RMHC-CNI wants to increase donations to their canister program. Currently, canisters earn $6/day on average but other charities earn $14/day. RMHC-CNI conducted research and found issues with people donating due to their affiliation with McDonald's. Google Trends data can help answer questions about low donations and identify receptive areas. Insights from trends can improve RMHC-CNI's marketing and raise awareness of their program.

1. Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of
Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana
(RMHC-CNI)

2. Google Trends:
Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of
Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana
(RMHC-CNI)

3. RMHC-CNI is the local Chicago and Northwest Indiana extension of the Ronald Mcdonald House Charities, an independent nonprofit
organization, whose mission is to create, find, and support programs that directly improve the health and wellbeing of children.
Their services include:
RMHC-CNI’s canister donation program was inspired by Salvation army’s Red Kettle program. The idea behind the
program was that spare change can go a long way. Money from the Canister program funds 9% of RMHC’s operations.
Currently, people can donate at the 140,000 canisters that are located at 500 Mcdonald Restaurants and 311 Mcdonald
Drive-Through throughout Chicago.
RMHC-CNI Canister Donation Program
Problem:
● RMHC-CNI wants to increase Canister donations to at least $7/cannister a day within Chicagoland
● Currently, the canisters in the Chicagoland earn approximately $6 a day. Based on research conducted
by RMHC-CNI, they realized that some restaurants that support other charities within Chicagoland can
earn about $14 a day.
● RMHC-CNI also found problems in people donating due to their supposed affiliation with McDonald
Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana
Ronald
McDonald
House
Ronald
McDonald
Family
Room
Ronald
McDonald
Care Mobile
Ronald
McDonald
Scholarship
Ronald
McDonald
Canister
Program
1

4. 1. Why is canister donations in Chicagoland so low compared to other
charities?
a. Is there a lack of awareness of the canister program?
2. What Charities are top-of-mind when it comes to giving donations?
3. What do people search about when it comes to donations?
a. Is there an upward/downward trend in people’s interest to
donate?
4. What are Chicagoans perception when it comes towards Ronald
Mcdonald House of Charities?
1. RMHC-CNI’s can determine why canister donations are so low.
2. Google trends can help determine where RMHC currently stand in customer’s
perceptions.
3. Google trends can help identify which areas within Chicagoland is most willing
to donate
4. RMHC-CNI can gain insights that could improve their marketing efforts
towards areas that are lacking
Benefits of Solving the Problem:
Based on Problem, Questions that Google Trends can Help Answer :
2

5. Competition:
● Salvation Army is the top-of-mind
charity in Chicago-land, followed
closely by Catholic-related charities
● Other charity names that appeared
under donations include: American
Cancer Society, Red Cross, Military
Order of the Purple Heart
Chicagoland’s Interest in Charity:
● Downward interest in charities
● Based on Regional Data Chicago’s
interest in charity is moderate
● Within Chicagoland, Oak Park,
Evanston and Lombard seems most
receptive to donating.
Donation :
● Increase trend in donations
● Plasma/blood donation are of great
interest
● Salvation Army and Goodwill are
closely linked to donation search
terms
● Donations to Army Veterans are also
popular, Along with donating hair
Perception on RMHC:
● Often affiliated with Mcdonald's
Restaurant
● Canister programs leads to no search
trends--could indicate an awareness
problem
● In Chicago,RMHC house and
Scholarship are the two services most
widely associated with RMHC
Executive Summary of Findings :
3

6. ◉ Ronald Mcdonald House Charities
◉ Ronald Mcdonald
◉ Donation,Donate, Donations
◉ Charity, Charities, Charitable donations
◉ Nonprofit, NGO, Non-profit Organization
◉ Canister Program, donation box
◉ Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries
◉ Red Cross, American Cancer Society
Google Trend Terms:
4

7. Perceptions on RMHC in Chicago:
Terms: Ronald Mcdonald (Fictional Character), Ronald Mcdonald House Charities (organization)
● Often affiliated with Mcdonald's Restaurant
● In Chicago,RMHC house and Scholarship are the two services associated with RMHC.
● Canister program or donation boxes didn’t come up in queries nor in related searches. The lack of search
presence could indicate RMHC has an awareness problem when it comes to RMHC’s canister program
5

