Missionary CEO

Missionary CEO

By Jean Gruss

Editor/Lee-Collier

Imagine running a booming homebuilding business and leaving it all behind for a month of charity work in the central African country of Rwanda. You might as well be going to the moon because the country's telecommunication system is spotty at best.

Could your business survive without you for that long?

Daniel Dodrill, president of Daniel Wayne Homes in Fort Myers, didn't think so at first. He's a self-described Type-A workaholic who likes to have a hand in every part of his business.

"I'm not going to Africa, I've got a business to run," Dodrill recalls telling a Rwandan missionary who came to the U.S. to raise money for a new school in 2000. "If I'm not around, it doesn't get done right."

Today, Dodrill is known in local homebuilding circles as "The Builder Who Goes to Africa." He recently started a nonprofit organization called Builders Without Borders, a play on the doctors' organization that volunteers to treat sick people in the world's poorest places. Dodrill's nonprofit received $178,407 in contributions in its first full year in 2004. Over the last three years, Dodrill estimates that he and other volunteers have raised close to $1 million in goods and services as part of the charitable effort.

Striking a balance

Dodrill says he never intended Builders Without Borders to take off the way it has. His biggest revelation was that his homebuilding business did better even as he got more involved in his charitable work.

On his first trip to Africa in 2003, Dodrill fretted about how his business would function without him. His wife, Karen, a co-owner of the business, signed contracts while he was away, and the office manager was given the authority to sign permit applications.

When Dodrill returned from that first trip, he found the business had functioned smoothly while he was gone. "It made me realize I don't have to be here 24/7," he says.

He started delegating more of the work to his employees and gave them more power to make decisions so he could spend more time on his charitable work. He delegated all of the purchasing and estimating work that he used to do himself. Dodrill builds 60 homes a year that average 2,800 square feet and cost in excess of $500,000.

After that first trip to Africa, Dodrill realized that customers and employees had to wait on him because he had the final word on every decision, right down to helping customers pick out the kitchen faucet. "I was the bottleneck as the business was growing," he says. "I had my hands in too many different things."

Dodrill hired three extra employees to handle the growing business, including a field superintendent, a bookkeeper and contract administrator. "You add more overhead, but the increase in sales has more than overcome that," he says. "Our profitability has gone up too," he adds.

In fact, Dodrill says sales have doubled in the last two years. "We've turned down more jobs than we signed up," he says. Daniel Wayne Homes' revenues in 2005 were $24 million.

But Dodrill says it isn't just a matter of hiring more people and disappearing for weeks at a time. Before leaving on a trip, he meets with each employee to review goals and expectations. In fact, Dodrill says that is good practice even if you don't leave for an extended period.

What's more, Dodrill encourages employees to get involved in Builders Without Borders because they invariably come back more motivated. "They see Rwandan guys working their butts off for $2 a day, not complaining about vacation, workers' comp or bonus time," he says.

Dodrill estimates he spends about 10 hours a week on Builders Without Borders, in addition to the 50- to 60-hour weeks he spends on Daniel Wayne Homes. He finds the time where he can, often combining business and charitable work. For example, he'll ask for help from the 200 or so subcontractors he works with when they meet or speak on the phone. At a recent contract-closing meeting, he persuaded a customer and the accompanying mortgage broker to volunteer their time for the next school project in Rwanda.

"I look for time in my schedule that isn't used," he says. He finds time watching TV could be better spent doing charitable work. Or instead of attending a Rotary Club lunch passively, he speaks to the group about Builders Without Borders.

Dodrill spends a lot of time encouraging others to pitch in. He'll ask a business associate to send workers to load the containers after they clock out for the day. "It seems like a little thing, but that's huge," he says.

Another key to devoting so much time to charity is to make sure the family buys into it. Dodrill has four school-age children, and he makes sure they don't feel slighted by the time he's away. "They understand that if I'm gone, I'm not fishing in Aruba," he says. He took his eldest 16-year-old daughter with him on his most recent trip to Rwanda.

