About Us

Who We Are and How We Have Evolved

The Community Health Facilities Fund (CHFF) is a nonprofit corporation founded in 1991 by visionary leaders from the National Council for Community Well Being and the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association with funding provided by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. CHFF is the only organization with a mission dedicated exclusively to providing capital and financial assistance for the growth and long-term stability of nonprofit behavioral health organizations (BHOs). CHFF initially fulfilled this mission with innovative forms of debt capital and credit enhancement.   Today, CHFF has transitioned to providing technical assistance as the industry's needs and challenges have evolved. 

​

In the initial stages of de-institutionalization, BHOs were growing, and bank lenders viewed them as a new organization type with an uncertain risk profile. CHFF provided scarce debt capital to fund their growth by financing real estate for group homes, sheltered workshops, outpatient facilities and office space. 

​

As BHOs grew and stabilized, CHFF provided capital to meet the challenge of purchasing information systems and electronic health records.

​

Today, BHOs have decades of operational experience and support from court decisions and national legislation that have made them an integral component of the nation’s health care system. Nonprofit BHOs have much greater access to capital from banks and the bond market. 

​

BHOs now face the challenge of achieving long-term financial stability and continuing integration with other health care providers. Growth in the consolidation of BHOs into larger organizations raises the question of whether these challenges are best met by remaining independent or joining a larger organization with more resources. 

​

CHFF developed Destination to assist BHOs address these questions. Destination is based on decades of experience making loans and providing technical assistance from the only nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to the capital and financial challenges of BHOs.

​

​

​

Our Record of Accomplishment

CHFF's innovations in accessing capital have included the following...

• CHFF provided credit enhancement for two pools of bonds in IL and FL totaling $30 million that financed the capital needs of ten organizations.

• CHFF established a national loan fund in the amount of $ 42 million that financed the capital needs of twenty-one organizations.

• CHFF made direct loans that funded a variety of capital needs, including electronic health records, facilities development, and working capital.

• CHFF has provided technical assistance to other providers for debt capacity, balance sheet restructuring and financial goal setting.

​

Click here to see a full list of CHFF's past work.