Community Leader Spotlight
Featuring Kierstin Eifler, President and CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities® of Michiana
So, what brought you to Ronald McDonald House® six years ago?
It was an unexpected journey to the role but one that I definitely view as my calling. There’s no magical story behind it — I was made aware of the opening and applied, and the rest is really history. I believe this is truly what I was meant to do. When your career passion aligns as perfectly as this has, there’s just nothing like it.
Tell us about the RMHC® mission — is it just for small children?
Our mission is simple: we take care of families of sick and injured children ages 21 and younger. This is important to know because sometimes people confuse us with other not-for-profits or organizations that may only take care of families with children who have cancer or other specific illnesses. We serve a much broader population. Another misconception is that we only take care of families with NICU babies. People are often surprised to hear that we will take care of a family who had a 20-year-old involved in an accident. And a key component of our mission is that all of our RMHC services are provided at no cost to families.
What has surprised you about RMHC?
The biggest thing that surprised me was how caring and compassionate the staff and volunteers are. These groups of people will literally do anything for our families in need, and I truly mean anything. It’s just an incredible feeling to see that every day and to see how far some of these individuals will go with sympathy and empathy, and making sure that families have everything they need while they’re going through some of the hardest times in their lives. We currently have between 150-200 volunteers at any given time.
What kinds of changes have you seen in the past six years?
I would say the first thing that comes to mind was navigating the pandemic and the leadership that it required to really help our team weather the storm. Every single day was an operational conversation: What do we need to do next? What do we need to anticipate? What is the CDC saying? What is the hospital saying? What is RMHC Global saying? And on top of making sure our operations and our families were taken care of, we had to reach our donors and our volunteers, building upon different mechanisms to make sure that our stakeholders had what they needed. We didn’t have volunteers here for well over a year. Those challenges made us pivot operationally.
One of the positive outcomes of the pandemic was a new program, Lunches with Love. We now deliver lunches every Monday through Friday to the Memorial Hospital hematology oncology unit that serves children and families who are going through treatments for blood disorders and cancer. We didn’t realize there was that need until the pandemic hit, and we’ve continued that program.
Also, in 2017, RMHC went from a three-bedroom family room to a 20-bedroom house. That meant going from serving three families overnight to 20 families on any given day in addition to unlimited day guests using our shared space from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
How has marketing impacted the success of RMHC?
Marketing has played a huge role in the success of RMHC because without it people wouldn’t know we were here! Marketing has brought people to support our mission, whether it’s donating, volunteering, or sharing with their loved ones what we do and who we are. And marketing has been the foundation for our development team to help raise the money needed to keep our operations open 24/7 and to keep everything at no cost to families.
It takes multiple touch points to connect with people and make them want to take action. Our marketing is designed to meet people where they are and communicate with them in an engaging way so they’ll want to join us in our mission and become a part of our RMHC family. A multi-channel approach is the best strategy when it comes to reaching all stakeholders. We use social media, public relations, community outreach and special events the most. We now have four signature events annually: our Mardi Gras event in February; our annual golf outing in June; our annual dinner gala, McDazzle, in October; and then we wrap up the year in November or December with our annual radiothon.
What’s new on the horizon for RMHC?
We have a big event that’s coming up from April 25-28 that is unlike anything else that we’ve ever put on! Instead of our traditional Mardi Gras event, we are doing a big balloon build which will be only the fifth time that it has been hosted in the US! It features 75 balloon artists from around the world coming to Elkhart to create an immersive experience with more than 125,000 biodegradable balloons. We’ll be filling the Northern Indiana Event Center (a/k/the RV Hall of Fame). And we’re super excited because it will be a family-friendly, county-fair-themed balloon experience. We’ll have a petting zoo, carnival-themed games, and all kinds of different food, too. Not only is it our first family-friendly event, it’s also our first event in Elkhart, which is wonderful as Elkhart County is one of the largest populations we serve.
What’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?
I hate to admit this … but I check my email! Just to make sure there aren’t any fires or anything crazy. With a 24/7 operation, it’s warranted!