Habitat for Humanity International

Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) is a non-profit Christian organization that builds houses in partnership with low-incomes families. Among HFHI's main strengths we find the huge force of volunteer workers and the donations of material and financial resources allowing them to carry out its projects. Another strengths are its innovative programs, the mixture between direct marketing and promotional events; the HFHI financial policy because it fits the reality of a needy people. The HFHI worldwide presence and its high brand value are also important strengths for this NGO. HFHI faces challenges like the consolidation of its relationship with corporate partners or the need to maintain and strengthen those partnerships. Other challenges are: how to promote the brand value as an assessment tool used by NGO community; to maintain the organization's culture; to expand its mission and to protect the brand's image.

The Interbrand study shows that the brand's main drivers are -sorted by relevance- its heritage, the tangible results, part of solution, local impact, spiritual motivation, inertia, self image, and in a minor scale the flexibility toward its volunteers and the tax benefits. From this, we conclude that, the brand plays an important role in the first four drivers due to Habitat's strongest brand attributes that include the mission to provide affordable housing, the concrete results of Habitat's work and the personal commitment of the employees. Habitat's brand impacts its house-building effectiveness in some important ways: It communicates key attributes of the organization and differentiates it from competitors; the brand attracts volunteers and reinforces their experience; and it increases marketing efficiency. And last but not least, the very act of helping out a family to build house, bringing dignity to them, it is an intangible benefit to the organization. HFIH obtained 76 out 100 in the Brand Strength's analysis, in other words the brand is very potent because the organization has a public image of financial reliability, the organization's level of contact with donors, and the ease of transactions for donors.

Recommendations

In order to achieve the challenges proposed above, it's recommendable that the organization may continue with its federation' system, because it gives the affiliates the autonomy to adapt their programs to meet community needs and to attract local resources--money, staff, volunteers, and board leadership--in a way that centralized national organizations find difficult to emulate. It also offers the affiliates the benefits of national scale, which otherwise they wouldn't have, in areas such as branding and reputation building, fund-raising, administration, and advocacy. Also it is an opportunity to share their experience on what does and doesn't work with their affiliates