8. RMHC-CNI vs Competition Regional Interest:
Terms: Ronald Mcdonald House Charities, Red Cross, Salvation Army, American Cancer Society, Military Order of the Purple Heart
Rank by Interest out of 100:
Salvation Army
American Cancer Society
RMHC-CNI
Red Cross
Military Order of the Purple Heart
84
74
53
46
N/A
6

9. Interest towards Charities and donations in Chicago from 2004-2006:
Terms: Charity,Charities, Charitable donations, Donate, Donations, Donation
Downward interest in charities
Catholic charities often
associated with charity
search term in Chicago
Increasing interest in donating
Potential area’s RMHC can
target their marketing
efforts
7

10. Donations:
Terms: Donate, Donations, Donation
Charities that are associated
with “donations”
Type of donations that are of
growing interest
8

11. RMHC-CNI isn’t the top-of-mind charity when it comes to donations. Thus in order to
raise awareness of their canister program RMHC-CNI need to amp up their marketing
efforts regarding the canister program.
How:
◉ Market at areas within the Chicagoland region that is receptive towards donating such as:
Oak Park, Evanston and Lombard
◉ Partner-up with Catholic churches or Catholic affiliated organizations
◉ Instead of just collecting change, RMHC can be inspired by Goodwill type donations thus,
consider donations to be in the form of goods such as clothes, toiletries, games or puzzles,
etc.
*Note:
Based on SFI marketing Research on RMHC-CNI, one of the major reasons people in Chicagoland pass up on donating to
RMHC-CNI is due to their affiliation with Mcdonald. As they assume RMHC-CNI is funded by Mcdonald which is not the case.
A search on Google Trends only reaffirm this association. Thus, RMHC-CNI should make this fact clear in order to be more
effective in their marketing efforts.
Summary & Recommendations
9

12. Social Media Audit:
Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of
Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana
(RMHC-CNI)

13. Social Media Overview and Recommendations
Strengths:
◉ Great engagement
with volunteers
◉ Strong emotional
stories
Weak Points:
◉ Lack of structure
◉ Little content
dedicated to
promoting
donations
Recommendations:
◉ More consistency
◉ Engage both
beneficiaries and
potential donors
◉ Showcase the
impact of donation
dollars
Ideas:
◉ Weekly posts to
showcase
volunteers, families
and donation
impact
◉ Engage families via
tagging and sharing
their content
*For more information refer to RMHC Content Audit pg 27 @ appendix

14. Social Media Ideas: Weekly Posts to Drive Consistent Engagement
#HouseHero of the
Week
#Volunteer of the
Week
#FantasticFamily of
the Week
#DonationDesign of
the Week

15. Social Media Ideas: Special Events Posts to Drive Engagement
For International Day of FamiliesFor RMHC’s 40th Anniversary
Rmhccni It’s RMHC’s 40th Anniversary and all
want as a present is 40 cents
About: #40cfor40
Donating an additional
40 cents or providing a
link or QR Code on the
receipt to donate $0.40
online in honor of the
40th Anniversary
About:
#familiesHelpingFamilies
Families spearheading
donation efforts for families
in need and volunteering.

16. 2
WHY INFOGRAPHIC?
Ronald Mcdonald House can gain trust
and willingness of donation by being
transparent about the money it
collected from people. Using
infographic to explain how the donation
is spent is a good way to engage with
donors.
● Compelling and Attractive
● Easily Scanned & Viewed
● Delivery the knowledge quickly
Places to put infographics:
● Website, FB, Twitter,
Instagram, Pinterest
*Resources to create infographics online on pg 26

17. Social Media Strategy:
Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of
Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana
(RMHC-CNI)

18. Target Audience:
Everyone
Extra attention to
women with families
and millennials (A18-34)
Based on the Problem, Objectives and Research we came to these conclusions:
2
Big Question:
How do we build up that
trust?
Through increase engagement and
transparency
Insight:
Donation is a trust issue.
There is a greater chance of donations
when people are engaged and feel
that their donations matter.
In addition, people are highly
susceptible to social influences, “I
donate because my friends are doing it
too.” In a nutshell, Transparency and
Social Word-of-Mouth would be key
when figuring out a way to raise
donations.

