Salvation Army gets $2.2 billion gift

NEW YORK - For the Salvation Army in America nothing will be the same again.

Its image as an austere evangelical organisation best known for deploying its uniformed members to ring little bells outside shopping malls at Christmas to raise desperately needed dollars has been abruptly transformed by an unfamiliar glow.

Casting this warming sunshine are the golden arches of McDonalds.

The Army has revealed - after weeks of internal soul-searching - that it has accepted a US$1.5 billion ($2.2 billion) bequest from Joan Kroc, the widow of Ray Kroc, founder of the burger empire.

It is the largest gift ever given to a single charity.

This is more money than the Army manages to raise in the United States through its usual fund-raising activities in a whole year.

It dwarfs even the US$1 billion that cable television pioneer Ted Turner gave to the United Nations several years ago.

Bill Gates of Microsoft once gave away US$6 billion in a single stroke, but the money was destined to foundations and then distributed to multiple groups.

Of course, the Army's leadership is expressing profound gratitude.

Indeed, when Commissioner Todd Bassett, its national commander in the US, spoke about it this week, he kept saying million instead of billion.

"I can't even use the right words," he conceded. "I struggle with it".

But the Army, which is part of the worldwide church founded by William Booth in England in 1865, pondered for several weeks before concluding that it was ready to take the money, because it comes with strings attached.

Ironically, the bequest may actually increase the long-term burden on the Army to raise money every year, rather than ease it.

Ms Kroc, who died aged 75 in southern California last October, stipulated that it be used entirely for the building and operation of 25-30 family centres, evenly spread through the Army's four administrative territories in the US, headquartered in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Atlanta.

The model is the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center that opened in a neglected corner of San Diego in 2002 and built thanks to an earlier donation of US$92 million from Mrs Kroc.

The facility, the only one of its kind currently operated by the Army, covers 12 acres and boasts everything from a gym, large swimming pool, ice rink and theatre space.

It has been credited with transforming the neighhourhood.

The philanthropy of Ms Kroc is already being compared with that of Andrew Carnegie, the American steel baron who spurred the building of libraries as the best hope for down-trodden communities.

Upon her death, she also gave important donations to other needy organisations, including a US$200 million gift to National Public Radio.

Under the terms of her will, the bequest to the Army must be divided in two, with half dedicated actually to building the new centres and the other half to be put in an endowment, the interest from which will help cover operating costs.

But that interest may only cover half the costs of keeping the centres open.

In other words, the Kroc gift means the Army will find itself forced to raise more money every year - at least US$70 million more, in fact - rather than less. "No one realistically was ever gong to turn it down," commented George Hood, national community relations secretary.

"But in accepting it, we are also taking on a significant fund-raising challenge."


- INDEPENDENT