National Study Quantifies Impact of Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community
Centers, Underscores Long-term Benefits of Community Investment
Suisun City Kroc Center open since 2012, creating positive long-term impact
Eleven years after Joan Kroc’s historic $1.5 billion bequest to The Salvation Army, 26 Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers – including Suisun City – are now open, providing a variety of cultural, educational, fitness and social programs in neighborhoods that historically have lacked them. In a study commissioned by The Salvation Army, researchers at Partners for Sacred Places and McClanahan Associates, Inc. quantified the annual positive social and economic impact these centers are creating for and in their communities, totaling $258,178,776 (based on 2014 data).
The Kroc Centers are state-of-the-art venues typically located in underserved communities, where children and families can be exposed to a variety of people, activities and arts that would otherwise be beyond their reach. The Centers enhance quality of life by providing a safe environment with an emphasis on fitness and health, the arts and opportunities to build social connections. The study included 25 centers that had been open for at least six months by the end of 2014.
Researchers looked at six areas:
- Direct spending by the centers to hire full-time and part-time staff, and to buy local goods and services.
- Various catalyzing or leveraging economic values for center users including membership subsidies, scholarships, space and in-kind support to individuals and community-serving programs.
- The value of people getting and staying healthier
- Magnet effect of induced spending in the local community by center visitors
- The value of day care that allows parents to work
- Outdoor recreation space
Some highlights of the local report for the Suisun City Kroc Center
- As a result of the Kroc Center in Suisun City 12 full-time and 85 part-time jobs were created with direct spending of $3,053,510.
- The Kroc Center has a lot to offer the community. Features like 3 swimming pools, a rock wall, basketball gym, fitness area, and so much more, they attracted over 240,005 visitors, 706 of which were overnight visitors bringing money into local businesses. The total visitor induced spending is estimated at $1,410,801.
- The Kroc Center in Suisun City provides outside youth sports leagues, including t-ball and football, as well as a secure outdoor play-ground area. Over 3,000 people in a year use these amenities, bringing the estimated value at $19,530.
“While we are not surprised by the findings of the Halo report it is exciting to see the quantifiable impact the Kroc Center is having on this community,” said Captain Jonathan Harvey. “This study tells us that we are on the right track, and it will help us continue to adapt our programs and services to meet the needs of our community.”
Separately, the study measures the one-time impact of construction-related spending, totaling $33,595,913 million to build and creating over 200 jobs.
The study does not include quantitative measures of impact related to individual counseling that helped keep families together, taught social values and skills, helped people find jobs, and more. While real and effective in their impact, insufficient economic valuation models led the researchers to exclude these activities from the overall total.
“Between the one-time impact of construction and the ongoing impact of operations, we will keep on giving,” said Captain Harvey. “We thank our donors, volunteers and community partners for the critical role they play in ensuring that these community benefits continue and grow year after year.”
About the Kroc Centers
In January 2004, The Salvation Army announced that Mrs. Kroc, widow of the McDonald’s franchise founder Ray Kroc, had bequeathed $1.5 billion to be separated equally among the organization’s four U.S. territories. The gift remains the largest individual philanthropic bequest ever made in the United States.
Mrs. Kroc specifically directed The Salvation Army to use part of the money for endowments to help support the centers she envisioned across the United States, similar to the first Kroc Center she helped build in her hometown of San Diego with a gift of $90 million. That center continues to thrive, 13 years after its opening in a neighborhood that serves more than two dozen distinct ethnic groups.
Today, 26 Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Centers operate in communities across the United States and Puerto Rico. The local report is at www.gokroc.org.
About The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army, an evangelical part of the universal Christian church established in London in 1865, has been supporting those in need in His name without discrimination for more than 130 years in the United States. Nearly 30 million Americans receive assistance from The Salvation Army each year through a range of social services: food for the hungry, relief for disaster victims, assistance for the disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless, and opportunities for underprivileged children. 82 cents of every dollar The Salvation Army spends is used to support those services in 5,000 communities nationwide. For more information, go to salvationarmyusa.org.
Rachel K. Strack
Marketing Manager
The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center
586 East Wigeon Way | Suisun City, CA 94585
(707) 439-7900 | Rachel.Strack@usw.SalvationArmy.org | www.GoKroc.org