Millard Fuller

Millard Fuller: They want to know how Habitat has been able to grow so large—how we've managed to find the resources to scale-up globally. Most social entrepreneurs have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish but they don't have a clue about where they are going to get the money, and so they go charging off. They see something wrong that they want to right and they run square into the problem of "I don't have any money." And unless you solve the money problem, you don't do very much.

Practically everything you do costs money. If you don't have the money, your whole program comes to a grinding halt.

Identify Your Citizen Base

SD: You've said you've got to figure out who is your natural constituency. Who's your natural base?

Millard Fuller: You have to know who your base is. Habitat for Humanity's base is the church.

SD: How do you figure out who is your base? And figure out your strategy?

Millard Fuller: Different people have different interests in life. There are people who have a passion for politics. There are people who have a passion for mental health causes. There are people who are passionate about their faith, and people who are passionate about social justice.

You have to figure out how to get to the folks who are interested in what you're doing. In our case, we have a double motivation we're appealing to: We're appealing to people in general, putting their religious faith—particularly the Christian faith—into practice, and applying it in a practical way in the world.

And then there are other people who are just interested in housing—affordable housing. Some of them are religious and some are not.

Poverty housing is a global epidemic: an estimated 1.2 people live on less than $1 dollar per day and 3 billion on less than $2

We've learned that people who have a profound religious motivation will stay with you longer than others. People who have a secular motivation tend to come and go, particularly corporations.

Corporations are fickle. You'll be their fad one year and the next year they'll leave you and go get something else because their primary motivation is not solving the problem that you're working on. Of course, you always appreciate their support, but you have to recognize it for what it is.

Expatriates = Natural Constituencies

SD: You say your goal is to have Habitat operating in every country in the world and you already have a presence in 100 countries, which you say is the "low-hanging fruit." This is really impressive. What is your strategy for expanding? How have you done it, staffed it, and raised the money for it?

Millard Fuller: You have natural constituencies. Every country in the world has got big populations here in the United States. So when we started building in the Philippines, we found all the Filipinos we could in this country and started by going to them and saying, "Hey, wouldn't you like to help out in your home country?"

Or in Egypt we built 5,000 houses and we worked with the Coptic Orthodox church and the Coptic Evangelical church. Literally, last week we had the national director of Habitat's program in Egypt going around the United States visiting Egyptian churches. He comes marching in and says, "We're building houses for Egyptians. You're Egyptian. Wouldn't you like to help?" And a lot of them do. They start giving money, and we organize work teams from those Egyptian churches to go over there.

Many times people don't help because they don't have a way to help. They can send a check to their relatives back home, but sometimes after people have been in this country for two or three generations, they have tenuous ties with their homeland. They don't have many relatives back there, if any. But they still know they're Egyptian and they're proud of being Egyptian.

But how do you send money back to Egypt? Who's going to write a check to the Egyptian government? Nobody. But if it's for an organization—especially a Christian organization that is building houses for the poor, and they can get a photograph of the house that gets built, and they can get some information about the family—they say, "Wow, yeah, I'll donate to that." You find natural constituencies.

We are going into Iran because of one family. There's a man in New York who is a secular Greek—he's not a practicing Christian—married to a secular Muslim woman from Iran. The guy's made a lot of money. He started mailing us checks: $5,000, $10,000.

Well, you get checks like that and it gets your attention. Our fundraising people went to see the couple and said, "Wow, you've been mailing big checks to Habitat." They said, "Yeah, we love what you do. But we really would like to see Habitat in Iran. And also, we want to meet your president."

So I went up to New York and I met with them. And we hit it off. I said to the woman, "You're Muslim but you're not a practicing Muslim." And I said to the man, "You're a Christian but you're not a practicing Christian. Why would you want to support a Christian organization?"

They said, "Because we like what you do, and it doesn't matter that you're Christians—that doesn't offend us in any way because we see what you do. We want to see Habitat in Iran. If you start in Iran, we'll give you a million dollars."

I said, "Well, I don't know how to do it. It's difficult to get into Iran."

They said, "Look, we like what you're doing so much we'll give you a million dollars. You just make your best effort to get it going in Iran. If you can't make it go in Iran, you can use the money somewhere else." They've already sent us $250,000.

