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How Joan Kroc's surprise $1.8 billion gift to the Salvation Army transformed 26 communities
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This image provided by The Chronicle of Philanthropy shows Jeff Koonce, member service coordinator at the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Biloxi, Miss., in Feb. 2023. Koonce said he loves the reaction of former residents when they return to the low-income neighborhood and see the gleaming, 52,000 square-foot, state-of-the art recreation palace. - photo by Christiana Botic/The Chronicle of Philanthropy via AP
First-class recreation centers in low-income neighborhoods — dozens of them, scattered around the nation. That was the vision of Joan Kroc, billionaire philanthropist and heiress to the McDonald’s fortune of her husband, Ray. When she died in 2003, Joan Kroc stunned the Salvation Army when she left what amounted to $1.8 billion — roughly half her fortune —with instructions to carry out her wish for the centers.