Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego

At least once a year, someone wins the rights to a gorgeous home in San Diego County while also donating money for children in need. It’s real estate meeting charity in an exciting raffle that could land you in a five-bedroom residence in Rancho Santa Fe.

This spring, Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego is hosting its ninth annual Dream House Raffle, an event that has quickly turned into a regular San Diego tradition. As the name implies, one house of prodigious size and extraordinary opulence is made available for the raffle, and anyone who buys a ticket is purchasing one fighting chance at ownership. It is all done to raise money for the local chapter of the Ronald McDonald House Charities, which serves the families of children being treated for serious, life-threatening conditions.

This year’s house is one of the finest that has ever been secured for the contest. The estate boasts five bedrooms and a kitchen fit for even the most discerning of chefs. The garage holds four cars, all of which need only be smaller than a limo to sit comfortably indoors. There is a courtyard that harks back to the Boboli gardens in Florence, and a pool so full and decadent, it overflows its bounds every time someone jumps in—and there is a hot tub that does the same. Situated in Rancho Santa Fe, the location also benefits from a safe neighborhood and topnotch schools.

Chuck Day, current president and CEO of the charity’s San Diego chapter, is in charge of this year’s raffle. "We’ve been doing it more and more successfully every year," he said, "and we probably will be selling more than 32,000 tickets." At $150 dollars per ticket, that amounts to an estimated $4.8 million in proceeds.

The way the raffle works is truly ingenious. The organization partners with a willing homeowner to make a house available for the raffle. The organization then raises money through ticket sales, and once the amount raised for tickets equals the value of the house, the house is converted into a prize option for the winner of the contest. Winners can choose between assuming ownership of the house, or taking a cash equivalent less than the market value of the house. The fundraising revenue itself generates the prize that it eventually makes available to the participants, and therein lies the genius.

Oddly enough, none of the winners have taken the house option when it was available. "In our first eight years, the house has been available three times—which means that we’ve sold enough tickets to make the house available—and each of those times the people have chosen the $1.6 million," Day explained.

Of course, the raffle is much more than just a home giveaway. "We give away about 100 prizes as part of the raffle," said Day, who emphasized that winning a house wasn’t the only reason to sign up for the raffle. Prizes include a Toyota Prius, a Vespa, a Sea-Doo jet ski and $15,000 in cash. Those who buy their tickets before February are entered into the early-bird drawing, which makes them eligible for all of the available prizes, and those who buy multiple tickets are entered into a special multiple-purchase drawing.

The raffle is the most important fundraising event for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego, accounting for at least half of annual revenue raised by the organization. Another major funding source is the McDonald’s restaurant chain itself. At every golden arch’s register, there is a small box in which customers may donate their change. A lion’s share of the donations go to local chapters, and the rest goes to the global Ronald McDonald House Foundation, which bears the responsibility of creating and supporting the various existing local Ronald McDonald houses. This is no mean feat either, as there are currently more than 323 of these houses all over the world. For the San Diego chapter, almost nine percent of yearly revenue comes from these restaurant box donations.

The San Diego house is actually quite unique from many of the other branches. Situated directly across from Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, the house is a 65,000-square-foot structure that, like the other Ronald McDonald houses, is nicely furnished and has a kitchen, lobby, various common rooms for comfort and computer use, and of course, private rooms for sleeping. However, Day speaks of the "two parts of Ronald McDonald House" like one might talk about the multiple personalities.

The first face of the organization is concerned with providing a safe place for families to live while their children are sick and bedridden at the hospital. The average guest stays for around 10 days, but guests have stayed for up to six months in extreme circumstances.

The second and more distinct face of San Diego’s RMHC is that it allows families who aren’t staying the night to access the facilities during the day. In fact, up to 18,000 families a year have access to the facilities. Most RMHC houses don’t have a day program because the houses aren’t close enough to hospitals to make such a program practical, but with the hospital and the house divided by nothing more than a single street, the cooperation is natural.

This year’s raffle is looking to be another big turnout for the organization. Tickets will be on sale through the website, rmhcsd.org, until the end of spring, so there’s plenty of time to save up for your next shot at a mansion in paradise. For $150 a house, it truly is a buyer’s market out there.