Free Wheelchair Mission’s mission is to provide the transforming gift of mobility to people with disabilities living in developing nations as motivated by Jesus Christ.

Free Wheelchair Mission believes in a world where everyone who needs a wheelchair has one. With an estimated 75 million people around the world today in need of a wheelchair, Free Wheelchair Mission continues our mission to provide mobility to people living with disabilities in developing countries. Free Wheelchair Mission continues its focus and commitment on becoming a leading provider of mobility in developing countries, but beyond placing recipients in a wheelchair, Free Wheelchair Mission is bringing transformation that opens doors to education, employment opportunities, and community that these individuals only dreamed of before receiving the gift of mobility.

Source: Nonprofit submitted responses

Goal One: Focus on Development, Marketing, Operations, and Board actions to develop relationships to extend our reach and donor base to generate sufficient funds to support the wheelchair distribution goal.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Two: Focus on increasing & strengthening distribution partner capacity for appropriate wheelchair provision and high-volume distribution through the development of relationships with like-minded orgs.

Goal Type: Grow, expand, scale or increase access to the existing programs and services.

Goal Three: Pursue improvements in the quality and design of products for greater utility, durability, longevity and manufacturing cost reduction.

Goal Type: Invest in the capacity of our organization (financial, management, technical, etc.).

Describe an investment in leadership

We have invested in several key programs in the past year to train and develop our leaders. In recent months, our leaders have successfully participated in Emotional Intelligence training, led by outside experts, that has helped our team grow our organization's "soft skills." This has already positively impacted communication and teamwork within our organization as we work with partners, vendors, and other external constituents. We have budgeted to do the second part of this training with our full staff sometime within the next 9 months. Each quarter we offer professional development lunch-and-learn sessions for any staff member to participate in on various topics. Additionally, at least twice a year, our Human Resources Manager tracks the professional development courses, trainings, and outside leadership development and professional development experiences for each staff member to ensure that we are equitable in our offerings and investment in our team.

This organization mobilizes for mission in the following ways:

• Strategic Partnerships

• Networks of Collective Impact Efforts

• Thought Leadership

• Raising Awareness

• Community Building

What are this organization’s external mobilizaton efforts?

Free Wheelchair Mission mobilizes support through a variety of channels, networks, and donor support groups. Our Ambassador and volunteer programs provide supporters with tools, campaigns, and fundraising platforms to help them engage with their networks. We have hundreds of volunteers around the world who provide programmatic, administrative, and fundraising support. Our corporate relations and church relations teams partner with companies, churches, and other organizations to inspire and engage their constituents. We also have an active and fast-growing social media network, fueled, in part, by our Social Ambassadors program. Our reach and engagement on social media have grown significantly in just the past few years. Finally, we have an active and growing public relations and community relations program, frequently enlisting our team members to participate in conferences, speaking engagements, industry discussions, and more.

With the initial onset of the worldwide pandemic in 2020 and through to the present, Free Wheelchair Mission took an immediate and thorough approach in terms of our response. We had already developed a comprehensive emergency preparedness and disaster response plan prior to the onset of COVID-19 here in the U.S. and quickly enhanced and expanded it through all of the many changes over the past 2 years. Our marketing, development, and operations teams quickly and creatively adapted our in-person fundraising events and created all-new virtual or hybrid campaigns and events, including Move for Mobility and Miracle of Mobility Live. While many of these changes required great effort by our teams, through these virtual efforts we have been able to reach hundreds of thousands of supporters and potential donors that we likely would not have been able to reach otherwise. With temporary shutdowns at our factory, the ongoing shipping crises, and the widely-ranging COVID response across countries and provinces around the world, our Programs and Manufacturing teams have also been working diligently to keep up with all of the challenges and changes. Our virtual partner training programs and our ongoing communication with our distribution partners have allowed us to continue the safe distribution of wheelchairs to those who need them around the world. We have also navigated drastically increasing shipping costs and shipping delays, although this will continue to be a challenge for us in the year ahead. Despite all of these challenges, we have managed to increase outreach to our supporters greatly, we have strengthened and fortified our wheelchair manufacturing and distribution programs, and we have improved our overall operations and financial position.