Habitat for Humanity announces major staff cuts

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30789
• Published date: 01 June 2020
• Date: 01 June 2020

NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR JUNE 2020

12 © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC, A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

EMPLOYER WINS ➔ The judge concluded there

was no actionable sexual harassment, because the

alleged misconduct was neither severe nor pervasive.

He explained that the supervisor’s alleged com-

ments were infrequent because he had purportedly

made only four isolated remarks over a period of

three months.

He also said the supervisor’s actions weren’t severe

because he never touched her inappropriately, and

there wasn’t anything about the alleged misconduct

that was physically threatening or humiliating.

The judge referred to other court decisions

involving more serious alleged misconduct where

the plaintiffs didn’t prevail, such as: (1) an employee

was allegedly shown “inappropriate” pictures, and

the defendant called her names, lightly kissed her,

forwarded sexual jokes to her phone and asked for

hugs; and (2) a supervisor had once patted an em-

ployee’s buttocks, was overly friendly and irtatious

and shared his personal business with her.

The judge dismissed the claim.

[Davis v. Board of County Commissioners of Ste-

phens County, U.S. District Court for the Western Dis-

trict of Oklahoma, No. CIV-18-118, 09/30/2019]. ■

News

One World: Together At Home

raises $127 million

The recent broadcasting event “One World:

Together At Home,” organized by Global Citizen,

together with Lady Gaga, raised over $127 million

in commitments in support of health care workers in

the ght against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The broadcast was hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Jim-

my Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, alongside friends

from Sesame Street, with the aim to help unify and

inspire people around the world. The special featured

communities impacted by COVID-19 across the

world, and included conversations with—and trib-

utes to—the political leaders, scientists, health care

professionals and other essential service workers on

the front lines.

The event called on world leaders, corporate part-

ners and individual donors to pledge their support

for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the

World Health Organization, administered by the UN

Foundation. The COVID-19 Solidarity Response

Fund enables the tracking and containment of the

spread of COVID-19, ensuring patients and front-line

workers get the resources they need, while supporting

and accelerating efforts to develop vaccines, tests and

treatments.

Donations to the fund will also support the vaccine

development alliance the Coalition for Epidemic Pre-

paredness Innovations and UNICEF, organizers said.

For more information, visit https://bit.

ly/3cIAF7w. ■

Habitat for Humanity announces

major staff cuts

Habitat for Humanity International has an-

nounced a major cut in stafng and reduced hours

for those remaining employed with the global housing

organization in an effort to cut expenses in light of

the COVID-19 pandemic.

Approximately 10% of staff at the organization

will be laid off, and several others will have their

work hours reduced, the groups said. The action

will immediately impact its U.S.-based staff, and its

regional ofces throughout the world in the weeks to

come. In addition, senior leaders at the organization

have agreed to take a pay reduction until the end of

the crisis.

Since the initial spread of the virus, Habitat has

taken several steps to suspend its operations, with

the goal of preventing the transmission of the virus

among its volunteers, staff and the people in the

communities it serves. These measures have had

“immediate nancial impacts” for the organization,

Habitat explained. The global economic turbulence

has also led the nonprot to signicantly revise its

revenue projections, leading to expense reductions

at many local and national Habitat organizations

around the world.

For more information, visit https://www.habitat.

org. ■

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