Chili's Grill & Bar has pledged $150 million over the next 15 years to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, marking the largest commitment in the two companies' 24-year partnership. The funding will support the new Chili's Clinical Center on St. Jude's campus, which will bring major outpatient services together under one roof and is scheduled to open in February 2027.
The partnership traces back to 2002, when Chili's team members launched the first Create-A-Pepper fundraiser in Memphis. Since then, Chili's guests and team members have raised more than 130 million dollars for St. Jude, contributing to institutions including the Chili's Care Center, the first medical building on the St. Jude campus to carry a corporate partner's name, and the St. Jude Imagine Academy, an on-campus school program for patients. That collective giving has helped support St. Jude's broader mission as the hospital has helped push the U.S. childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent in 1962 to more than 80 percent today.
Kevin Hochman, chief executive officer and president of Brinker International and president of Chili's, said the brand's guests and team members generated more than 3 million individual donations in the past year alone, calling the new pledge a continuation of what the community has already built together. Ike Anand, president and CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising organization for St. Jude, said the commitment reflects more than two decades of steady support that has helped drive higher childhood cancer survival rates both in the United States and internationally.
This September, during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, the annual Create-A-Pepper campaign has returned to Chili's restaurants nationwide. Guests can purchase a coloring sheet for a one, five, ten or twenty-five dollar donation, with all proceeds benefiting St. Jude and completed designs displayed on restaurant walls throughout the month. Running a campaign like this consistently across more than a thousand locations requires careful coordination. Gorilla Dash offers a Competitions and Promotions feature designed to help multi-unit brands plan, launch and track fundraising initiatives like Create-A-Pepper, keeping campaigns aligned across every restaurant.
Chili's operates 1,600 restaurants in 29 countries and two territories, and the new Clinical Center will help St. Jude serve the more than 600 new cancer patients it welcomes each year, with family-centered spaces designed to make treatment easier for patients and their families to navigate.
