TRANSITION AT HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

With 500 full-time employees, roughly 500,000 unpaid volunteers, 2,303 affiliates worldwide, and upwards of $160 million in annual donations, Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) is the 19th largest nonprofit organization in the United States. Since it was founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, HFHI has built some 175,000 houses around the world, more than 20,000 of them in a single year. In 2015, HFHI built 228 houses with the help of 1,455 volunteers in Canada alone.

Clearly, what started as a straightforward, ecumenical Christian ministry has grown into a global force for housing the poor and one of the world’s most renowned nonprofit organizations. And that success is due in large part to the efforts of Millard Fuller, an avid fundraiser, prolific author (he has written nine books), sought-after public speaker, and an all-around passionate spokesperson for the cause.

When Fuller’s tenure as president was set to end after 28 years at the helm of HFHI, he and the board of directors had serious disagreements about the transition of leadership. Fuller feared that the board was moving toward a culture of “bean-counting” and away from a strong Christian commitment. He charged that many board members were not spiritually grounded. The board defended its Christian focus but recognized that the organization’s mission had become much larger than the influence of a single individual.

After 11 months of wrangling, Fuller, who was approaching 70 years of age, agreed to step down as CEO and hire an interim CEO. Fuller took a new position with the title founder/president and became the chief spokesperson for Habitat. Taking the CEO position was Paul Leonard, who couldn’t have been more different from his predecessor. Leonard, a retired real estate and construction industry executive, had expertise in organizational development and a deep knowledge of the construction industry. He accepted the position and with it responsibility for the overall management of HFHI for a period of two years.

Only three months after naming Leonard as CEO, however, the HFHI board of directors fired Fuller altogether for a pattern of “divisive and disruptive” public comments and went so far as to lock him out of the HFHI building. In the face of soaring land costs and growing housing regulations, Leonard will have to contend with a changing external environment that requires more careful planning. At the same time, HFHI’s five-year plan calls for the organization to seek exponential annual growth, rather than the 5 to 10 percent annual growth it has been experiencing in recent years.

As a member of the board, you face significant challenges as well. Even though Leonard was a solid choice for interim CEO, the board is conducting an executive search to fill the permanent position. Should the permanent CEO be more like Fuller, a passionate and charismatic evangelist not afraid of setting tremendous stretch goals (like eradicating substandard housing in 20 years), or like Leonard, a methodical executive who can manage and grow Habitat’s sprawling, decentralized organization? Or should the permanent CEO fit an 

altogether different profile?

Your professor will assign you to a team of four students to act as the board of directors of Habitat for Humanity International. As a group, discuss each of the following questions to identify the chief characteristics the new CEO of HFHI will need to possess.

Questions

1. Does Habitat for Humanity need a leader or a seasoned manager? In other words, do you look to fill the CEO position with a visionary leader (like Fuller) or a seasoned manager (like Leonard) whose strengths lie more in organizational development than charismatic passions?

2. The new CEO will need to work with both the employees of HFHI and its hundreds of thousands of volunteers and donors. What leadership style will you look for in prospective candidates to meet the needs of those two constituencies?