It helps that Dodrill's wife Karen can look after the business while he's gone. "They've got to be on board," he says.

How a pitch for money became an African Odyssey

Jean-Baptiste Mugarura, a Rwandan missionary, visited Fort Myers-based luxury homebuilder Daniel Dodrill in May 2000 to ask for money. He had come at the recommendation of Dodrill's brother, Mark, who lives in Spain and works for an organization called Youth for Christ.

"I listened," Dodrill recalls. Mugarura explained that he needed $170,000 to acquire land for a school and church in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, but he had only raised $3,000 to date.

Dodrill peppered him with questions. He was impressed with Mugarura's business acumen. What impressed him most was the fact that Mugarura was well educated (he speaks seven languages) and had the business and political connections to make things work in Rwanda. Officials with Youth for Christ, a nondenominational missionary organization, vouched for Mugarura.

Dodrill says the charitable endeavor appealed to him on the professional and spiritual level. He says the effort was a way to contribute his skills as a builder to help those much less fortunate.

So Dodrill handed Mugarura a $30,000 check and referred him to other business associates and church friends, including John Gillmore, an account executive with Suncoast Contractors Supply, who later helped Dodrill start the nonprofit Builders Without Borders. Soon after, the Rwandan had raised the $170,000 and closed on the land in early 2001.

Little did Dodrill know that this wasn't going to be his last encounter with Mugarura. On a return visit, Mugarura asked Dodrill to draft plans for a 7,000-square-foot building. After Dodrill's staff draftsman had finished the design, Mugarura returned again, saying: "That's perfect. Now when are you going to build it?"

Dodrill refused to go to Africa but agreed to help find building supplies and arrange for a container to ship them to Kigali. Through fund-raising and donations of tools and supplies in 2002, Dodrill and Gillmore assembled the materials needed to build a school. PGT Industries, for example, donated 14 windows; Georgia Pacific donated sheeting.

Eventually, Dodrill gave in and traveled to Africa. Two volunteers had agreed to scout the site ahead of the shipment, but Dodrill made his first trip when one of them backed out. "That was an eye opener," Dodrill recalls. The poverty stunned him. He came home more determined to help.

Dodrill, dozens of Rwandans and a team of 10 friends and business associates built the first school in January 2003. To facilitate the fund-raising, Dodrill established Builders Without Borders in late 2003. Then, the organization built a health clinic in Haiti in November 2004 and an elementary school in Rwanda in July 2005. Now, it's planning to build a high school in Rwanda in 2006. The elementary school cost about $300,000. The high school will cost about $450,000.

One of Dodrill's secrets to successful fund-raising: Keep overhead at a minimum. Donors zero in on that figure because they want their donation to have a direct impact on beneficiaries. "I've fought that hard to keep it out of the organization," he says. He pays his office staff to do administrative work, and he won't rent a post office box because it costs $200 a year.

WAYS TO BALANCE WORK AND CHARITY

Fort Myers homebuilder Dan Dodrill is gone for weeks at a time building schools in Africa. Here's his advice on how to manage charitable endeavors while making sure your business doesn't suffer in the meantime.

1. Partner with an existing charitable organization so you can ease into philanthropic work. When you establish a new charitable group, you'll get bogged down with attorneys and paperwork required for tax-exempt status.

2. Encourage your employees to pitch in. That's important because they'll understand why you're spending time away from your business. If they're eager, give them tasks to help the charity. If employees participate, that will lower the charity's overhead and make it more attractive to potential donors. And it'll lighten your load, too.

3. Try to find holes in your schedule in which to fit your charitable work. Evaluate how you spend "down time."

4. Set clear goals while you're away on a charitable endeavor. Be specific with employees about your expectations while you're away.

5. Make sure your family is on board. You already spend long hours away from your family at work, so be sure they understand why you'll spend more time away from them on charitable work.