Christel House launches first major expansion since DeHaan’s death

Through a planned global expansion of no-fee schools in high-poverty regions, Indianapolis-based Christel House International wants to help create more stories like Nathan Daniels’.

As a youngster in the Hanover Park neighborhood of Cape Town, South Africa, Daniels lived in a two-bedroom home with his mother, grandmother and two sisters. He lived amid poverty and violence, but he also had a caring grandmother.

Around age 6, Daniels remembered, she said to him: “There’s this new school that’s opening. It’s called Christel House. Would you like to go to this school?”

He enrolled at age 7, in 2004, and graduated in 2015. At Christel House South Africa, he fell in love with science as well as soccer. He also ran track, which stretched his comfort zone.

Daniels, who later studied medicine at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, now works as a physician, mostly in trauma.

“I’m just like, ‘Oh, wow, what happened over the last 10 years?’” said Daniels, whose sisters attended Christel House, too.

Christel House International, an educational not-for-profit founded by late businesswoman and philanthropist Christel DeHaan, is making its first major global expansion of services since her death in 2020, and it’s been a learning curve.

Over the next two decades, Christel House International plans to add 9,100 or more students to its K-12 schools worldwide, which would well more than double the 6,440 students and recent graduates still being mentored at nine schools in five nations now served.

The group’s plans include adding schools in Mexico and India—where Christel House International already operates schools—as well as doubling the size of its school in South Africa. It also intends to add schools in two yet-to-be-named countries where it has no schools.

Christel House also operates a school in Jamaca as well as four schools in Indianapolis.

Christel House International CEO David Harris said the goal is to partner with students for 18 years, from preschool to young adulthood, to help them overcome the many obstacles they face.

“Our North Star, and this really came from our founder, Christel DeHaan, has been to move kids experiencing significant poverty out of poverty,” Harris said. “So that requires a different kind of approach than if you’re just trying to produce positive academic gains. And we are a proven model for halting intergenerational poverty and driving economic mobility.”

Often, Christel House students outside the United States grow up in homes with dirt floors, no electricity and no running water, Harris said. Beyond academics, Christel House schools provide nutrition, health care and other support to move students from K-12 to college and into careers. The school said 95% of its recent graduates are either employed or enrolled in higher education or trade school.

“Our graduates have three times the formal employment rate of their peers,” he said.

Christel House International, though, has not expanded operations since about the time of DeHaan’s death in 2020, the same year Christel House Jamaica opened. Before that, the group’s last school founding was its second school in India, in Atal Nagar, in 2016.

DeHaan died in June 2020 at age 77, which Harris called “a huge jolt to the organization.”

Securing the future

After selling Resort Condominiums International, which she co-founded, for $825 million in 1996, DeHaan poured her time and resources into philanthropy. She founded Christel House International in 1998 after seeing children living in poverty in Mexico City, and she led the organization until 2019.

During that time, DeHaan funded the administrative costs of the organization so that all donations could go to the schools. She told IBJ in 2018 that she intended to continue that arrangement into the future, even after her death.

“As founder, I will continue to support the organization,” DeHaan said in 2018. “My financial commitment ensures that 100% of donor contributions will go directly to help kids. There is a structure in place to ensure general and administrative and fundraising expenses are covered in perpetuity.”

To that end, DeHaan’s estate created the Endless Success Foundation to pay for Christel House International’s overhead expenses. Proceeds from the sale of DeHaan’s home for $14.5 million as well as the sale of her art and other furnishings went to that foundation.

Leslie Lenkowsky, professor emeritus at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, said it is not uncommon for a philanthropist or that person’s family to make a legacy grant, providing the nonprofit with financial stability.

In 2023, Christel House International reported revenue of $21.1 million with expenses of $17.6 million, according to its IRS filing.

Lenkowsky said that Christel House was like “another child” to DeHaan.

“Because of her bequest, Christel DeHaan has made it possible for the staff of Christel House to focus entirely on programs,” he said.

Christel House International has been through several leadership changes in recent years. Former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson took over as CEO in 2019 when DeHaan decided to step back from day-to-day leadership. He then abruptly resigned in May 2020 without explanation but returned a month after DeHaan’s death.

Peterson retired last year, and the Christel House board hired Harris, who had worked as Indianapolis’ first charter school director, in Peterson’s administration. In 2006, Harris became the founding CEO of Indianapolis-based not-for-profit public education group The Mind Trust.

Moving forward

After taking the helm at Christel House, Harris led a strategic planning process resulting in the expansion plan. “That was really the first time the organization had developed a comprehensive strategy for growth,” he said.

Harris has made organizational changes, as well, which include setting specific criteria for determining expansion in nations where Christel House operates and a board committee focused on expansion.

Christel House International said the six finalists for its planned two-nation expansion are Ghana, Kenya, Colombia, Peru, Nepal and Bangladesh.

When making decisions about the locations of previous schools, Christel House International relied in part on the extensive list of global contacts DeHaan built during her time at RCI, which was the world’s largest time-share exchange company and worked with property owners around the world.

Since DeHaan’s death, the organization has developed a Global Pathbuilders Fellowship. Under the program, applicants in nations identified for expansion applied for a paid two-year fellowship. The organization will choose the two strongest fellows to transition into CEOs of the Christel House schools in those two countries.

Christel House International received 2,331 applications from potential leaders in the six nations being considered for expansion. Harris said the pool of fellows is down to 29. The fellowships are scheduled to start later this year with the goal of launching the schools in 2027-2028.

Expansion in India

The organization also plans to add another school in India, with hopes for more later, said Jaison Mathew, CEO of Christel House India. Cities under consideration for new schools include Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai.

Mathew said each school would draw students from a radius of roughly 19 miles.

Today, 1,276 students attend the Christel House school in Bangalore and 629 attend the school in Atal Nagar.

Christel House India, Mathew said, focuses not just on children but also their families and communities. That includes providing art classes and extracurriculars like soccer, providing meals, and transporting students to and from school.

In India, “we don’t use the word slum; you use the word community,” Mathew said.

But he does use the word to add perspective for people outside the country.

“So all our kids come from urban slums in Bangalore,” he said. “Our Atal Nagar school is slightly outside a city, so we serve around 30 highly impoverished villages. That means they get one meal a day. … We work with those families.”

Christel House India boasts a nearly 100% graduate rate, and its graduates have an unemployment rate that is about one-ninth of the national average. Mathew said Christel House India alums have gone on to work for global companies that include Google, Amazon and Infosys.

“Christel House is a real enabler,” he said. “We are giving that opportunity, and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we give to our children and the communities.”•