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The Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division

The Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division Officially Awarded $50 Million Kroc Challenge Grant to Build Community Center on Detroit’s Eastside
Begins Campaign to Raise $48 Million in matching funds

Kroc News 2007

The Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division Officially Awarded $50 Million Kroc Challenge Grant to Build Community Center on Detroit’s Eastside

Begins Campaign to Raise $48 Million in matching funds


The Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division announced that it has been officially awarded a $50 million Kroc Challenge Grant by The Salvation Army Central Territorial Headquarters to build and endow a Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center on Detroit’s eastside. The non-profit must now raise the challenge grant’s matching $48 million before beginning the construction phase of the $98 million project.

“The gift from the estate of Joan Kroc represents an unprecedented opportunity for The Salvation Army to develop innovative new programming focused on positive outcomes at a time when the city of Detroit needs them most,” said Major Norman Marshall, Divisional Commander of The Salvation Army Eastern Michigan Division. “The facility will be much more than a recreation center. It will be a lifeline providing desperately needed resources to the low-income and disadvantaged people it is intended to serve.”

Joan Kroc, wife of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, left The Salvation Army $1.6 billion when she died in 2003 specifically designated for the construction and endowment of community centers across the country. The Salvation Army’s Midwest Region was allocated $400 million of this trust. According to the terms of the Kroc gift, half of the award money will be allocated to capital while the other half will be reserved for endowment. The money cannot be used to supplement any annual fundraising or current operation costs.

“The challenge grant awarded to the Eastern Michigan Division for the Detroit Kroc Center is the largest distribution of funds from the Kroc gift to date in the Midwest,” said Commissioner Ken Baillie, who oversees The Salvation Army’s work in the Midwest. “After nearly two years of extensive planning and community outreach, we felt certain that Detroit would be an excellent steward of the money – ensuring that Mrs. Kroc’s gift would be used in the manner intended, as well as in line with the overall mission of The Salvation Army, which is to serve others without discrimination.”

The Detroit Kroc Center will be located on 30 acres of land in the city’s Chandler Park, located at the corner of Conner and Frankfort. Both the city of Detroit and the Detroit Housing Commission, as a part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), worked with The Salvation Army to make this land available at an affordable cost.

This location was selected because it offers the greatest potential for strategic impact – with nearly 200,000 people residing within a three mile radius of the site. The surrounding neighborhood’s population skews to a younger average than is typical for Detroit as a whole, with a significant number of young children.

"We thank The Salvation Army for their long history of caring about and for the people of Detroit and for choosing to bring the Kroc Center and a sense of renewed hope to this Eastside neighborhood," said Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick. "I applaud their commitment to our community. This Salvation Army center will serve many needs helping to make the Next Detroit a reality for thousands."

The area also has a median household income below the average for the city. Equally as important, the location on Conner Avenue provides easy access from most all of the Eastside, making the Detroit Kroc Center a truly regional facility.

“Located on this specific site, The Salvation Army will be able to meet a huge need of the poor and meet its mission,” said Maggie DeSantis, president of the Warren Conner Development Coalition and Salvation Army Liaison to the Detroit Eastside Community Collaboration (DECC). “The organization will also be offering an accessible, visible ‘beacon’ that will attract those who can pay, as well as those who can't without help. Opportunity and need, at the same time, I believe this was the vision of Joan Kroc.”

Plans for the Detroit Kroc Center call for construction of a 100,000 square-foot facility, designed to provide resources that develop body, mind and spirit. It will include a recreation center, aquatic center, athletic fields, classrooms, computer labs, performing arts training & rehearsal classrooms, a chapel, community events hall, food service area and administrative space.

“This facility and its programming is not intended to take away from the existing programs that provide more than 4.2 million points of service annually throughout our metro community,” said Marshall. “During these challenging economic times, it is our goal to have the Detroit Kroc Center serve as a complement to these programs and provide a much needed buoy, raising the total level of service to the metro community.”

The Detroit Kroc Center is expected to provide a broad range of programming and services to people of all ages, including computer training, senior citizens activities, fitness classes, sports leagues, Christian education, wellness groups, vocational training, academic tutoring, social service case work, counseling, character building groups, summer day camps, worship services, life skills development, among many more.

“After nearly two years of community research, project development and financial feasibility studies it was encouraging for The Salvation Army to learn that a broad range of people from the metropolitan Detroit community believe our goal of raising $48 million is doable,” said Wayne Doran, chair of the Ray and Joan Kroc Blue Ribbon Project Development Committee. “We must raise it as we cannot afford to lose this $50 million challenge grant.”

Doran continued, “For those who may ask, ‘Can our community afford such a center?’ I say we can’t afford to not have it. Having spent 32 years in this community, I have experienced the outpouring of generosity. I am confident the community will respond and make the commitment to help us meet this challenge grant and get this center built, making our dream a reality for the community.”

Although the campaign to raise the challenge grant’s remaining $48 million has just begun, there are many in the metropolitan Detroit community who have committed to seeing the project through to fruition and have signed on as members of the Ray and Joan Kroc Gold Ribbon Citizens Committee.

“I am committed to helping The Salvation Army bring the Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center to Detroit,” said Edsel B. Ford II, member, Ray and Joan Kroc Gold Ribbon Citizens Committee and immediate past chairman of The Salvation Army National Advisory Board.

Founded by William Booth in London, England, in 1865, The Salvation Army is a faith-based, non-profit organization dedicated to serving people in need without discrimination. At work in Michigan since 1887, The Salvation Army operates 180 facilities throughout the state. Annually, these facilities provide more than 3.5 million meals and 600,000 nights of shelter for the homeless. The Salvation Army across America currently has over 1,200 community centers working with children, young people and families. Joan Kroc’s decision to select The Salvation Army as her steward of “trust” to construct 40 Kroc Centers across America is based on her knowledge and careful observation that The Salvation Army’s mission and commitment to needy people in areas of health, education, welfare and faith is making a difference, and will leave a most meaningful and lasting legacy.