Ronald McDonald House Charities® of San Diego

Note: The organization did not respond to this question.

Note: The organization did not respond to this question.

Weathering the pandemic, we have continued our focus on requiring ongoing education, including leadership training, as one of the key performance objectives for every organizational leader. Leaders may complete training through RMHC-U or by requesting attendance at specialized training that they have self-identified. Many employees have used these funds to advance their careers and in turn have been promoted to different roles throughout our organization. Recognizing the opportunity for leadership development and internal demands, our organization has added 3 management positions to its House Operations department. We have also promoted several emerging leaders to positions of higher responsibility. Our organization includes professional development in every employee's annual goals and each supervisor all the up to the CEO, coaches and guides their direct reports to meet their goals.

Much of our success is based on our partnerships with community organizations such as the Jacobs/Cushman Food Bank, Feeding America, and Emilio Nares Foundation, as well as our work with hospitals and the involvement of County and City leaders in our initiatives. We engage in thought leadership through conferences, and our staff interact regularly with other RMHC organizations, taking part in monthly and quarterly opportunities to share best practices. We work closely with Rady Children’s Hospital and Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and Newborns and are actively engaged in sharing strategic planning initiatives for future care in our service area. We are very active in raising awareness of our mission through social media, television, radio, print and online media. Internally created publications promote our work and services to supporters and the public at large.

At the beginning of 2020, our House was buzzing with activity of guests and volunteers. All rooms were fully occupied, and we had begun planning how to build and fund the operations of approximately two dozen guest suites to address our longstanding wait list of families needing to stay close to their hospitalized child. Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic turned our daily operations and future planning upside down. We focused on immediate health and safety threats for our families, staff, and volunteers. We had to close our House to non-residents and sent staff to work from home where possible. As the number of patients at Rady Children’s went down, so did our number of resident families in early spring. With reduced program operations and reduced revenue, we made difficult decisions to restructure and reduce staffing. In these early months, our leadership developed a comprehensive, 4-phase plan for operations according to the improvement or worsening of COVID-19 in our community. While most other Ronald McDonald Houses closed during the pandemic, we remained open the whole time for families in the most urgent need. Our Board of Trustees and senior management worked diligently to manage revenue and expense, adapt our programs and services, and develop alternative revenue sources in this dramatically changed environment. We took advantage of this time to closely examine our operations and revenue sources and develop a roadmap with alternatives for moving forward. We finished both 2020 and 2021 in a positive position. After a dip during the pandemic, our 56 guest suites are full once more, and our wait list is again nearing 30 families. As omicron fades, we have begun welcoming small groups of fully vaccinated volunteers back for service, and we look forward to a full opening for our day visitors. We are steadfast in our commitment to keeping families close when it counts, and we are moving forward with planning for our much-needed expansion.