19. About:
We realized that audience engagement and the curation of value and trust plays a key role in
the act of donating. In addition we also realized that social influence is important. Taking into
consideration that RMHC has minimal budget, we decided to devise a social media strategy
based on the redecoration of the cannister boxes
The idea:
❖ RMHC’s current donation boxes are quite plain.
❖ How can we make it more engaging and social-media friendly?
❖ Inspiration: RMHC’s Doors of Hope. Beautifully decorated and it tends to be a photo
spot when people come over to visit with a tendency of it being shared in social media.
❖ Donation Box Art can be an ongoing interactive project that RMHC could tailor depending
on the circumstances. Ex: special box decorating competition for RMHC’s 40th anniversary
❖ RMHC can post their donation box art of the month, winners get prizes
❖ Work together with Greek life (sororities and fraternities) or churches to come up with
donation box art ideas
➢ Alpha Delta Pi (sorority’s national charity is RMH)
Social Media Campaign: Donation Box Art
2

20. Examples:

21. Examples:

22. Social Media Ideas: Examples of Social Media Posts related to Donation Boxes
#KeepingFamiliesClose #PayitForward
Rmhccni Your donation means a lot to the
families and children .#keepingfamiliesclose
Rmhccni Thank you for your donations, as our
appreciation trade in 10 of your brooches for a free
fries/ coke at MCD.#payitforward
#DonationDesign of
the Week
#ItMatters
Books for Amy

23. Collect 10 RMHC brooch pins to trade for a free small fries or drink
Social Media Campaign: Incentive to donation
2
One Brooch per Donation

24. Social Media Campaign: Alternative way to Donate
2
❖ Have donation boxes for toys, clothing, books, and canned food - similar to Salvation Army

25. Additional Resources:
Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of
Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana
(RMHC-CNI)

26. 1. Piktochart: https://piktochart.com/
a. Makes really cool infographic. It has simple interface and tons of
elements to be added into your next infographic. Designed to non-
designers, Piktochart has interactive maps, resizable canvas and
design-driven charts that makes it even more cooler.
2. Canva – https://www.canva.com/ (highly recommended)
a. An amazing tool for professionals and the beginners.The interface of
Canva makes it possible to design a graphic easily. It has expert
filters for advanced editing and it’s simple to use. It gives you
preformatted text, layouts and search engine for images (free and
premium) and with that you also have templates that give you a
jumpstart while creating presentations, infographics and much more.
Definitely worth a try.
3. The Noun Project: https://thenounproject.com/
a. Great for getting free icons, although there would be a watermark. But
if you have access to photoshop or any free photo editing software
the watermark can be easily erased.
4. Cacoo: https://cacoo.com/
a. Cacoo is a user friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create
a variety of diagrams such as site maps, wire frames, UML and
network charts. Multiple users can edit the same diagram in a
simultaneous collaboration..
Websites that can help with graphic design for future content:
2

27. RMHC Content Audit:
RMHC Chicago Website:
● Uses McDonald’s color scheme- reinforces connection to McDonald’s restaurant
○ Should adopt blue and white color scheme of greater organization
● Font tough to read on content pages
● Should be able to click on Parent Links and get an overview of all the sub-sections
● About Us
○ Mission and Impact: Too much text! Great content but it is overwhelming to look at. Try to incorporate infographics and
images to support text and condense content.
○ Stories and News: Great stories but inconsistent format- some of “read more” links but most do not
■ Maybe break it down by year/month so it is easier to search
○ Need to do a better job at explaining the difference between Board of Directors and House of Representatives
● Overall too text heavy- make more use of images and videos!
● Showcase family stories more! Should be featured on the Impact page more prominently
● Really need to stress impact and the effect of donated dollars
● Never explicitly state that you don’t receive funding from the McDonald’s Restaurants- Could go on general About Us Page
○ Addressed on FAQ page but it takes too many clicks to get there, most people won’t go that far
● Would be good to add a general “What We Do” page similar to the overall RMHC site

