Introduction
Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada is the parent organization for fifteen Ronald McDonald Houses and sixteen Family Rooms across the country. Geography serves as a formidable barrier to accessing care for kids in Canada, as parents incur considerable expenses just to stay close to children receiving care. Since the 1980s, Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada (an international expansion of RMHC in America) has sought to alleviate these costs and challenges by providing families of sick children with a home to stay at while children are being treated at a nearby hospital. Additionally, Ronald McDonald Family Rooms provide a comfortable place for families to rest and recharge, right inside hospitals.
We continue to be deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with Oliver Wyman on the next strategic direction for RMHC Canada. The work has been transformational for our team, organization and mission, and will make such a difference to families with sick children as we begin to operationalize in 2019Kate Horton, Executive Director, Ronald McDonald House Charities
Scope
The Oliver Wyman team was brought on to help RMHC Canada assess its current environment and lead a specially appointed Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) to devise a plan for the next seven to ten years out. The project – conducted over twelve weeks – involved producing a fact base for the organization, building a pediatric demand model and research on the current environment for the charity, and applying these findings to develop strategy. The process also included a full-day workshop in March with the SPC and a half-day follow-up in April with RMHC staff, where the vision, mission, role, and strategic priorities were developed.
After visiting the Toronto house, I remember thinking I could not have thought of a better and more impactful social impact project for the Toronto office. I am extremely proud to work for a company who encourages these types of projects and with colleagues who went above and beyond to do an amazing job on the projectRamy Farha, Partner
Impact
We conducted over thirty interviews with key stakeholders and surveyed the chapter and board presidents to provide insights into the path RMHC Canada should follow in the future. We also used various health data sources to produce a demand model, showing where pediatric patients in Canada are concentrated on a national, provincial, and hospital level. The demand model will allow for Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada to understand its current impact on a more granular level and plan for even greater impact in Canada in the future. The project culminated in a final product including revised vision, mission, and role statements, as well as a preliminary detailed roadmap of strategic priorities, including resourcing requirements and risk considerations.
Visiting the RMHC House and Family Room in Toronto and seeing firsthand the families with sick children that were being supported by RMHC Canada was one of the most moving experiences I’ve had to dateJacquie Chataway, Senior Consultant