In the meantime there was a devastating earthquake in Iran, and the Iranian government opened up and our own government opened up. What had been impossible before became possible. Our government's giving us a license to go in there. And the Iranian government's opened up for us to come in there. It doesn't bother them that we're a Christian organization. Probably 100 percent of the people we are building for are Muslims.

Habitat for Humanity homes replace improverished housing like this shanty housing on display at its Global Village and Discovery Center near Americus, Georgia

We'll run through $1 million dollars pretty fast, but that gets you going. So we didn't have any plan to go to Iran, but this couple in New York said, "We'll give you $1 million dollars to go into Iran," and we said, "Okay, we'll see if we can't get in Iran." That's what I mean by low-hanging fruit. (Note: In November, 2004, the U.S. government denied Habitat's license request because of the political problems with the Iranian government.)

The president of the little country Guyana came to Jimmy Carter's office and said, "I want Habitat in my country." So Jimmy Carter called me up and said, "I've got Cheddi Jagan, the president of Guyana, in my office. He wants to start Habitat in his country."

I did a little research on Jagan and went walking into his office and said, "Well, Mr. President, I'm glad you want to see Habitat come into your country but there are two problems." He said, "What is it?"

"First of all, we're not a government program. We don't even take government funds for the building of Habitat houses."

"That's not a problem," he said. "We're a poor country. I'm glad you don't want any money." And I said, "The other thing is, we're a Christian organization and I know that you're Hindu." "Not a problem," he said, "I love Christians."

So Cheddi Jagan took us into Guyana—Habitat was started by a Hindu in Guyana. The other irony is—if you know anything about Guyanese politics—about half the population is Indian, almost all of whom are Hindus. The other half are descendents of slaves from Africa, almost all of whom are Christians. They've got two political parties and they are at each other all the time.

Reaching Potential Contributors

SD: These are people who have come to you asking for Habitat's programs. How do you reach out to expand your base?

Millard Fuller: Our biggest method of fundraising is direct mail. A little more than one-third of all of our income for our budget here in the United States is from direct mail. We've about maxed it out in the U.S.

SD: Maxing out direct mail means that you must have mailed to every person in America?

Millard Fuller: The people you have to write to are direct-mail-responsive people. Not everybody is a direct-mail-responsive person. Some people don't send checks through the mail to anybody for anything.

SD: How many people in America are direct-mail responsive?

Millard Fuller: I don't know the exact number but it's a lot of folks—it's probably 70 or 80 million. The people who give you the most money are people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies. Those people are making as much money in their fifties as they have ever made in their lives. The kids are gone and they've got disposable income. So they can write checks to Habitat for Humanity and other groups.

Sometimes people get into their sixties and seventies and older and don't have as many expenses, but they don't have as much income either. Still, they tend to be generous because people begin to think about death the older they get. They're not going to have treasures in heaven—and they realize that going on another cruise is not going to get them treasures in heaven.

Or they want to leave something behind and they start thinking about God and their own mortality. "How will I be remembered?"

Who ever hears somebody at a funeral talking about how many cruises somebody took? Or how big their house was? Or how much money they had in the bank? People always talk about what the deceased did for others.

That's what has lasting value in the scheme of things. People know that and they want to leave a legacy rather than just being known as some greedy, self-indulging, cruise-taking blob of flesh. So they send you checks. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

This Habitat for Humanity house was the last Habitat-built home in Americus, putting an end to poverty housing in that Georgia community. It is part of Habitat's 21st Century Challenge to get cities and towns to pledge to end poverty housing in their community—and then do it. Habitat proved it is possible and now more than 100 communities are participating.

SD: Direct mail is one-third of your base—that has been your trademark. Letter writing is very important. The other part presumably comes from high-net-worth individuals like the people that have funded your expansion into new countries?

Millard Fuller: Churches and individuals give a lot of money—individuals through direct mail and through other means. We don't get very much from foundations. We get a lot of support from the corporate world, like Whirlpool Corporation which puts a stove and refrigerator in every Habitat house in the United States—worth $5 million a year. Dow Chemical Company gives insulation and the Larson Manufacturing Company in South Dakota puts a storm door in every Habitat house in the United States.

That's in-kind support. Citibank writes a lot of checks, as does Bank of America. We have a wonderful partnership with Lions Club which has committed $12 million to Habitat—$3 million a year for four years. When we build a house for a family with disabilities they put money into it.

