Season 3, Ep 02: Every Child Deserves Love: Danielle Gletow’s Vision with One Simple Wish

“The way we do things is really about letting people know that they’re seen, heard and loved,” says Danielle Gletow, founder and executive director of One Simple Wish, which works to fulfill gift requests for those—of any age— who’ve been through the foster care system or are in crisis due to childhood trauma. For those who’ve been denied so much in life, even asking for something small is an act of bravery. In stark contrast to the many videos across social media where donors exhibit themselves giving flashy gifts to unsuspecting recipients for the sake of clicks and drama, One Simple Wish works to foster community by empowering a person in the recipient’s life to fulfill the recipient’s specific and personal request in a comfortable and private environment.

On today’s episode of Women Igniting Change, Danielle explains how her own experiences fostering and adopting children ignited in her a fierce desire to protect children across the world. She describes the shocking responses she’s received as a passionate advocate for children’s rights and the prejudice to which children in the foster system are subjected. These children are not just statistics, she reminds us, but humans who want what we all want—love, hope, joy, a sense of home and the freedom to just be kids. 

Working with more than one thousand organizations across the United States, Danielle has helped fulfill hundreds of thousands of wishes to date. She’ll tell you how you can get involved in impacting the life of a child, one simple wish at a time.

Quotes

• “They really wanted just a few things, which is what most people want: they wanted to be back home, they wanted to feel loved, and they wanted to just be a kid. And that really struck me.” (2:52 | Danielle Gletow)
• “I wanted to create something that made it easy for people to not see statistics but to see people, and then to do something for them, not to do something they wanted to do, or they thought someone needed, but to actually hear somebody saying, ‘This is what would bring me joy, this is what would make me feel seen,’ and then empowering others to give them that.” (3:51 | Danielle Gletow)
• “I know people love these Instagram, Youtube, Tiktoks where somebody goes and surprises somebody with a grand gesture, and they have a camera on them and there are all these expectations of gratitude being expressed. Not that we’ve never done that but I find it kind of icky... This isn’t about you as a donor, about what you want to give someone and it’s not your experience.”  (15:35 | Danielle Gletow)
• “The act of wishing itself is difficult. It’s not something that everybody feels comfortable doing, because life has not been that way for them where there is a comfort level. There’s been a lot of disappointment. There have also been a lot of people who have told them, ‘You get what you get and you don’t get upset,’ or just be glad you have anything.’ So, when individuals trust us with a really, unique, personal wish, it’s not lost on me that it was hard to even ask for that.” (26:55 | Danielle Gletow)