A 24-year casual dining partnership just reached a new scale. Chili's Grill & Bar has committed $150 million to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to be distributed over the next 15 years, making it one of the most significant long-term cause-marketing commitments in the restaurant industry. The pledge builds on more than $130 million the brand has already raised through guest and team member donations since launching its first Create-A-Pepper fundraiser in Memphis in 2002.
The New Clinical Center
The centerpiece of the commitment is the Chili's Clinical Center at St. Jude, scheduled to open in February 2027. The facility will consolidate major outpatient services under one roof, designed around family-centered care for the more than 600 new cancer patients St. Jude now treats annually. It follows the Chili's Care Center, which opened in 2007 as the first medical building on the St. Jude campus to carry a corporate partner's name, and the St. Jude Imagine Academy by Chili's, an on-campus preschool-through-grade-12 school program.
"Our new $150 million commitment to support the Chili's Clinical Center builds on everything we've accomplished together," said Kevin Hochman, chief executive officer and president of Brinker International and president of Chili's. He noted that over 3 million individual donations were recorded in the past year alone. Ike Anand, President and CEO of ALSAC — the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude — called the commitment "a powerful example of how generosity can change lives," crediting Chili's guests and team members for helping fuel research that has lifted the overall childhood cancer survival rate in the U.S. from 20% in 1962 to more than 80% today.
September Campaign Details
To activate the pledge at the restaurant level, Chili's is running its annual Create-A-Pepper campaign throughout September for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Guests at all 1,600 locations across 29 countries can purchase a Create-A-Pepper coloring sheet for donations of $1, $5, $10, or $25, with 100% of proceeds going directly to St. Jude. Completed designs fill restaurant walls throughout the month — a low-cost, high-visibility in-restaurant engagement tactic that has proven durable across more than two decades.
For operators tracking casual dining community engagement strategies, the Chili's model offers a clear data point: long-term, structured cause partnerships can generate measurable results at scale. The Create-A-Pepper program requires minimal operational overhead — a coloring sheet and a point-of-sale ask — yet has collectively moved more than $130 million over two decades. For hospitality brands evaluating corporate social responsibility frameworks, the multi-decade commitment structure, with named physical assets at the beneficiary's campus, also sets a benchmark that goes well beyond a seasonal check presentation. Food & Beverage Magazine has tracked the growing importance of purpose-driven brand identity across the foodservice sector as operators seek to differentiate beyond menu and price.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
