, it’s a beautiful area, but myheart is in Orange County. I have wonderful friends here, family here. I went to high school here. I met my husband here. So coming back to Orange County is really a gift.
Craig Evans  You know, as we talked about earlier, we’ve been involved with Make-A-Wish and had great relationships for them for a long time. How has that transmission been? And what do you think is the biggest change for you coming in to Make-A-Wish.
Anne Grey  Coming into Make-A-Wish. I think really, you know, it’s making sure that we have enough funds to fund all of the wishes. We have almost 500 children waiting for wishes right now, and with our current fundraising, we’re able to grant just under 300 wishes a year. So we would like to be able to fund all those wishes as quickly as possible. We don’t want a long waiting list. We have children who are urgently waiting for wishes because their health is declining, and those are our obviously top priority wishes. But we don’t want any child waiting longer than they have to to get their wish fulfilled. And so that’s really important, you know, I take that responsibility very seriously to make sure that we have the funds necessary to be able to grant wishes as quickly as possible, that a child isn’t waiting on a wish because of our inability to fund it. So we are working very, very diligently to build up our fundraising, share the case for Make-A-Wish of why these wishes are so important. As I stated earlier, it really does help the children comply with their treatment and have a better journey through their illness. And so it’s just I feel very passionate about it, that we have important work to do, and there’s a sense of urgency that. I think it’s important for the public to be aware of that a wish doesn’t automatically happen. It takes about $10,000 to grant a wish. Our average wish cost is roughly 6 to $7,000 but some are much greater, if they involve travel. And travel wishes have opened up again post covid, and so we have a backlog log of those wishes that are actually more costly than the wishes that we’ve been able to grant just coming out of Covid. Now that the world’s really opened up again and the wishes become more expensive to get children to the places they’ve dreamed of going.
Craig Evans  I want to make sure that our audience really understands what is the mission of Make-A-Wish?
Anne Grey  Yeah, the mission of Make a wish is to create life changing wishes of children battling critical diseases so that they can empower themselves, to inspire to comply with treatment, to manage their way through the tough days and really have something to look forward to, kind of, as I stated earlier, it’s the research has shown this to be true. But I think we all know that when we have a vacation or something, that we’re looking forward to how our outlook improves and how we’re, you know, mentally and physically, it enhances our lives. Just imagine that times a million for a child facing a critical illness or awaiting a kidney transplant, which is also, you know, very critical situation, or, you know, battling a brain tumor. You know, all of these things are such terrible things that take them out of their normal childhood, and so to have a wish and a dream that they can have fulfilled because of their circumstances, that they might not be able to have fulfilled later in life or otherwise, is really so special. And the founding story of Make-A-Wish is about a little boy who wanted to be a sheriff. And so in Arizona, the community came together, and the Sheriff Department, he had a uniform, and he had a badge, and, you know, all these great things. And I get a little emotional thinking about it, but when he passed away, his gravestone said, Sheriff.
Craig Evans  Knowing that you get to have that effect on people’s lives is a pretty weighty responsibility. Why do you believe that Make-A-Wish was the right place for you, personally?
Anne Grey  Well, I think I’m very touched by the stories, obviously, because you know, the founding story got me to tears, but just knowing that that family today is still involved with Make-A-Wish, you know, telling the story of their son and his dream and his memory living on. But my first experience with Make-A-Wish was right early in my fundraising career. I worked for Muscular Dystrophy Association. It was my very first job out of college. Worked for Muscular Dystrophy Association, and we had great kids that I would see who were suffering with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and they were so, so full of light, and so such wonderful kids. And I remember going to one family’s house, and the little boy was like, Anne, I want to take you to my office. I’m like, you have an office? And he’s like, yes, I want to show you my office. And so I went into his office, and he had, you know, a placard that had his name, and it said CEO, and he had a brand new Apple Computer, and he had a desk that his wheelchair could roll up to and his little plaque said, you know, CEO, you know, Make-A-Wish of, you know. And his wish was to be a businessman. And I was so touched by that, because kids with muscular dystrophy at the time, they lived into their teens only, and it’s better now for them, but in at that time, they only lived into their teens, so to see his wish to be a businessman was…
Craig Evans  That’s pretty sure. All right, I’m gonna try to see how up up to speed you are, even though you’ve only been there for eight days. So we’re gonna put your thinking cap on. How many wishes did your chapter grant in ’23?
Anne Grey  So in 2023 we granted 240 wishes. Our fiscal year runs September 1 to August 31 and this year we are about to grant 270 wishes. Our last wish of this fiscal year is on August 31 and that’ll get us to 270.
Craig Evans  That’s fantastic. So how does Make-A-Wish go about determining you know, who gets their wishes granted?
