“If you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.” — Cinderella
Disney guests make a lot of wishes, tens of thousands of dollar’s worth of wishes! You might be wondering what Disney does with all of the coins tossed into the water. The answer depends on the location; but one thing holds true, the money collected is donated to charities as Walt had wanted.
Coins in Walt Disney World
There is usually a line of people at the iconic wishing well at Cinderella’s Castle tossing in money. If you look in the moat when riding it’s a small world, you can see coins laying at the bottom. Cast Members at Walt Disney World Resorts regularly collect coins from all of the fountains and water features. After, they clean them. They save them up and once a year they are donated to a non-profit organization.
For 2018 Disney asked their Cast Members where they wanted the money to go and they selected a youth transitional program that is part of Community Based Care of Central Florida. $20,000 went to resources for foster care teens transitioning to adulthood. This organization supports over 3,000 children each day with services that range from foster care and adoption to mentoring and youth transitional services.
In 2014, $18,000 went to Community Based Care of Central Florida’s Over-18 Support program to receive the funds. This program helps kids in foster care get their driver’s licenses, find jobs, secure housing and apply for other health and human services.
Another fun fact is if you are in Animal Kingdom and toss your coins in the temple queue for Expedition Everest: Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, all of the money collected goes to environmental conservation.
Coins in Disneyland
My kid’s favorite place to toss their coins in Disneyland is into Snow White’s wishing well located to the right of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Inscribed on the well is, “Your wishes will help children everywhere.” This well was Walts idea, “the coins could be easily collected and donated to charity.” 
On the day that this photo was taken, we went straight to the well to make our wishes. If you look closely you will see a fairy godmother left coins for my kids to toss in!
Disneyland partners with Make-A-Wish Foundation. They also have their own Disney Wish Program where the coins collected are donated to. Disney Wish Program grants over 750 wishes a year! Kiddos ages two and a half to 18 years old, with life-threatening medical conditions, benefit from this program.
Disneyland Paris
Every two weeks Disney cast members use powerful magnets to collect coins from attractions such as it’s a small world, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril, and The Robinson’s Cabin. Cast members, as well as Disney VoluntEARS, take advantage when basins of water are emptied for routine maintenance to put their boots on and collect coins. These coins are saved and Disneyland Paris donates them. For over 25 years, Disney has donated to the Yellow Coins – Pièces Jaunes – Operation!
In 2014, in one morning, they recovered four bags, 10 kilograms each full of coins. In 2016, 257 kilograms were collected. That’s approximately 565 pounds of coins! This money was used to fund furniture, decorations, toys and more for pediatric waiting rooms that are part of the Paris Hospitals Foundation.
This year’s Yellow Coins – Pièces Jaunes – Operation just kicked off January 9, 2019, and will continue through February 16, 2019.
Keep Making Wishes
Take it from Cinderella, keep on believing and tossing those coins because your wishes do make dreams come true!
Happy Travels!
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Sources: D23, Disneyland Public Affairs, and Disney Parks Blog
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