Celebrating 45 years: How Ronald McDonald House New York used a brand refresh to spark inspiration and why other nonprofits must do the same

By: Dr. Ruth C. Browne

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The first time I saw the inside of Ronald McDonald House New York (RMH-NY), there were children playing and staff handing out chocolate-covered pretzels. My first impression? Sheer happiness. It felt like the most unique, kid-friendly hotel in the world.

It was 2016 and I was interviewing for my current position as the President and CEO of the New York branch of the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). The more I learned about RMH-NY, the more intrigued I was. But even then, I could sense there was so much untapped potential for this amazing, important organization. It was a conviction that’s only grown over the eight years I’ve now spent in this role, especially after leading us through a global pandemic. I knew then what I still know now: We can — and will — do more for families, children and the New York City community.

Today, RMH-NY is celebrating its 45th anniversary. That’s 45 years of helping families, 45 years embedded in the New York City community and 45 years of doing all we have the power to do for more families. So, it’s no coincidence that, 45 years in, we also recently launched a brand refresh. We’re changing how we communicate, from letters to donors, on social media, even to how our staff talks about their work to friends and family.

However, a rebrand is more than just a change in language. It is an expansion of our mission and impact at RMH-NY, and it has the power to refresh donors, partners and volunteers’ emotional engagement with RMH-NY’s growing mission and bold Strategic Growth Plan.

Necessary growth

Before RMH-NY, I spent two decades in the nonprofit healthcare sector, which has informed my ability to look for gaps in services and my understanding of how an organization can adapt to fit changing needs, even with limited resources on the table.

For 45 years, RMH-NY has grown to be a healthy organization with a tremendous track record of success and a loyal network of donors, partners and a strong Board. We have offered community, comfort and warm beds to families of children with cancer who lived at least 50 miles away from the city hospitals where they needed treatment. We have so much to celebrate on this milestone birthday that many people wouldn’t see a reason why any part of our well-run machine should have to evolve.

However, early on in my tenure at RMH-NY, I began to see that there were many people who could also benefit from our services. For example, the 50-mile catchment area. To qualify for our services, families had to live at least 50 miles away from the city. But within the 50-mile boundary, there are many families that still might need us. Maybe those families had only one primary caretaker. Maybe they don’t have access to reliable transportation or healthy food. From food supply and housing to economic status and education, a person’s financial and social status can have a direct impact on their health — these are what we call social drivers of health. If we call ourselves Ronald McDonald House New York, how could we not do more for New York?

Another area ready for reimagining sat at the very heart of our mission. RMH-NY has always been known for serving families of children with pediatric cancer and this is still our primary focus. But there are many children with other serious complex pediatric illnesses — transplant patients, children with genetic diseases, NICU families?and more — who benefit from our services. We had the capacity (and compassion) to care for them, but it wasn’t part of our message.

These examples represent public-facing shifts my leadership team and I have been planning since my first years at RMH-NY. There are even more of these kinds of examples (big and small) behind the scenes, from the way we are restructuring our infrastructure, building out risk and compliance protocols, investing in talent and digitizing — changes that may not be visible to everyone but will set us up for success for years to come.

For a nonprofit, these changes can be startling and, done poorly, alienating to loyal donors, partners and volunteers. If we intended to change, we needed to reshape our story in a way that brought our supporters along with us. We needed to rebrand. To that end, we put together a rebrand strategy in December 2019 and brought on agency partners, with plans to make 2020 our year of transformation.

And then, you know what happened next.

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A global wake-up call

It’s not surprising to say that COVID-19 had a monumental impact on RMH-NY and just about every other nonprofit support system around the world.

Our staff was called on to step up in major ways during COVID-19. We were committed to keeping the House open, operating compassionately, but also safely with the guidance of our Board led by a relentless Chair, Steve Bensinger.

As a child I remember having pneumonia in a house full of siblings.?Experiencing the combination of loving care and caution from my parents was unforgettable.?Achieving that balance is healthcare 101, and that’s what we strove to emulate during COVID-19.

