Billionaire Ken Griffin is cutting a big check for some very small patients. The Citadel founder has pledged $3 million to Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Florida to help build a new on-campus family house at Jackson Memorial Medical Center that will bear his name. The seven-story project is designed to add dozens of private guestrooms and family-friendly amenities so parents and siblings can stay close while children receive care. Organizers say the expansion will sharply reduce long waitlists and save more families from shelling out for hotel rooms during long hospital stays.
A bigger house steps onto the Jackson campus
The planned House is a seven-story, roughly 60,000-square-foot complex with 54 private guestrooms, each able to hold up to four people. Every room will have a private bathroom, and each floor is set to include laundry facilities. Plans also call for private family kitchens, a business center, a large communal kitchen and a rooftop gathering space. The expansion is designed to nearly double the charity’s housing capacity and serve more than 420 families a year, according to RMHC South Florida.
Griffin’s gift locks in his name and fuels the campaign
Griffin’s $3 million pledge is headed to the nonprofit’s “Hope Has a New Home” capital campaign, and the new building will carry his name. In a statement, Griffin said the “extraordinary new campus of the Ronald McDonald House will let families stay together during the moments that matter most.” That naming rights deal and quote were reported by The Miami Herald.
Why families will feel the difference
The organization’s current on-campus House, built in 1982, has just 31 rooms and is routinely full. RMHC reports that 128 families were turned away in 2024 and that the average wait for a room ran about 14 days. For families juggling cancer care, transplants and other long treatments, those two weeks can translate into extra hotel nights and added financial strain. The charity says the current site will eventually close once the new building is ready, with operations shifting into the larger campus facility to eliminate the waitlist and broaden services.
Fundraising progress and what’s next
The “Hope Has a New Home” campaign carries a $33 million goal. At the time of the September groundbreaking, organizers reported roughly $26 million raised, leaving a gap local donors are still working to close. Construction partners estimate the project will take about 18 to 24 months, putting completion somewhere in the 2026 to 2027 window, and note that the county’s long-term ground lease helped make the site possible, according to local coverage. Community reporting adds that donors and partners are continuing to push so the house can open debt-free.
Griffin’s gift moves the campaign noticeably closer to its target, but RMHC officials say volunteers, corporate partners and smaller donors are still critical to finishing the build and getting families into those new rooms. Organizers plan to keep fundraising and rolling out donor acknowledgments as construction moves forward.