Anne Grey  So, it’s really an important process. We are really looking at children who have a debilitating, life threatening illness, and they have to be recommended by a social worker or a doctor or a family member or close friend that knows a lot about their illness, and then they’re vetted to make sure that they’re eligible. The child safety is first and foremost. As far as you know, can they participate in the wish and that type of thing? So we always try to tailor each wish, really, to the child’s imagination, that’s the driving force, but they are qualified. And then, depending on the options of wishes that they give us, we choose the wish that’s safest for them, for their health and safety reasons. And so, you know, it can be anything from a wish to be a superhero, go scuba dive at a coral reef, travel to some place they’ve dreamed about, have a play structure in their yard, be something for a day. We just had a young girl who became a baker for the day, and it was really, really sweet. And so there’s all sorts of wishes. There’s five types. There’s to go, to go somewhere, there’s to meet, to meet a celebrity or a famous person or somebody they admire, to have like a puppy or a computer, or to be like a policeman or a sheriff or a pop star or a businessman or, you know, whatever those wishes might be, and then to give. And this is really a sweet, heartwarming one that we have which kids who want to give to others. Maybe it’s giving gaming devices to the hospital, so all the kids you know there for treatment have video games that they can play, or it’s giving food to the hungry, or something of that nature, where they want to give back or giving something to their school that supported them through their illness. You know, there’s these great to give wishes which I think are really special.
Craig Evans  I’m thinking about, you know, if it was me, because I somehow found my way to be mischievous at everything, and to find some way to, you know, so are there types of wishes that are off limits? Because as a kid, I’m thinking, Well, I would ask for crazy stuff, right? So what’s the off limit stuff?
Anne Grey  So any sort of weapon is off limits, and anything that would be detrimental to the child’s health, and anything that’s really beyond the scope of practicality, as far as an expense that the family would have to maintain, following, you know, those types of things we we don’t grant just because the wish is meant to be something uplifting and, you know, ensuring the child’s safety, and not, you know, a later burden. So we want to make sure that it’s something that, you know, the whole family is comfortable with, and the wish experience really is for the whole family. You know, it’s a family journey, when a child’s going through something like this, and it really has to be something that fits within, you know, what they’re able to do and enjoy so.
Craig Evans  Well as you’re talking about, you know, it’s for the kids and the families. What do you see as the most important impact that Make-A-Wish makes, for not only the kids, but also the families?
Anne Grey  I think it goes along the same lines of what I was sharing about something positive to look forward to, and the child’s compliance with their medical care, helping that parent have a sense of relief that their child’s eating again, or that they’re not, that they’re more positive about their treatments, because that helps the child, you know, hopefully most times, heal but you know, or have a safer journey, you know, as they go through their illness, but it’s also the forever, lasting memory, the wish creates for the family, I think, is really key.
Craig Evans  As you’ve been talking, I’ve been thinking of other things and but, but, you know, one of the things that I want to push on is, obviously, we’re coming up to, I Survived Real Estate. We’re we’re trying to raise funding that the whole purpose of that evening, you know, we can go and get dressed up and do all the stuff, but the whole purpose of the evening is we want to raise as much money as we can raise for Make-A-Wish with all the wishes that you guys have granted. Can you tell us how big the need still is and why we we’ve got to as a community, as a culture, we’ve got to continue to work to serve that need.
Anne Grey  Yes, we have over 500 children waiting for wishes, just in Orange County, in the Inland Empire alone. And these are kids that some have been waiting a very long time, and we’re currently, you know, really working on raising the funds to be able to fulfill these wishes before we really cast a wide net to bring children in who also are deserving of wishes, you know, we probably have a waiting list of 800 you know, there’s kids we don’t know about, and we really want to be able to raise as much money as possible. So that we can cast a wider net and bring more kids in to really benefit from our mission, because we really don’t want to have a waiting list more than 500 of kids. You know, it’s our goal is to our budget this year is built on for FY 25 is built on granting 225 wishes, so that only cuts our waiting list in half, and we get about 40 referrals a month right now, so that you know, as we get the word out about, you know, needing to raise more funds to fulfill these critical wishes, it also makes more wishes come into the pipeline, because people realize they may know someone that would like to their family could benefit from a wish, and the child certainly could benefit from a wish. So it’s that catch 22 of you know, we really need to get the word out to raise more funds to move through these wishes and get them to the children as quickly as possible. And we know that’s going to bring children who are deserving of wishes. That’s going to keep, you know, raising the bar of the funds that we need to keep raising. We have about 2 million additional dollars we’d like to raise above our budget this year to be able to really clear those wishes and grant them as quickly as possible. So we feel like our stretch goal for our staff and our offices, we’d really like to see the Orange County and Inland Empire grant 300 wishes this year, and make those happen for these children that were they’re in the process of, you know, sharing their dreams with us and their hopes. And you know, we have children on the urgent wish list, and we want to be able to fund those as quickly as possible. And you know, as new wishes come in, there might be more urgent wishes. So it’s just really about people knowing that if they made a gift to make a wish, and you know, say this event raises, you know, $100,000 this year, or $250,000 or, you know, however much it raises this year. You know, every $10,000 is a wish for a kid.
Craig Evans  Sure.