We wiped down elevator buttons and door handles every hour. We quadrupled our internal meetings. We had to improvise whenever we identified a new need, like how we repurposed our Ronald McDonald Family Room, located at Kings County Hospital, as a place for on-call doctors and nurses to relax and recharge. In the proving ground of the pandemic, we discovered an incredible ability to adapt, and we worked tirelessly to do it.

If COVID-19 had even a sliver of a silver lining, it was that it caused us to of self-reflect. The crisis forced us to work harder than ever before. It inspired us to find new ways of reaching people, increasingly digital ways. It showed us where our gaps in service were.

The past four years reinforced my belief that RMH-NY was obligated to do more — and capable of it too. It may seem easier to wait out a storm, but I felt strongly that we could not put off our expanded mission due to the pandemic. People still needed our assistance. They could not wait. We decided to chart our future during an uncertain present and move forward with our rebrand anyway.

The power of words

Our first step on the path to transformation? Research. Nonprofits spend countless hours trying to find new ways to incentivize donors, particularly ones that may not have a direct connection to their work. We poured thought into how we could extend that connection.

We found that 80% of general donors are interested in how donations support medical treatments and 75% are interested in the impact their donation has on patients and families. These findings echo other research projects that examine donor attitudes toward nonprofits.

A study by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy found that while philanthropy plays an influential role in American society, many people lack a clear understanding of what the organizations they support do, often due to confusing “philanthro-speak.” We wanted our language to be clear, and our stories to be understandable.

With these ideas in mind, our next step was to build a new foundation: a new vision statement, narrative pillars and guidelines for tone and style. It’s during the process that we discovered how powerful changing a single word could be, much less all of them.

For example, the rebrand strategy team, led by our Chief Strategy, Partnership & Branding Officer?Sharon Carter Jones, spent hours thinking over the emotional effects and proper phrasing of our deceptively simple new mission statement: “We see a world where children with cancer and other serious illnesses and their caregivers have the resources and freedom they need to thrive.”

Finally, in partnership with our Board, it was critical to bring team members across all our departments — from Development to HR, the Volunteer team, Programs, Operations, Finance and Poplulation Health — into the process, briefing each team separately on the rebrand and allowing them time to ask questions and express concerns. We found that most resistance to change came from a lack of communication about our vision and goals. Once our team was able to understand the potential of our expanding mission, they wanted to become a part of it. Walking around the House, I feel a sense of renewed excitement and opportunity.

But the best part about the rebrand? It’s allowing us to express the real positive and increasing impacts we’re having in our community as part of our Strategic Growth Plan priorities.

The rebrand is fueled by the fact that we have now done away with the 50-mile catchment area requirement so that people within the five boroughs can still benefit from our services. Our commitment ensures that the majority of our families are battling pediatric cancer, and our mission now extends to other serious pediatric illnesses that require similar programs and services. We’re examining our fundraising model and applying for new grants that will allow us to have a greater impact. We’re expanding beyond the physical House on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, into all five boroughs of New York City through Family Rooms in hospitals and our Community Navigation Service.

And somehow, thanks to the hard work of our teams, we emerged from the global pandemic with a new vision and new understanding of what we’re capable of.

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A new story

Nonprofits are still discovering what the long-term effects of COVID-19 are. ?A recent study by the Center for Effective Philanthropy of the State of Nonprofits (CEP) in 2023 looked closely at the state of nonprofits following the pandemic. Interestingly, the study found that donors are eager to give; three out of four nonprofits are reporting balanced or surplus budgets coming out of the pandemic. That shows me that right now, people are searching for missions that matter and drive impact. Perhaps what they are looking for is the right inspiration.

For a nonprofit like ours, that’s the true power of a rebrand: inspiration. As we stand looking out on the horizon of the next 45 years, we will need every bit of that inspiration and strong strategic partnerships if we’re going to realize the impact we dream of.

I hope more nonprofits embrace the opportunity to reflect and, if necessary, transform and rebrand themselves — not as a chance to polish language, but to build and refresh the hearts of their support circle.