Beyond Money: Invite Involvement

SD: When President Clinton awarded you the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996, he said you had "revolutionized philanthropy." Why do you think he said that? What did he mean?

Millard Fuller: I think it's connected with the idea that people like to see what their money is paying for. It's been said that Americans will support anything they can take a picture of.

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We recruit and solicit for personal involvement, not just money. There's an axiom in fundraising that "money follows involvement."

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Habitat for Humanity has linked charitable giving to volunteerism. Most charitable organizations just ask you to mail the check—that's all they ask you to do—and then they have a staff that spends the money for the "good cause" that they are espousing.

In the case of Habitat for Humanity, we recruit and solicit for personal involvement, not just money. There's an axiom in fundraising that "money follows involvement." We get so many people who get their hands dirty out on a work site and then they are so eager—they want to support the work.

I had a touching letter last week from somebody who went into a restaurant where there was a woman wearing a Habitat T-shirt. She was caring for someone who, they found out, was her husband. He was suffering from Alzheimer's and he had a Habitat T-shirt on.

So this person, who was a Habitat staff person, went over to these people and said, "I see your Habitat T-shirts. I'm with Habitat for Humanity and so I just wanted to introduce myself to you."

This woman said—this was so beautiful—"We used to support Habitat for Humanity financially. We're not able to do so anymore because my husband is now in advanced stages of Alzheimer's and our income has been reduced. So I am taking care of him full-time. I can't make any income so we can't support Habitat anymore. But we can wear Habitat T-shirts, and we wear them every day. So we are walking advertisements for Habitat for Humanity and that's our contribution."

I know of a woman who passed away in Ohio. She put the local phone number of her Habitat affiliate on her tombstone. She said, "I want people who come to my tombstone to know what the phone number is for Habitat for Humanity so they'll call up and get involved." These kinds of stories are very touching.

I think that's what President Clinton was talking about: Habitat gives people an opportunity to be involved, not just by writing a check but total involvement—by wearing a T-shirt, putting a bumper sticker on your car, going out and driving nails, sawing boards, serving meals, and serving on the family selection committee. Habitat calls for the total involvement of people who get involved with the ministry.

Recognize Contributors Want to Feel Good

SD: You persuade people that building better housing will make their community a better place for them. Why is it so important to persuade people that it's a better place for everybody?

Millard Fuller: Everybody, to one extent or another, is motivated by self-interest. You want to know: what's in it for me? We all like to think of ourselves as loving, caring, and selfless people, but the truth is that we all are looking out for our own self-interest. And that varies from individual to individual. But when you do something in life, you have to get paid.

Some people are highly motivated by money. Others are motivated by recognition or something different. Nobody works for nothing. You've got to get paid. If it's not in money, it has to be in some other way.

If you aren't getting paid anything, you're going to quit. If, at the end of the day, you feel "I got nothing out of this," you're not going to keep doing it. Getting paid may be as simple as just having this wonderful feeling because of what you've done. That's your pay.

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So many social entrepreneurs only focus on the one side of the fence: the side of need. They don't spend any time cultivating the other side of the fence, which is the support base.

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But, if at the end of the day you don't have that wonderful feeling, you feel like: "What have I been doing? I'm not drawing a salary. I received no recognition for what I did. I don't even feel good about what I've done." Then you're going to quit because you aren't getting paid in any way.

Make Your Clients Your Partners

SD: You say that if people get totally involved in the mission and the cause, it gives them a purpose. If people walk away with the feeling that they've got a purpose in life or a mission, then you've hooked them and that's how they're going to stay with you. That's the secret you are trying to pass on to other social entrepreneurs—how to build a sustainable organization, right?

Millard Fuller: You have to cultivate both sides of the fence. So many social entrepreneurs only focus on the one side of the fence: the side of need. They don't spend any time cultivating the other side of the fence, which is the support base.

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We don't have customers and we don't have clients, we only have partners in Habitat for Humanity

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The other thing is that sometimes social entrepreneurs overlook very obvious sources of support. They particularly overlook their customer base, or client base, as a source of support.

We have the concept of partnership in Habitat for Humanity. We say that we don't have customers and we don't have clients, we only have partners in Habitat for Humanity. We treat all of our Habitat homeowners as partners. We try to recruit them and get them to be not only on the receiving side of the fence, but also on the giving side of the fence.