28. RMHC Content Audit:
Twitter:
Overview: from 3/7/16
● Tweets: 6,493
● Followers: 2,043
● Following: 5,037
● Likes: 3,416
Topics:
● Showing families at the house- could use more personal stories
● Promoting events
● Thanking volunteers and partners
● Encouraging donations and volunteering
○ These posts are pretty infrequent and rarely link back to the main page
Engagement:
● Good job tagging individuals who have donated and partners
○ Could leverage high profile partners that have a lot of followers to try to get them to retweet to their huge following
● Good job retweeting when tagged in a post
● Not much responses on tweets- a few likes and retweets
● Frequency is high around events but trails off day to day
Recommendations:
● Need to link back to the website more so people know where to go to donate/volunteer/learn more
● Already do a great job engaging volunteers with tags and retweets- throw in some self promoting tweets to change it up
● Incorporate more family stories to show impact of donations

29. RMHC Content Audit:
Instagram:
Overview: from 5/7/16
Posts: 467
Followers: 1,919
Following: 753
Hashtags: #KeepingFamiliesClose, #rmhc, #NationalVolunteerWeek,
#RMHCVolunteer, #Poptabs
Topics:
● Thanking volunteers: National Volunteer Week
● Sharing stories of kids and families- fun events, interesting
stories
● Promoting events and donation opportunities- infrequent, no
pattern to it
● Topical events/holidays: Earth Day, May the Fourth be with you,
Chicago Marathon, Giving Tuesday, Holiday Season, Mother’s
Day
Engagement:
● Average around 25-30 likes per post
● Infrequently tag other accounts, should engage more with
specific families and other organizations
○ Ex. Professional athletes who visit, gifts from teams,
etc.
● No pattern to posts, inconsistent week to week
Recommendation:
● Adopt weekly posts to add some structure to your social
schedule
○ Ex. Volunteer of the week, Family story of the week
● Show the effect of donation dollars! Give concrete examples
of how putting a dollar in a donation box can impact lives
● Engage specific families- tag mom’s instagram accounts,
regram posts from family accounts, birthday shout outs
● Keep promoting around family specific holidays and make it
a donation opportunity
○ Mother’s day was great! Why not tie it to Siblings
Day?
○ Look at random holidays and engage on social for
relevant days

30. RMHC Content Audit:
Pinterest
Overview: from 5/7/16
Boards: 11
Pins: 113
Likes: 15
Followers: 265
Following: 30
Topics:
● Boards:
○ Opening New Doors- 10 pins
■ Out dated board- from the opening of the
downtown house in 2012
■ Pictures of doors
■ Cool idea if you tie it to the special doors in the
house
■ Idea: Encourage guests to decorate their doors
and share decoration ideas on Pinterest
○ Hope, Love, Comfort & Care- 32 pins
■ Love this board! Quotes and cute photos of love
and family
■ Incorporate more inspirational quotes- very
shareable
■ Idea: family photo booth→ share photos on
Pinterest
● Boards:
○ Around the House- 14 pins
■ Photos of the house
■ It’s good to have pictures of the facilities but
you should also show the house with
people!
○ Favorite Recipes- 7 pins
■ Great idea, need to put more effort into it
■ Could do a spin off with kid friendly recipes
for mom’s in the house
■ Recipes are huge on Pinterest- great area
to get more followers and engagement
○ Events- 6 posts
■ Pinterest is not a great place to promote
your events. It should be more of a recap
medium than promotional
● Especially since the event passes
and then the posts are out of place
○ Smiling Faces- 10 pins
■ I love this concept. It can definitely be
expanded more. Especially to tie in families
who stop by the house.
■ People love to pin cute babies and animals.
This is a great board to attract followers

