Habitat For Humanity : XHouse

Client: Habitat For Humanity

Brief: How might we increase donations from wealthy millennials?
Teammates: Adam Kenvarg, Noelle Moseley,
DeWolf Emery

Key Findings
1. High-achieving millennials feel pressured to do more than just succeed - they feel like a sell-out or a failure if they don't change the world
2. Giving money to charitable causes doesn't feel "meaningful"
3. Millennials dream of having meaningful professional lives, but often lack a focus and a catalyst
4. Millennials want to solve real problems for real people, but lack the infrastructure - and insights - to take the plunge

Solving the "Bed of Nails" Paradox
Millennials feel enough pressure to feel bad, but not enough to take action. Our solution focused on increasing the pressure to make a meaningful contribution.

Solution
X-House - a one year immersion challenge hosted by Habitat for Humanity. Individuals apply for a spot in X-House, located in one of Habitat for Humanity's developments in the United States.
The Rules: The participants of X-House have one year to come up with, and test, for-profit solutions aimed at meeting the needs of the their immersion community. The best teams get funding to grow their ideas, while the worst get asked to leave the house.

Hypothesis
X-House works by creating a community for millennials who are driven to make social change, but don't know what problems are worth solving. By placing them in a new environment, they are able to build empathy with their user base and iterate through their solutions.

By focusing on a suite of solutions aimed at middle-America, rather than just building houses, Habitat for Humanity will create greater touch points for people to feel engaged - and donate to - with the cause.