We try to help them understand that their monthly house payment is a religious act—that every time they make a house payment we're going to use that money to build housing for another family. So where they have been blessed by receiving a house, they are now blessing someone else by faithfully making their payments every month, which gives them a great blessing.

Poverty housing conditions

Jesus said: "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive," remember that Jesus never said, "It's not blessed to receive." It can be very blessed to receive. It's just more blessed to give.

So they are blessed when they receive, and they get an even greater blessing when they give. One way they give is by just faithfully making their house payments every month.

Then you try to talk them into volunteering to help build other houses, and making donations if they can afford to, especially if their income situation improves. We have a lot of Habitat homeowner families who end up being very significant contributors to the Habitat ministry, and that is a revolutionary thing to which most social entrepreneurs don't pay any attention.

Work with Volunteers

SD: You seem to have figured out a low-cost way to build an international organization. You recruit international volunteers to come and work so that you have a steady stream of talented people willing to come and live in America. You have built houses for them and you help cover their living expenses, without having to pay them a real salary, which helps keep your staff costs low. This gives people an opportunity to be involved, which is all part of the service ethic. How do you manage, recruit, and train volunteers?

Millard Fuller: We have about 35 volunteer houses here in the Americus, and we have between 150 and 200 volunteers here at any given time. Some of them come and stay for five, six, seven, eight, ten years. I had a woman in my office this morning who has been here as a volunteer for five years. She's from Peru. We give her a free house and money to buy groceries.

You don't have to be a wealthy person to be a volunteer here. You can come here as a person of very moderate means, but we give you money to buy food and enough money to get you some clothes and toothpaste and so forth. You certainly wouldn't come here to make money but you don't fall into a hole.

People rotate in and out of our 35 volunteer houses. We have a lot of snowbirds that come here for the winter, then they go back home in the summer. But they go back to their churches and get their churches involved. They go back to their civic clubs; they go back to their community. A high percentage of them put us in their wills, and when they pass away, Habitat is going to get a check for some amount.

Leverage Others' Resources & Involvement

SD: Does Habitat for Humanity have a solution that matches the size of the world's housing problems?

Millard Fuller: Do I think that Habitat for Humanity can solve the poverty housing problem? Yes. I'm trying to get everybody in the world to have a decent place to live.

But Habitat for Humanity can't do it by itself. It's bigger than just one Christian non profit organization.

Here's a good analogy: you know that Jesus said to his disciples, "You are like salt. And you are like leaven, which is yeast." Well, if you had dumped the whole box of yeast into the mix to make this bread, it wouldn't be palatable. But if you put the right amount in there, it makes the dough rise and it makes the bread taste really good.

The same thing is true with salt in food. If you dumped a whole box in the food, it wouldn't be edible. But by putting some salt in, it makes the food better. So I think that Habitat serves that role in society, just like a church serves that role in society—being like salt and leaven, a presence. And we're out there on a daily basis. We're out there beating the drum for the idea that everybody ought to have a decent place to live.

Poverty housing conditions

We've built thousands of houses, but millions are needed. We hope that because of our actions we will motivate governments. We will motivate other organizations that don't even have any connection with us to join in and do something.

SD: Do you think the problem will be solved by using the Habitat strategy?

Millard Fuller: That's part of it. We've ended poverty housing in Sumter County, Georgia [the location of Habitat for Humanity's headquarters]. We solved it by putting together the Sumter County Initiative, a big coalition that includes everybody who is concerned with housing in this area in any way. We got them to the table, we worked together, and we solved the problem.

Now this has given birth to the 21st Century Challenge, which advocates an end to poverty housing for every city—we've got about 100 cities involved. About a dozen of them have set a date for ending poverty housing. In every case, we just introduced the methodology and the plan of action. Habitat led the charge and got everybody else who's concerned with affordable housing to join in.

SD: And the coalition of folks must figure out how to do it?

Millard Fuller: That's right. What you have to sell is the idea. Not just that it's possible, but that that city will be a better place for everybody if this is accomplished. And that's not a hard sell. I think most people instinctively know that if everybody in town had a decent place to live, the town would be better for everybody—not just the families who get the affordable houses. But it will be a better place for everybody, from the richest to the poorest.

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