31. RMHC Content Audit:
Recommendations:
● Pinterest is a great place to connect with your primary
beneficiaries- Mom’s at the house
● Get them to follow you for ideas of crafts and little pick me
ups (quotes)
● As you earn followers within the RMHC community, you
will also be able to expand through their networks
● Focus on the pins that people will use to keep the
organization top of mind with a few donation related posts
in there as well
● Pinterest Boards:
○ Craft Ideas- 13 pins
■ This fits very well with the theme around
children. Pinterest is a great way to get
moms involved.
■ Idea: include pictures of crafts that were
done at the house to show what donation
dollars can do for families
○ Fun Finds- 5 pins
■ I’m not sure what the focus of this board is. I
think you need to make it a little more
defined and then expand from there
○ Red Shoes- 7 pins
■ It’s a cute idea but there’s not a ton you can
do with it past what is already there
■ Idea: have a red shoe campaign to promote
awareness. Then show case some pictures
of people in their red shoes on this board
○ Recycle with Ronald- 8 pins
■ This is a great concept since it show cases
an easy way to get involved and donate.
■ Incorporate more about ways to give in the
effects of donations
○ Countdown Around Town- this board is empty

32. RMHC Content Audit:
Recommendation:
● Posts are mainly related to events, volunteers but not so
much of family stories
● Posts are not connected
● Can post more about family stories and how little donation
can help a family
● Can craft some stories about the donation box (so far I
don’t see anything related to the donation box at all)
● Not much hashtags, should leverage this with multiple
platforms
● There are a few different facebook pages? It seems very
local and each facebook page is different and very
individualized. Anyway to make it more consistent?
Facebook RMH near Lurie Children’s
● Overview: from 5/8/16
● 4.9/5.0 stars
● Likes: 4261
● Reviews: 261
● Hashtags: #KeepingFamiliesClose, #rmhc,
#NationalVolunteerWeek #globalcauses2016
#superherosaturday #RMHCSquad
Topics:
● There’s a “Donate now” button on the top page near
the “like”
● Star Wars Day
● Some family’s stories
● Global Causes 2016
● Volunteers helping out
● Amazon wish list that they update every week
● Sip Shop Support
● Customers with a cause (CWC)
Engagement:
● Average around 40 likes per post, maybe 1-2 shares
● Updated every few days with pictures

33. RMHC Content Audit:
Facebook Chicago and Northwest Indiana
● Overview: from 5/8/16
● 4.8/5.0 stars
● Likes: 8382 likes
● Hashtags: #NationalVolunteerWeek #keepingfamiliesclose
Topic:
● Events, volunteers, some family stores, news
● Nothing mentioned about donation boxes
Engagement:
● Updated almost everyday
● But not much engagement, each post only has around 10
likes
RMH Charities oakbrook (the main one)
● Overview: from 5/8/16
● 4.8/5.0 stars
● Likes: 844482
● Hashtags: #NationalVolunteerWeek
#keepingfamiliesclose
Engagement:
● Updated almost everyday
● About 500 - 3000 likes per post
● More stories related to children and families
● It pulls in different stories from all the Ronald
McDonald houses everywhere

34. RMHC’s Competitor Content Audit

35. Starlight Children’s Foundation Social Media:
Twitter:
● Tweets: 5,753
● Following: 1,097
● Followers: 6,743
● Likes: 837
● Topics:
○ Information about childhood illnesses
○ Events
○ Promoting donations
● Engagement:
○ Lots of retweets, even when not tagged
○ Very engaged with other related organizations
○ Lots of media- photos and videos
○ Great use of hashtags for donation campaigns
○ Leverage tags to get message out there
About:
Starlight Children's Foundation partners with experts to improve
the quality of life and health for kids and families around the
world- via Starlight Centers in hospitals, donating video game
systems, fun events for kids and families in hospitals
● Partnered with RMHC in the past
Campaigns: Very well integrated throughout all social media
● #GIVEActually
● #PlayinMay
Facebook:
● 23,975 Likes
● Topics:
○ Personal Stories
○ Thanking partners and volunteers
○ Drawing attention to events
○ Information on childhood illnesses
○ Spreading awareness about organization
● Engagement:
○ Consistently getting likes, occasional shares
○ Lots of media- mostly photos
○ Engage with similar charities
○ Don’t point to web page very often

