A HISTORY OF THE RONALD McDONALD HOUSE OF INDIANA, 1980-2004 Christopher S. Mize Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of History, Indiana University August 2012 Accepted by the Faculty of Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Public History. ________________________________ Philip V. Scarpino, Ph.D., Chair ________________________________ Anita A. Morgan, Ph.D. Master’s Thesis Committee ________________________________ John R. Dichtl, Ph.D. ii © 2012 Christopher S. Mize ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep appreciation to Dr. Philip V. Scarpino who ignited my passion for Public History in my first graduate class before becoming my committee chair. I relied on his guidance and intelligence throughout the process and without his patient help this thesis would not have been possible. In addition, I thank my committee members, Dr. John Dichtl and Dr. Anita Morgan, whose keen insights helped shape and improve this thesis. I would also like to thank all of oral history narrators, Karen Campbell, Judy Monnier, Dr. Stephen Beering, James Props, Brenda Duncan, Beth Johnson, and George and Marsha Gordon, who volunteered their time to tell the story of the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana. I thank Brenda Duncan in particular for providing invaluable primary sources about the inception of the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana from her personal files. I would also like to thank Beth Johnson for initiating this project. For thirty years the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana has provided a sanctuary for the families of seriously ill children. For twenty-two of those years, Beth Johnson has directed the House and overseen its evolution into one of the largest and most respected Ronald McDonald Houses in the world. Under her guidance, the Ronald McDonald House will continue to thrive and fulfill its mission to provide a “home-away-from home” for families in need. I thank Ms. Johnson for her service, patience, and for the vital role she played in the completion of this thesis. Finally, I thank my wife, Sarah Mize, for her constant encouragement and love throughout the writing process. Thank you for your unwavering support. iv PREFACE On October 18, 1982, the Ronald McDonald House of Indiana (RMHI) opened near downtown Indianapolis. Located within walking distance of Riley Children’s Hospital, the new nonprofit began serving the families of sick children receiving treatment at the hospital. For the next thirty years, the RMHI continued to meet the needs of those families by expanding and evolving into a professional nonprofit institution. Rightfully proud of that history, the Director of the RMHI, Beth Johnson, commissioned a written report of the founding, expansion, and development of the RMHI. This thesis is the result of that commission. Johnson formed a partnership with Dr. Philip Scarpino, Director of the Public History program, at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). Dr. Scarpino created a paid internship and placed me in that internship position and hired me as the intern. The original agreement called for researching and writing a forty-to fifty-page history of the RMHI based on primary sources largely housed in the RMHI and research- based oral history interviews. Sources were scattered among twenty boxes stored in a small attic in the RMHI. I evaluated the contents of those boxes, identified useful documents, and organized them into four boxes. I also drew from the files of Beth Johnson, including minutes and summaries from the board of director meetings starting after 1990, and conducted oral history interviews with key actors in the founding and expansion of the RMHI. I spent a majority of the internship collecting and organizing written sources and carrying out the interviews. Given the circumstances, Dr. Scarpino, v Beth Johnson, and I agreed to change the goal of the project from creating a short history to writing a full-length thesis. This thesis serves two principal purposes: First, it provides a comprehensive history of the RMHI written at the request of Beth Johnson and the RMHI board of directors. Second, it fulfills the requirements for my master’s thesis in IUPUI’s Public History program. In addition to providing a historical account of the genesis and growth of the RMHI, from its inception in 1979 to its expansion into Riley Hospital for children in 2004, this thesis also addresses several important historical themes. Most importantly, the history of the RMHI serves as a case study of the emergence and development of a small, modern nonprofit.1 Nonprofits of the same size as the RMHI and other similar benevolent organizations often follow analogous developmental trajectories. In the late 1970s, a small group of passionate individuals came together to build the RMHI. Their hard work and devotion to their creation sustained the institution throughout the 1980s. Starting in 1990 those individuals could no longer maintain the same high level of involvement and began a gradual process of professionalization with the hiring of the Beth Johnson. This process allowed them to step back from the day-to- day operations of the House. A similar pattern can be found in the history of other nonprofit institutions. A passionate individual or group creates a benevolent organization to address a specific need and then remains heavily invested in all aspects of its operation for period of years. The founders then gradually begin turning over the management of the institution to nonprofit professionals such as community organizers, grant writers, and 1 Beth Johnson, Interview with Christopher Mize, author, Indianapolis, IN. July 23, 2009. Hereafter cited as Johnson interview with Mize. vi experienced directors. The transition ensures the survival of the nonprofit as the passion and involvement of the organization’s creators begins to wane, whether due age, death, or other circumstances, and allows the institution to continue fulfilling its mission. At the same time, this thesis provides a case study of a successful example of corporate philanthropy. McDonald’s initial involvement in what eventually became the RMH happened almost accidentally, but by the late 1970s, the corporation had thrown its full weight behind the concept. McDonald’s consistent backing helped various groups found RMHs across the country. The McDonald’s corporation has maintained a complex but beneficial relationship with the RMH program throughout its thirty-eight year history. The support from McDonald’s provided the nascent RMH concept a network of resources as it began spreading across the country. Collection boxes, special promotions, and other fundraisers carried out by local McDonald’s franchisees (individual restaurant owners) made major contributions to sponsoring, and operating RMHs. Their support allowed the House’s to serve the families of sick children. Altruism undoubtedly motivated McDonald’s franchisees, but at the same time positive publicity generated by their relationship with the Houses enhanced the public image of McDonald’s restaurants and helped generate business. The relationship turned into a true “win, win” for the company and the families the RMHs served. Marketing specialists have spent years creating a family-friendly brand for the McDonald’s corporation. They portrayed the McDonald’s restaurants as a destination for families, and spent many millions on advertising to present that image to the public through all forms of media. The cost of that advertising over the years certainly vii dwarfs the amount the McDonald’s corporation and employees donated to RMHs. Yet, the hundreds of Homes providing support for families with seriously ill children bearing the name of Ronald McDonald may have done more to build the family-friendly brand of the company in the mind of the public than the thousands of commercials McDonald’s has bought throughout its history. A close examination of the history of the RMHI reveals how corporate philanthropy can be altruistic and profit-motivated, and often results in benefits for both the community and the company. The story of the RMHI also touches on three other historical themes interconnected in the institutional history of the organization; The local history of Indianapolis, the history of medical technology, and the history of philanthropy in America. The RMHI remains an important institution in the city of Indianapolis and partners with Riley Hospital for Children - one of the most important and prestigious children’s hospitals in the country. Milestones in the history of the RMHI coincide with major developments in the history of Indianapolis and Riley Hospital. In addition, advances in medical technology directly contributed to the creation of the RMH program and the development of the RMHI. New and improved treatments for serious childhood illnesses, such as leukemia and other cancers, involved lengthy hospital stays for the young patients. This created the need the RMHs addressed by providing a place for the families of those patients to stay away from the stressful and uncomfortable confines of the hospital. The RMHI continued to react to advances in medical technology throughout its history. For example, In 1985 Riley Hospital for Children opened a new Bone Marrow Transplant unit, and the RMHI responded by including isolation apartments for transplant viii patients and their families in the 1989 expansion. Finally, this thesis provides a case study of a modern nonprofit that was directly affected by long-term trends in the history of American Philanthropy. For example, the professionalization of the philanthropic realm that led to the creation of professionally staffed nonprofits like the RMHI has a much longer history beginning shortly after the Civil War with emergence of “scientific philanthropy.”2 The history of the RMHI reveals how some of these trends culminated in the creation of the modern nonprofit sector, and points towards possible developments in the future of philanthropy in America.