CSR Options:

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Kansas City Pet Project
Prepared by Anna Pick
October 11, 2019

For our company’s new CSR initiative, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Kansas City
Pet Project are two effective considerations. St. Jude affects thousands of lives, changes cancer
rates, and is run primarily by donations. St. Jude isn’t only a hospital, but is considered one of
the world’s premier pediatric research institutions (Source 1). The Kansas City Pet Project
(KCPP) too has made a large impact; they turned a “catch and kill” pound into a 90% release rate
shelter (Source 5). KCPP assists animals from all over the country, is considered a no kill shelter,
and has several adoption centers across the city.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Benefits

Effects Thousands of Children’s Lives
St. Jude is a welcoming hospital that benefits every patient by providing free services for
families and patients. The hospital started in 1962 with the goal to treat children regardless of
race or family’s ability to pay (Source 1). The hospital provides numerous benefits, including
educational outreach efforts to bring health care professionals from around the world to
collaborate on research (Source 3). Elechi, a teenager with sickle cell disease, has been a patient
at St. Jude since she was 6 weeks old (Source 1). She doesn’t think of St. Jude as a place of pain
because she loves the nursing staff and doctors (Source 1). Because of St. Jude and the donations
provided by people across the nation, Elechi gets to live her life to the fullest without her family
having to worry about spending money for her health issues.

Changing Cancer Rates

St. Jude’s mission is to find a cure for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases
(Source 2). This mission provides encouragement for the researchers to continue to prosper.
When St. Jude opened their doors over 55 years ago, the childhood cancer survival rate was
20%, and thanks to the donations, it’s now over 80%, and continually growing everyday (Source
1). U.S. News gathers clinical data directly from children's hospitals through a detailed survey
spanning 10 pediatric specialties and St. Jude is nationally ranked number two (Source 3). The
children's hospital rankings indicate performance in pediatric specialty care. Considering they are
ranked second, it’s clear that the effect they have within their performance in pediatric specialty
care means they are trustworthy of donating to.

St. Jude understands that cancer rates are serious so they do their best to change them, even if it
means concentrating on background information such as employee feedback. In 2017 St. Jude
launched a hospital-wide initiative to improve patient care (Source 4). This initiative was a
survey for employees to fill out about how to improve medical care and safety for the 8,000
patients that come through every year (Source 4). Those survey responses provide many benefits
for St. Jude and there are now many direct patient safety improvements since then (Source 4).

Ran Primarily By Donations

Yes, the cost for every parent and patient at St. Jude is $0, which St. Jude takes pride in (Source
1). St. Jude is supported primarily by donations raised by the largest healthcare related charity in
the world; the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (Source 2). This nationally
ranked pediatric specialty hospital is different from others because patient care, lodging, and
food are all provided for the parents and patients for free (Source 3). The families of these
children have short-term to long-term housing options available to them (Source 1). Without the
donations, this hospital wouldn’t provide for so many families and patients.

Although St. Jude needs the money to help with the

treatments for the children, they further have to pay
salaries to the researchers, nurses, and doctors who
provide for the children. The salaries that they pay
fall within the 50th to 75th percentile of the market
average (Source 2). St. Jude’s revenues are
continuing to rise every year as more people learn
about the hospital and choose to donate (Source 2).
Their revenues continually outweigh their expenses,
so that isn’t a worry for us to consider whether to
choose them as our CSR, as seen in the graph
(Source 2). Donating to St. Jude can be beneficial to
our company and to the people around the world suffering from cancer. Source 2

Kansas City Pet Project Benefits

Assists Animals From All Over
The Kansas City Pet Project (KCPP), is the third largest open admission no-kill animal shelter in
the United States and the largest in the KC area (Source 5). With it being so large, KCPP takes in
animals from all over the country (Source 5). There are over 3,000 volunteers who care for over
10,000 animals each year, making this project beneficial to many animals and pet lovers. KCPP
turned healthy-pet-killing pounds into adoption centers across the city for abandoned animals to
happily stay while waiting to find their home (Source 5). Contributions, grants, and gifts are all
necessary to keep these shelters up and running, which is why we should consider donating to
KCPP (Source 7).

