Kandy Parsons Senior Development Officer

Kandy Parsons, Senior Development Officer

by, Carrie Bugg

Kandy Parsons is the Senior Development Officer at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oklahoma. She is an Oklahoma native and graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in Business Education. Before she worked for Make-A-Wish, Parsons worked as a marketing representative at the Xerox Corporation from 1985 to 1991. In her time here, Parsons was trained in sales. This proved to be very helpful in her current position. "I’m not afraid to make the “ask” which is where many people stumble. I’m tenacious so I keep working until I get what I need," Parsons said. In 1992, she became a substitute teacher and a community volunteer. Parsons has always had a passion for community service work.

In the spring of 2007, Parsons was looking for another career. She was leading a bible study and praying about her career path when someone suggested Make-A-Wish. Parsons researched the organization and adored its mission. "It combined two of my favorite things: kids and charity work," Parsons said. She interviewed with the organization and became a member of the Make-A-Wish staff in June of that same year. She has been working there for three years.

Parsons is oversees all fundraising efforts for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oklahoma. MAWFO does not receive any state or federal funding, so every dollar must be raised by the organization. However, every dollar raised in Oklahoma stays in the state to grant the wishes of Oklahoma children. Parson's favorite aspects of her job are meeting the wish families and working on fundraising with student groups in a program called Kids for Wish Kids. KFWK gives students an opportunity to create and manage fundraising projects to grant wishes of kids their own age. "It's wonderful to see kids passionate about helping others," Parsons said. She also enjoys the opportunity to meet so many people from all over Oklahoma.

Parsons said the most difficult aspect of her job is recruiting funding for wishes. It is challenging to get many foundations to understand just how many people one wish can effect through a grant application. "It looks like you affect only one person with a wish, when in reality, a wish affects the child's family and the community," Parsons said.

In contrast, the most rewarding part of Parsons' job is improving someone's life every day. "It is wonderful to hear from the wish kids and their families about what a wonderful experience a wish was for them," Parsons said. She enjoys building relationships with the wish kids.

Parsons encouraged future public relations professionals to be passionate about their career choice. "I work many long hours, but I don't mind because I love what I do," Parsons said. Seeing the smiles on children's faces is worth working for.

Looking Towards the Future

Looking Towards the Future

Monday March 29, 2010

By Lynley Kees

When given the assignment to interview a PR professional, I immediately thought of the Make-A-Wish foundation. In the past years my sorority, Chi Omega, has teamed up with theMake-A-Wish foundation. I have seen hands on what an impact this particular non- profit organization has not only on the family and friends who have benefited from Make-A-Wish, but also the impact it has on its employees. I came across Casey Thompson, who I know through a friend of my sisters who was involved with public relations. I am extremely thankful that I decided to interview her because she helped me immensely and only further accelerated my hopes of working in the field of PR and possibly one day working for the Make-A-Wish foundation.

Right now, Casey works under the Make-A-Wish foundation, where her official title is Public Relations Manager. Casey’s job includes working to accomplish publicizing wishes, where she collects the information from the program services team. She writes press releases and media alerts and then will send them to the media. Casey also works on national programs which are managed be the foundations national office and executed locally. Her most recent national program that she was involved with was with Macy’s department store. Casey’s job was to help raise money to publicize Macy’s wish, so that she an also have them cover the fund raising efforts Macy’s is currently working on. Casey is also in charge of the foundations newsletter, editing, website management, and publicity record keeping. She said that editing would probably be most important because she typically sees all the material that leaves the office.

After Casey explained to me her current job, I was interested to know more about her education and previous work experience. She graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in Corporate Communications, Public Affairs, with a minor in English. She had several internships starting from Publicist Dialog to Jet stream public relations. At Jet stream PR, she went from an intern to assistant account executive. She knew that agency life was not for her and after having an internship with the Dallas Centerfor the Performing Arts Foundation, which was a non-profit organization she knew that was where she belonged. That’s how Casey came across Make-A-Wish. She knew she wanted to be involved with a non-profit organization and when a professor told her about the job opening she applied right away and after interviewing she was hooked. She fell in love with the people at the office and noticed how everyone got along so well. Casey says that this feeling has remained the same since she has been working with the company.

Casey has helped me tremendously in sharing with me details of her current job and previous experience. Learning about her job made me open my eyes to the wide world of PR. I would say I have more of an understanding and open mind now about the field. Overall, I think this experience made me more excited to start my career in PR.

Image: Logo
Web Source: Make- A-Wish


Image from above:
Web Source: Foundation

True Priorities

True Priorities
By Annie Bowen

Throughout college I would occasionally stop and really force myself to consider my future career and the industry/type of job I want to pursue. During this, I would ask myself certain questions like: How much money do I want to make? What is the right balance between time with family and job responsibilities? What type of impact do I want my job to have on society?

Eventually I would get overwhelmed thinking about all of the possibilities. As I near graduation, however, my true priorities begin to emerge. Although I know careers paths are organic and always adapting, there are certain aspects of my dream career that remain constant.

For instance, it is vital that I work for an organization that provides some benefit to society. This could be the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure or another non-profit organization that supports an important cause (like a blood bank or children’s hospital). Second, I want a job that allows for a wide variety of responsibilities such as event planning, writing, design, presenting and developing strategies for both the long and short terms.

I do realize that pursuing a career in the non-profit sector generally means a smaller salary than in other public relations careers (such as financial/stockholder relations), but I genuinely believe that the benefits of contributing to a non-profit organization will outweigh the fiscal disparity.

I also realize that there are numerous obstacles to being hired for a non-profit job, especially since I want to stay close to the Oklahoma City area. My goal, since I will be graduating in December 2008, is to spend as much time as I can researching potential organizations as well as networking whenever possible.

Image available at http://www.wish.org/