Nonprofit Watch The Ronald McDonald House

Overview of the Organization: Ronald McDonald House

Although most people are familiar with McDonald’s because of its burgers and fries, the Ronald McDonald House is the charitable, nonprofit arm of the organization. The Ronald McDonald House supports critically ill children and their families. According to its “About Us” section of its website, 90% of all children’s hospitals are adjacent to at least one RMH. Its charity programs also raise funds for services and programs to assist sick children and families, along with global learning centers and shelters for families which have been victimized by violence and abuse.

How the Organization Works

The Ronald McDonald organization thus has multiple functions. One is to offer houses to comfort and shelter families and children in a very direct fashion. But it also has a fundraising component for local, national, and even international outreach. The focus is upon children suffering from serious illnesses, but it also assists children’s families, and addresses children’s learning and security needs. The organization has been thanked and praised by families for offering a home away from home, enabling family members to escape the hospital environment or to avoid traveling long distances for treatment.

According to one beneficiary, who moved to a Ronald McDonald House when her son was born premature: “I can’t even imagine how we would’ve functioned in Winnipeg with five of us plus me being pregnant with my son and then, when he was born, having to go to the hospital numerous times a day to feed him” (Graham). The staff helps attend to the family’s needs and reduces the stress the family might feel about attending to basic tasks such as housework and preparing meals. Ronald McDonald Houses enable families to focus solely on getting their children well again, and also to care for one another during very difficult times. They offer a support network.

Scope of Care

It should be noted that Ronald McDonald Houses are not, in and of themselves, medical institutions. But they offer critical supportive functions as adjacent to hospitals. Learning programs in Australia, the Philippines, and Malta help children who are seriously ill remain current with their learning, and also allow students with special learning challenges to have additional educational support. Ronald McDonald Family Cabins located in Norway specifically help children who have experienced trauma and abuse.

This illustrates the scope of care offered to children and families is psychological and social in nature, not simply physical and economic. It shows sensitivity to the unique needs of critically ill children, many of whom lose crucial educational time going back and forth to treatment. Educators at the centers are aware of how medications and treatments can drain and tire children, but still strive to offer stimulation and positive academic experiences so children do not fall too behind their peers academically and have hope for the future.

Effectiveness

According to its website, the organization has achieved a number of milestones, including $930 million dollars in food and housing costs alone, in addition to its service-based work, which has an intangible and lasting impact on children’s lives. But even outside organizations have given the charity high marks, in terms of both its effectiveness as well as its genuine altruism. Charity Watch, an independent organization that rates and reviews charities based upon their transparency, gives the organization an A because of its openness regarding its financial statements, and the fact that 88% of its fundraising is funneled back into actual charitable efforts, not marketing or salaries. Only $9 is spent to raise $100 in actual revenue for the organization’s efforts.

Possible Improvements

One of the reasons the organization is able to channel so many of its fundraising efforts into improving the lives of children, however, is because it is connected to a very wealthy corporation. Although there is a formal separation between McDonald’s and the nonprofit organizationally, at every McDonald’s there is a donation box, and information about the good work the charity performs. McDonald’s offers substantial name recognition for the charity, and a massive platform for the charity to market its endeavors to sympathetic potential donors.

The McDonald’s corporation itself, unlike its charities, has been subjected to a great deal of criticism for how it interacts with its young customers, including promoting unhealthy meals using toys. Although the organization may help individual families, eating McDonald’s foods (which are high in sugar, fat, and salt) have been connected with a number of health-related issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

The Ronald McDonald House could incorporate more physically active programming into its offerings, instead of simply focusing on helping the critically ill. This could include fundraising for children’s wellness programs in schools and afterschool recreational programs, as well as walk-a-thons, marathons, and other physical activities to combine fundraising with health promotion. Deena Shanker of Salon magazine, however, argues that the good work a corporate charity does, no matter how noble and beneficial, cannot outweigh the bad things it does: