The 100,000 Homes Campaign

Abstract

Rosanne Haggerty remembered looking over the table at Becky Margiotta, both with their mouths hanging open.   The two had just learned about the 100,000 Lives Campaign, an initiative by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) that resulted in an estimated 123,000 preventable deaths avoided.

Margiotta thought she should lead a similar campaign to provide permanent housing for those experiencing homelessness who were most at risk.  Haggerty was immediately intrigued as well: “It was very different set of activities, ironically, but just the notion of a campaign framework to drive adoption of improvement just was one of those light bulb-going-off moments.”

Margiotta and Haggerty launched the 100,000 Homes Campaign in July 2010. The goal was to house 100,000 homeless Americans whose health conditions put them at risk of premature death if they did not have permanent housing. Margiotta served as the campaign director and Haggerty, founder of Common Ground, served as president and CEO of Community Solutions, the organization that subsequently spun off to manage the campaign.¹

This case explores the approach and practices that Margiotta, with support from Haggerty and the campaign team, used to create a national campaign and make it successful.  

Learning Objectives

• To examine how the 100,000 Homes Campaign took a proven pilot and scaled it up to a successful national effort.  
  
• To explore how the Campaign used elements of Design Thinking such as a bias for action to scale up their pilot and have an impact.

Context

This case highlights concepts from Scaling Up Excellence by Huggy Rao and Robert Sutton.  It also covers key concepts of Design Thinking and how they can be applied to help social entrepreneurs (see article by Sarah Soule).  

Sources

Information in this case comes from the following sources unless otherwise noted in the case:

• Interviews with the following people:
  • Becky Margiotta, 100,000 Homes Campaign, Director, and Joe McCannon, 100,000 Homes Campaign, Advisor, May 20, 2015 and June 14, 2016
  • Rosanne Haggerty, Executive Director, Community Solutions (Founder and former Executive Director of Common Ground), June 2, 2016 and November 22, 2016
  • Beth Sandor, Director, Quality Improvement, June 3, 2016
  • Shawn Liu, Team Lead, North Florida, South Georgia Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Administration Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH), June 13, 2016
  • Jennifer Loving, Executive Director, Destination: Home, June 17, 2016
• "100,000 Homes," http://100khomes.org/ (June - November, 2016)
• Josh Leopold, Helen Ho, "Evaluation of the 100,000 Homes Campaign," Urban Institute, March 24, 2015, http://www.urban.org/research/publication/evaluation-100000-homes-campaign
• Materials including but not limited to presentations, photos, and graphics provided by Becky Margiotta 

Students

This case was developed to be used with MBA and Executive Education students. 

Companies

The 100,000 Homes Campaign - Common Ground - Community Solutions - Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Authors

Davina Drabkin (MBA '03, case writer) and Jon Jamieson (senior video producer) developed this case with Professors Sarah Soule, Huggy Rao, and Robert Sutton. 

Special assistance provided by Harjeet Heer, Lisa Radloff, and Kim Serra.