Not a “Catch and Kill” Shelter

Only 8 years ago, 38% of animals made it out of the pound that KCPP used to be (Source 5). In
2011, city officials selected KCPP to take over the old shelter and the motto changed from “catch
and kill” to “solutions, not excuses” (Source 5). Today, Animal Control doesn’t treat animals
well around the KC area, so KCPP is also currently putting a lot of focus on taking over Animal
Control to provide a better service for the citizens and animals of Kansas City (Source 8).
The reason many shelters “catch and kill,” is because they do not have enough room for the
animals to be kept. KCPP understands that this is a problem for other shelters and makes it a
priority so that it’s not a problem for them as well. Since space can sometimes be limited, the
shelter has special occasions where they have “$25 adoption day,” so that more animals are
adopted out of the shelter (Source 6).

Several Adoption Centers Across City

Today, with up to 28 pets brought into a shelter daily, it’s important to keep expanding the
shelters across the Kansas City area (Source 6). The CCO of KCPP says that sometimes they
have to get creative to save pets' lives, but in the end it’s always worth it (Source 6). Shelters can
be expensive, which is why KCPP needs voters to approve a general obligation bond fund for
construction of a new animal shelter (Source 8). If costs are more than expected for each new
shelter that is put out, KCPP is required to raise more money before starting the project (Source
8). The main ways that they receive money is by contributions, grants, and gifts. In 2018 the
revenue totaled $3,769,473 (Source 7).

The main need for donations is to help build new shelters and to provide the animals with a place
to stay. The CCO mentioned that it’s always all hands on deck to save lives at the shelter,
because these animals’ lives depend on the donations and time of the community (Source 6). The
13 different adoption centers across the city make a difference in animals’ lives by finding them
happy homes (Source 5). As KCPP continues to work towards an endowment to help offset
operation costs of another new facility, we should consider donating or volunteering as a
company (Source 8).

Recommendation and Rationale

Both of these nonprofits have significant impacts on the lives of animals and children. St. Jude
continues to raise the bar for research focused specifically on cancer while sharing that
information with doctors and researchers around the world (Source 2). KCPP is still advancing to
increase the number of homeless pets adopted by focusing on life saving programs (Source 5).
As you can see, both nonprofits can bring our company together to make a real difference in our
community, which is why we should consider choosing one of them for our CSR initiative.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital would be the best choice because they rely primarily on
donations from around the country that benefit cancer patients (Source 1). Although KCPP is a
great cause, it doesn’t require to be run primarily by donations (Source 5). Providing for St. Jude
will help with the cancer rates and help those families with sick children who aren’t able to pay
for their health issues. After taking into consideration both of these nonprofits, I hope you
consider St. Jude as our new CSR.
Reference List:

Organization 1 Name: ​St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Source 1: ​Organization Website

Author St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Publication Date 2019

Title Timeline: From Dream to Reality

Source Title St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Website

Link https://www.stjude.org/about-st-jude/history/ti
meline.html

Source 2: ​Financials
Author Charity Navigator

Publication Date 2018

Title ALSAC - St. Jude Children’s Research

Hospital

Source Title Charity Navigator Website

Link https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?b
ay=search.summary&orgid=12847

Source 3: ​News
Author U.S. News

Publication Date 2019

Title St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Source Title U.S News Health

Link https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/
tn/st-jude-childrens-research-hospital-652081
 5

Source 4: ​Article
Author Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Publication Date June 2017

Title St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital uses

AHRQ Survey to Promote Patient Safety

Source Title Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Website

Link https://www.ahrq.gov/news/newsroom/case-st
udies/201709.html

Organization 2 Name: ​Kansas City Pet Project

Source 5: ​Organization Website

Author KC Pet Project

Publication Date 2019

Title About KC Pet Project

Source Title KC Pet Project Website

Link https://kcpetproject.org/about-kansas-city-pet-
project/

Source 6: ​News Article

Author Charlie Keegan

Publication Date July 2019

Title KC Pet Project Shelter at ‘crisis capacity,’

Offering $25 Adoptions This Weekend

Source Title KSHB Kansas City News Station Website

 Link https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/kc-pe
t-project-shelter-at-crisis-capacity-offering-25
-adoptions-this-weekend

Source 7: ​Financials
Author Guidestar

Publication Date 2019

Title Kansas City Pet Project

Source Title Guidestar Profile

Link https://www.guidestar.org/profile/45-3067615

Source 8: ​News Article

Author Paul Thompson

Publication Date April 2018

Title KCMO Council Green-Lights $18 million

Animal Shelter

Source Title Northeast News

Link http://northeastnews.net/pages/kcmo-council-
green-lights-18-million-animal-shelter/