36. Starlight Children’s Foundation Social Media:
Pinterest:
● 278 Pins
● 161 Followers
● 80 Following
● Boards:
○ Innovation
○ Gifts that give back
○ Monday Mantras
○ Healing Children
○ Celebrity Ambassadors
○ Wish Lists
○ Celebrating Childhood
○ Imagination
○ Mom + Dad Moments
○ 2013 Starlight Awards
○ Starlight Stories
○ Inspirations
LinkedIn: 1,745 followers, job posts
YouTube:
● 107 Subscribers
● Video campaigns:
○ Give Actually
○ Play in May
● Promo videos encouraging donations
Instagram:
● 4,830 Followers
● Following 297
● 308 Posts
● Photos of kids playing- tells their story in the caption
● Tons of likes for each photo
● Continuation of video campaigns

37. Boys and Girls Club Social Media:
Pinterest:
● 278 Pins
● 161 Followers
● 80 Following
● Boards:
○ Innovation
○ Gifts that give back
○ Monday Mantras
○ Healing Children
○ Celebrity Ambassadors
○ Wish Lists
○ Celebrating Childhood
○ Imagination
○ Mom + Dad Moments
○ 2013 Starlight Awards
○ Starlight Stories
○ Inspirations
LinkedIn: 1,745 followers, job posts
About: Our doors and our arms are open wide to give young people:
● A safe place to learn and grow
● Ongoing relationships with caring, adult professionals…
● Life-enhancing programs and character development experiences.
● Hope and opportunity
Facebook:
● 1,735 likes
● #youthoftheyear- showcasing candidates for award
● Thanking mentors
● Video with Chicago Bears player
● Infrequent postings
YouTube:
● 105 subscribers
● Videos of events
● Segments from news stories
● Highlight partnerships with athletes
● Sharing individual stories

38. St. Jude Social Media:
ST. JUDE CHICAGO TWITTER:
● https://twitter.com/StJudeChicago
● 266 Followers
● Occasional updates, RMHChicago does a better job at
their local twitter
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?
search_query=st+jude
● 10868 subscribers
● Really high watch rate 2 million the most
● Monthly updates
● employee spotlight, stories of clients, events, educational
videos (help kids flex mental muscle after cancer)
FACEBOOK:
● 1,901,340 likes
● Frequent updates (1-3 days gap)
● Topics range from events, fundraising efforts,
● people comment and share actively
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/stjude/
● 106k followers
● Average 2500 likes (Range 1,000-4500-ish)
● Photos are of events, client stories
● Weekly updates
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/StJude?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%
7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
● 398K followers
● Daily Tweets
● Events, client stories, volunteer and worker stories
● visually heavy

39. Make a Wish Social Media:
Youtube:
● 55,071 subscriber
● 19731 watch for the home page video
● post frequently about 2-3 per months
Instagram:
● 589 posts
● 102K followers
● very active
● About 2K likes per post
● Campaign: #shareyourears
Facebook:
● 792,874 like the page
● very active
● Average like for each post is about 2.1K
● 10+ comments under each posts
Twitter:
● 200K followers
● 2441 likes
● 24.4K tweets
● Very active,post average 5 times a day
● posting news, links, pictures.
● very good at interacting with people using twitter
Impression:

40. YMCA Social Media:
Linkedin:
● 4371 followers
● 1000-5000 employees
● 832 employees on Linkedin
● Updates less frequent (~1 to 15 days, 5-20 likes,
no comments)
Twitter:
● 3747 followers
● 3899 tweets, few tweets a day with ~ 3 likes
Instagram:
● #ymcachicago 31 posts, but no ig page?
Youtube:
● 154 followers
● update once every 1 to few months
Facebook:
● 3.6/5 stars, 2211 likes, relatively active
● updates every 1-few days with 5-10 likes
Impression:
Didn’t feel like YMCA did a good job at being
active and engaging with audience, for
example, each tweet had only 3 likes