Community Giving Essential Through the Decades
Children’s Mercy was built on the generosity of community champions. The hospital has always held a special place in the hearts of Kansas Citians, who have invested in children and families in remarkable ways.
Until 1950, the hospital was entirely funded by donations. There was no medical insurance in the early 1900s, and there was no government support for health care. In addition to support from local businesses and civic leaders, the hospital had an entire community of individual donors who rallied behind the hospital’s mission.
In the early days, our founders advertised the hospital’s immediate needs on a chalkboard outside the hospital, requesting things like home-canned vegetables and fruits, eggs and sheets. They included appeals in the Mercy Messenger and local newspapers, as well.
For people volunteering to sew for the hospital, they published instructions on how to make sheets, blankets, gowns and diapers. And kids across the region held fundraisers – from putting on a show in the backyard to taking up a collection for pocket change, towels and paper dolls. One of the earliest recorded community donations was from a group of little girls in Kinsley, Kansas, who sent sheets, blankets and pillows for the very first bed the founders established.
One of the first of the formal community fundraisers, Mercy Clubs, was organized in 1904 as the Maywood Club, named for the neighborhood where its members lived. The women paid 25 cents a month in dues and met regularly to sew garments and can fruits and vegetables. At one point, as many as 800 clubs from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Arkansas and beyond dedicated at least some of their work to Children’s Mercy. Founders Katherine Berry Richardson and Alice Berry Graham were supported every step of the way by thousands of other strong women and children just as insistent on helping sick children.
Today, community champions throughout our region raise and donate more than $40 million each year to advance world-class care and life-changing research at Children’s Mercy. The community also donates thousands of items like art supplies, toys and clothing, and gives more than 30,000 volunteer hours each year supporting families through volunteer work that ranges from pathfinding to distributing snacks.
Carrying on this tradition, our community also plans more than 300 events to support Children’s Mercy. They range from large golf tournaments to children’s lemonade stands, and every effort is a message to our patients and families that the community around them remembers and supports them.
This support empowers Children’s Mercy to advance research to find better diagnoses, treatments and cures for kids. And it supports non-reimbursable services that make Children’s Mercy a unique and special place for kids and families. This includes things like art, music and pet therapy and coloring books for kids enduring long days of testing and treatment. It also accelerates strategic initiatives like enhanced mental health care and so much more.
"We are part of a remarkable historic culture of philanthropy at Children’s Mercy," said Jenea Oliver, PhD, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer. "That culture is built upon in ways big and small by members of the community who see the work our extraordinary employees do every day and believe that Children’s Mercy is the charity of choice for Kansas City and the region."