Anne Grey  And you know, sometimes it costs us a little less, sometimes it costs us a little more, but you know, 10,000 takes care of a wish, and so times that by the dollars raised from events like yours, and your event is certainly one that does extremely generous progress toward these goals. You know, everybody in the room at the I Survived Real Estate event who supports Make A Wish is going to know that they changed a life. And so this is going to have as much impact in the world as the best business deal I ever made, because it’s going to last forever.
Craig Evans  Well, and it’s, you know, we’re in the finance and investment world, you know, yes, we focus on real estate and but at the end of the day, we do a lot of math, you know. And I’m sitting there adding up. You’re saying, hey, our fiscal budget year covers 250 but at 40 a month, I mean, you got 480 a year coming in. So we’re not even keeping pace at a 50% rate, really. That’s kind of daunting when you look at it and say, hey, you know, we’ve got a we’ve got to get the word out to not only the people that are coming to our events and things like that, but other people. Let’s get involved and and help our community. You know, we can go out and make all the money in the world, but if all we do is store it up in our coffers. What good does that do, right? We’ve got to leave our world better than when we got it. I thought it was really cool to see that there is a wish alumni community. Tell me about how often do the kids who get wishes stay involved with Make-A-Wish?
Anne Grey  Yeah, we have, we have kids who stay involved with Make a wish. We had an event on Saturday where one of our wish alumni was sharing his story. And we have wish kids who’ve worked for Make-A-Wish we you know, they stay involved in many different ways, but one of the goals we have for the Orange County and Inland Empire chapter is to do more alumni events for our wish kids, and we have the ability to do things to bring the families back together and come in and spend time together. We really love to celebrate the kids who are, you know, really the best outcomes of what Make A Wish is about is, you know, they they got through their, you know, debilitating health journey, thanks to the strength and invigoration of looking forward to that wish, as well as incredible medical professionals and the love and support of their families. So we want to bring them together to celebrate that as much as we can with the alumni, and really give all of them a chance to really relish in the fact that they are in a wonderful place and relive the memories of their wishes. So the alumni is something that we really want to look at, you know, for the young kiddos and the older kiddos, and have activities that really engage them at every level where. Thinking about a holiday social this year. And companies and individuals who support Make-A-Wish really help make all of these wishes possible. And corporations can really get behind Make-A-Wish as one of their top charities like you have our staff here has amazing ability to craft information for them that they can just kind of take things and run with it, like you do for this great event, and we’re here to support you with with, you know, the information and things that you need, but companies and individuals who want to get involved in Make-A-Wish. You know, we really urge them to contact us and the Make-A-Wish alumni are a great part of that, because they continue to share this story about how the wishes impacted their lives, and it’s really heartwarming.
Craig Evans  You know, and we’re just meeting, right? But the longer you and I are knowing each other, you will find kids are and children are very near and dear to my heart. I am family will always outweigh anything else I do in life. How do they request a wish?
Anne Grey  So they can go on our website and their information is right there. There’s a form that they can fill out that’s a very simple form, and that gets the process started. Because, like you said, we don’t want to overwhelm or they can talk. If they have a social worker at the hospital or a caseworker at the hospital, they can do that on their behalf, or their doctor can do it on their behalf, or they can have a friend or family member do it on their behalf. But the first step is to go to our website to do that, and that’s wish.org and they can find it there. And the OC IEis our local chapter, so if they look for the Orange County Inland Empire chapter they’ll get directed to our page. They can learn about all of our events, all the ways to get involved. But there’s also a space there to learn how to request a wish.
Craig Evans  I am humbled and honored that you took the time today, because I know it is extremely busy for you coming into to this time of your life and leading an organization like Make-A-Wish right now. So I just want to say, or say, thank you so much. I look forward to seeing, you know, you guys and stuff in at the end of October for our event. And we are really excited. We’re working hard to raise a lot of capital and a lot of funding for Make-A-Wish. You know, so So guys, listen. I really appreciate you being on today and listening and to learn more about Make-A-Wish. We want to really encourage you with, I Survived Real Estate coming up. Make sure get your tickets. We’re still taking a lot of sponsorships. For our Platinum sponsors, our gold sponsors. We want to focus on, we want to have a great event, but again, Anne, thank you so much. Thank you for your time. I hope to have you back on again sometime, and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Anne Grey  Thank you. I look forward to seeing you at the end of October, and we can’t wait for your event. And thank you to all the listeners out there, and we really hope you come out and support the event.
Craig Evans  Thank you, and good luck and congratulations on your new career, your new change in your career as well.
Anne Grey  Thank you. You’re so kind. Look forward to seeing you soon.
Craig Evans  Thanks, Ann. Have a great day.
Anne Grey  You too.
Craig Evans  Bye, bye. Everybody
Narrator  For more information on hard money loans, trust deed investing, and upcoming events with The Norris group. Check out thenorrisgroup.com. For more information on passive investing through the DBL Capital Real Estate Investment Fund, please visit dblapital.com.
Joey Romero  The Norris group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE license 01219911. Florida mortgage lender license 1577 and NMLS license 1623669. For more information on hard money lending go to thenorrisgroup.com and click the hard money tab