A Sad Clown Story: McDonald's Lack of Support for Ronald McDonald Houses

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) was created in 1974 to “provide housing for the families of sick children and for children receiving outpatient care” (“McDonald’s gives little,” 2013). RMHC currently has locations in more than 60 countries and regions around the world (“Ronald,” 2015). Each Ronald McDonald House establishes their own policies, budget, and fundraising goals; therefore, assets from each house are not co-mingled (Morran, 2013).

Considering RMHC is named after Ronald McDonald from the McDonald’s Corporation, one would expect that McDonald’s makes extensive financial contributions to RMHC; however, this is not the case. The company has recently come under fire because RMHC only gets about 10% of their money from McDonald’s (Morran 2013). Further complicating matters is the fact that most of this 10% contribution actually comes from McDonald’s consumers via donation boxes at supporting McDonald’s restaurants. McDonald’s contributes only one penny to RMHC for each Happy Meal or Mighty Kids Meal purchased. (“McDonalds,” 2015). Overall, McDonald’s philanthropic contributions are 33% lower than other leading corporations (Kim, 2013).