Salvation Army’s San Diego Division Gets $80-Million from McDonald’s Heiress

The Christmas bell-ringing season has yet to begin, but the red kettle at the Salvation Army’s San Diego division is already overflowing, thanks to an $80-million gift from Joan Kroc, heiress to the McDonald’s fortune.

The gift is the largest in the 118-year history of the Salvation Army and is one of the largest ever made by an individual to a social-services agency. The money will be used to build and endow a 12-acre community center in San Diego that will include a research library, a theater, a gymnasium, an ice-skating rink, a swimming pool, and athletic fields.

The center, to be named after Mrs. Kroc and her late husband, Ray, co-founder of the McDonald’s fast-food restaurant chain, will provide academic programs for children, as well as instruction in music, dance, and theater. It will also offer services for families and the elderly.

“This project is going to have an impact for many, many years,” said Commissioner Robert Watson, national commander of the Salvation Army.

Because the gift is earmarked specifically for the construction and operation of the center, the charity has no plans to suspend its annual kettle drive — or other fund-raising efforts — said Adrienne Finley, director of development for the Salvation Army in San Diego.

In fact, Ms. Finley said, the charity made a point to mail letters to other loyal Salvation Army donors to announce Mrs. Kroc’s gift and to make it clear that contributions were still needed.

“We have 26 other programs and services throughout the county,” Ms. Finley said. “We wanted to make sure that our donors know that we still need their support for those projects.”

Ms. Finley said that Mrs. Kroc was moved to make the gift after touring a dilapidated section of the city with former San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor last November.

Mrs. Kroc then called the Salvation Army, a favorite charity of her late husband, and worked with the group in planning the community center for the area. Mrs. Kroc’s vi sion, said Ms. Finley, is, among other things, to bring Olympic athletes to the center to help create an ambitious sports program for children. The research library will be entirely computerized, with state-of-the-art equipment.

At a recent groundbreaking ceremony, Mrs. Kroc recalled that her husband, who turned McDonald’s into a billion-dollar corporation, enjoyed ringing the familiar Salvation Army kettle bell to solicit donations for the charity during the Christmas season.

“Right now, I bet there’s a lot of bell-ringing going on, with Ray leading the chorus,” Mrs. Kroc said.

Since her husband’s death in 1984, Mrs. Kroc has earned a reputation as a generous philanthropist in her own right. In March she donated $25-million to the University of San Diego for a peace-studies center. In 1996, she was dubbed the “Angel of Grand Forks” after she anonymously donated $15-million to flood victims in the North Dakota town. She acknowledged her role after an increasing amount of attention and speculation in the press about the donor’s identity.