Flexible Capital, Built for Enduring Impact

By Caryn Capriccioso, President and CEO

Community-based organizations are doing the work, but capital is not meeting them where they are. ReHealth Collaborative’s activities and investments are designed to close a persistent gap in how capital flows to improve health outcomes.

Research across the nonprofit sector underscores how persistent this gap is. Findings from the Center for Effective Philanthropy State of Nonprofits (2025) show that a majority of nonprofits report that their funding does not fully cover the costs of their work. At the same time, analysis from Independent Sector (Health of the U.S. Nonprofit Sector) highlights ongoing financial strain, with many organizations reporting difficulty sustaining operations under current funding conditions.

The issue is not a lack of effective, community-based solutions, nor of the amount of philanthropic or catalytic capital. It is capital that does not align with how the work happens.

At ReHealth, focus on the community and the context — what we are trying to solve, where, and with/for whom — instead of starting with a defined financing solution that dictates how we address problems.

Why This Matters to Me

I’ve spent my career in the nonprofit and social impact sector. I’ve led organizations and programs, raised capital, founded and built initiatives, and worked alongside foundations, nonprofits, and impact businesses. Across those roles, I’ve seen the same funding patterns repeat.

In my early years, I ran an employability training program for underserved women in Lansing, Mich. We had federal Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) grant funding, but it focused on program delivery and didn’t consider the broader context in which we operated (where we met, our community partners, the “wrap-around” needs of the women in our program, like childcare). We were carrying the cost of a building with some unused space designated for “community partnerships”. I brought in a daycare business where women could bring their kids during our program, secure internships and jobs to build their resumes, and that generated revenue to bridge the gap between delivering services and receiving our federal JTPA funding reimbursements.

In Denver, Colo., I co-founded a social enterprise incubator as part of my consulting firm–a for-profit, L3C. Traditional philanthropy was slow to engage because the structure didn’t fit their existing grantmaking models. One funder stepped in, energized by the idea of doing something new to meet us where we were, making its first ever expenditure responsibility grant. This not only allowed the work to get started, but also unlocked additional capital as we set up structures to meet other funders where they were more comfortable.

Across these examples and so many more during my years in the impact space, the same underlying issue persisted—capital arrives late, shows up with constraints, or doesn't fit the structure of the work. This forces organizations to spend time solving for funding instead of focusing on outcomes. And consistently, organizations closest to communities are the ones expected to absorb that friction. That is the gap we are working to close.

Flexible Capital, Built to Respond

Our role is not to push capital into predefined structures. It is to listen, understand, and align capital accordingly. ReHealth operates as an evergreen philanthropic capital pool. We raise impact-first charitable capital, invest, and redeploy as investments are repaid. That structure allows us to stay engaged over time and reuse capital across multiple organizations and cycles.

More importantly, it gives us the flexibility to structure capital based on what communities and organizations actually need, not what a fixed fund or product requires.

Evergreen capital is not the strategy. It is the infrastructure that allows us to stay responsive. It also allows us to be continuous learners, applying lessons learned to future investments.

What We Hear and How We Respond

It is easy to say this in theory and harder to deliver in practice. Here are some specific examples of how deals shifted as we dug into the details, making the capital fit for the organization and programs in which we invest.

We heard:

“We do need money quickly, but we don’t want to be doing this again in six months. We need the right structure so we’re not constantly chasing cash.”

We responded:

What began as an idea for a short-term bridge loan became a working capital loan with a longer repayment period. The change will align repayment with how revenue actually flows and reduce pressure on the organization.

We heard:

“Funding one piece won’t work. We need support for first-year operations.”

We responded:

A narrowly scoped investment around data infrastructure evolved into a capacity-building forgivable loan that supports the full cost of getting a program up and running.

We heard:

“We’re trying to bring multiple sources of capital together, but the structure has to work for everyone.”

We responded:

In a recent construction project, we shifted from a lead position to a subordinate role in the capital stack when tax credits became available. That change allowed more capital to flow into the deal and strengthened the overall financing.

These are not exceptions. They are examples of how capital conversations evolve from the first call through to the final deal – rarely the same from start to finish.

Capital That Meets Organizations Where They Are

Different organizations require different types of capital depending on their stage, their model, and the systems they are navigating.

Across the sector, organizations consistently navigate restricted funding, financial strain, and capital that does not align with how their work actually operates. For organizations operating on thin margins, these constraints can stall programs, delay implementation, or limit the ability to serve communities effectively. Flexible, patient capital is not an enhancement in this environment. It is essential infrastructure.

At ReHealth, we bring a range of tools: loans, guarantees, and other catalytic structures. But the tools are not the starting point. The need is.

Enduring Impact

Evergreen capital allows us to deploy, learn, adapt, and redeploy. It creates continuity in a system that is often fragmented.

It also creates the conditions for catalytic partnership. Capital does not need to be built from scratch in every place or issue area. It can be aligned and deployed into infrastructure that is already operating, already trusted, and already positioned to respond. For partners working in place-based or issue-aligned efforts, this approach allows capital to move into communities more quickly and with greater clarity on how it is being used and what it is achieving.

Many funders are actively exploring how to engage in impact investing — building strategies, aligning stakeholders, and working through what it takes to do it well. That work matters. It also takes time. In the meantime, capital does not have to sit on the sidelines. It can be put to work now, in ways that align with existing priorities and geographies, while that longer-term approach takes shape.

To drive durable impact, organizations need capital providers who listen and adapt, who move with urgency but with care, and who prioritize outcomes for people and communities over financial return.

At ReHealth we are doing this work today by deploying capital in ways that can both adapt and endure, that is responsive and disciplined, and that invites others to the table to amplify impact to meet complex challenges at scale.