Successfully established a Development Office on January 16, 2007. Prior to this point a collection of consultants and one full time employee filling the position of Special Events Manager constituted the fund raising efforts of the charity. A Director of Development, a Foundations Officer/Raisers Edge Administrator, and an Administrative Assistant were added. Two part time consultants were retained, a Planned Giving Consultant was hired and the Direct Mail Consultants of the past ten years were retained. All Event research, planning and execution became a completely In-House operation. Foundations work was also brought under a fulltime employee and Direct Mail and Planned Giving became the responsibility of the Director of Development. The Raisers Edge system was cleaned up and used successfully as a fundraising data base for the first time.

The final results were an increase in total dollars raised over budget by as much as $900,000.00.

Event: Skate with the New York Ranger Greats
Budgeted Goal of $1.1 Million, the gross of $1,271,250 was achieved.

AIG became the Title Sponsor for the event and through the direct influence of CFO Steven Bensinger more than doubled any previous total in the 13 years previous.

Event: New York Pops 24th Birthday Gala Concert
This event was un-budgeted, and brought in a gross of $18,250. This was the first year for this event. The event was comprised of a Cocktail party followed by the concert.

Event: Annual Gala at the Waldorf-Astoria
Budgeted Goal of $2.9 million dollars, the gross was $3.2 million. The Honorees were Laurence Fink, Chairman of Black Rock, and Edward Malloy, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. The Gala was chaired by the Chairman of the Board of the Ronald McDonald House of NY, Inc., Mr. Stanley Shopkorn. Casey Gard, Managing Member of Calypso Capital Management, LP, served as a Member of the Gala Committee and was instrumental in bringing new donors to the event through an innovative approach of a pre-event Cocktail Party at RMDH that lead contacts to make an informed decision.

Event: Monday Night Football with the NY Giants
Budgeted Goal of $450,000, the gross was $373,000. The events shortfall can be attributed to two areas, the lack of involvement by prior supporting Tommy Hilfiger Corporation (7 tables at $10,000 each), and the comparison of Auction Prizes available year over year.

Event: Kids Charity Fun Run
Budgeted Goal of $100,000, the gross was $123,000. Increased penetration into the Catholic School community of the Arch Diocese of NY made the real difference.

Event: Greek Division Holiday Party
Budgeted Goal of $60,000, the gross was $65,000. The Greek Division led by Niki Sederis plans far in advance to make this a successful event.

During the months of July and August, 55 children took part in Camp Ronald McDonald. On an average 10 children participated on a daily basis. The busiest day had 22 kids and the quietest day, had 2.

37 days of arts & crafts, 7 day trips, 3 lunch BBQs, 8 campfires, 6 water fights, 16 dedicated volunteers and an amazing almost Broadway play production of The Wizard of Oz.

Planned activities: Arts and Crafts, Drama, Creativity, Sports, Circus Yoga, Cooking, Science, Swimming, and Roses and Thorns. Roses and Thorns was a daily ritual to end the camp day. At the end of the day, they would Circle Up to review the day and share their good (roses) and not so good (thorns) part of the day.

There were several daytrips: Central Park Zoo, Trapeze School of New York, Hudson River Boathouse for Kayaking, Randalls Island, Bronx Zoo, Bowling at Chelsea Piers, Harriman State Park

To maintain the spirit of Camp, weekly meetings started at the end of November. Discussion for 2008 themes are: Fly me to the Moon; Journey to the Center of the Earth; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; American Indians; Its a Small World; Creature Features; I Love New York; Bridges and Tunnels; What a Sport; Did You Hear That; Magical Mystery Tour; and Wild Inventors.

During the year 2007, the house saw several improvements due to their capital improvement program...

Video Presentation Assembled an audio/visual cart for presentations in common areas during in-house receptions and dinners

Replacing, as needed, existing common area washing machines with better quality Maytag washers.

"New Development Office renovation project: worked with the Architect and owners rep, the IT staff, electricians, mill workers, signage vendor, etc., to ensure that the project was completed in an 8 week time period.

Consistently worked with all departments to ensure that requested House signage was developed with our graphic designer, layouts were approved and signage was received and installed in a timely manner for in-House room dedications.

The Ronald McDonald House won the Best Bets Award from RMHC in Chicago and we able to attend the event with many volunteers team leaders and most of the managers and directors of the House plus board representation.