New look, same heart
Building on our legacy, our modernised brand better reflects our mission and the many ways we support families with ill or injured children.
For over 45 years, Ronald McDonald House has supported families with ill or injured children, across the world, surrounding them with a community of support and the resources they need to stay at the heart of their child’s care to ensure the best possible health outcomes.
Since our first house in Sydney in 1981, Ronald McDonald House has supported over half a million families. Since then, we have grown to give families much more than a place to stay. Today, we have 56 Programs across Australia providing essential services with wrap-around care close to the hospital, to help make their journey a little easier.
To communicate everything we do, we’re excited to be introducing a new modernised brand that will improve how we look, sound and feel through images, colours, the way we talk about ourselves, and more.
Our bold ambition to double the number of families we support, across Australia, by 2030.
Our brand is widely recognised and loved, but it needs to better show all the ways we support families with ill and injured children.
In the past, the breadth of what we do has not been as clear as it should be for our community of supporters, partners, volunteers and families – and this has limited the support and donations we have received to enable us to support all the families who need our help.
And, because demand for our services continues to increase, we need to grow to be able to support every family that needs us.
We have a bold ambition to double the number of families we support by 2030. By highlighting what we do in a better way – through a new sound, look and feel -our brand will ultimately help us to gain more support to help more families who need us.
Now our modernised brand has united us across Australia. It represents our Ronald McDonald House network — which is a collection of 11 independently run, state-based organisations in Australia — as one unified team, offering the same essential services to families with ill and injured children, no matter where they live.
Now, Ronald McDonald House is taking bold step forward, rolling out a refreshed look and feel across the world, which includes a new name and logo that reflects our mission and the community of support, comfort and strength we continue to provide to families through essential, wraparound care.
While our look is evolving, our unwavering commitment to families remains as strong as ever.
Built on our commitment that founder Dr Audrey Evans had over 51 years ago to put families at the heart of their child’s care, because the love and support of family is essential and they both deserve to be surrounded by care.
As our heart beats stronger than ever, we are even more determined to give every family what they need to ensure the best health outcomes for their children.
Our new brand is modern, dynamic and impactful, and builds on the strength of our history and all we do. It will help us attract more supporters so we can grow and help more families who need us in the future.
We promise to keep you updated along the way as we take this bold step forward to shape the next part of our story.
We’ve developed our new brand by collaborating with all sorts of people.
Across the world, we have researched, consulted with and listened to our families, volunteers, supporters, the hospitals we work with, partners, suppliers and our Founding and Forever Partner McDonalds. They have all been a key part of our work to modernise our brand. We have worked with insights from all of these stakeholders and experts in the field to ensure our modernised brand reflects the mission we share and strengthens our position for the future we are building together.
We are updating our brand to help better identify and communicate Ronald McDonald House and what we do to our families, supporters, partners, and funding bodies as an independent, nonprofit organisation that provides essential services which enable families to stay together, stay strong and promote healing when their ill or injured child needs healthcare.
Introducing a new brand is not just symbolic. It’s a change to the way we engage with important stakeholders like you, the way we talk about ourselves, and the way we make others feel. Our brand modernisation has been built at a Global level to help bring all our network together across Australia and the world, with a strong resilience and a spirit of collaboration and consistency. Our new brand will also be accessible for everyone. It will stand out against other brands and communicate what Ronald McDonald House stands for and our mission to support families who are ill and injured. It will help build trust and greater awareness of all our essential services, highlighting Ronald McDonald House is more than just a place to stay. And with these changes, our modernised brand aims to build stronger support for our mission, grow for the future to enable us to realise our vision of supporting every family who needs us.
Ronald McDonald House Global is sharing the cost as a Global body, though this cost has been modest in this instance, the work has been shared by all our Chapters World Wide to enable cost efficiencies. Plus, Ronald McDonald House Australia has shared any local production of our brand, Australia-wide, to enable further cost efficiencies across our Australian Chapters. We have terrific pro-bono support from our agency partners and suppliers to bring the new brand to you all as cost-effectively as we can.
At Ronald McDonald House, we’re focused on improving the understanding of our services and brand to drive more support and funding, which is required for us to meet the growing demand of families with ill or injured children who need our essential services. With our support, these families are able to stay at the heart of their child’s care and ensure the best possible health outcomes, no matter where they live. For that reason alone, we believe this was a much-needed modest investment.
The implementation of our new brand will also provide significant savings to our organisation moving forward, thanks to the efficiencies we are generating through being able to share our new consistent national photography, digital assets, videos, marketing and fundraising materials and the many materials that we use to help inform and support our families.
We expect some, but very little. The process chosen to introduce the new brand in a phased approach, over the next 12 months, means that there is enough time to use up most stock and replace most branded materials and equipment as part of the normal operations of our Chapter organisations. With a unified look and feel, our new modernised brand also allows us to share branded materials across our Chapters, reducing duplication. This is the most cost-effective and sustainable way of introducing the brand and ensures minimum waste.
No, our purpose remains the same. Ronald McDonald House, still exists to care for families with children who are ill or injured. Our modernised brand aims to better articulate this purpose, and communicate what Ronald McDonald House stands for, help build trust and greater awareness of what we do and drive support for our bold ambition to double the number of families we support, across Australia, by 2030.
No, Ronald McDonald House is still providing the same essential services across Australia, for families with ill or injured children. Our 56 Programs* across Australia – Houses, Family Accommodation, Family Rooms, Family Hubs, Family Retreats, Learning Program and Hospitality Carts – remove barriers and provide wrap-around care with practical, emotional and financial support for over 89,000 families* throughout their child’s healthcare, all close to the hospital, for as long as they need it.
Our modernised brand aims to better highlight the breadth of our services, so people understand all that we do. This will help us drive greater support and funding to enable us to facilitate the increased demand we have for our services, and to support more families who need our help now and in the future.
*Number of services and families served in 2025.
No, our Chapters are not merging. Each Chapter in Australia, and across the World will remain under its current structure and as part of the existing federated model. The new brand is all about better identifying ourselves as an independent Global non-profit organisation that provides a wide range of essential services that remove barriers, care for, strengthen and support families with ill or injured children, to ensure better health outcomes. It’s a way to bring all our Chapters together, with a strong spirit of collaboration and consistency.
Find out more about how Ronald McDonald House is structured and what a Chapter is here.
