OUR CLIENT
CHN was founded in 1981 by a group of six Community Development Corporations to address housing abandonment and the lack of affordable housing in Cleveland. Since that time, it has grown into CHN Housing Partners, a large-scale affordable housing developer, housing service provider, residential lender, and intermediary working with partners to address major housing challenges across communities in Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Through the five lines of business identified below, CHN’s mission focuses on leveraging stable affordable housing to change lives and improve communities.
CHN partners with utility companies, financial institutions, and public agencies to manage and deliver large-scale housing resources. CHN also partners with people - low-income individuals, families, seniors, the disabled and the homeless - to improve their housing stability and find pathways to homeownership.
Today, CHN operates as a vertically integrated housing organization spanning real estate development, construction, property management, and lending across single-family and multifamily housing. The organization has grown significantly in both scale and complexity, employing more than 230 staff across three states and generating diversified revenue through development, general contracting, and lending activities. Its impact includes 4,100 new homeowners, 7,240 new homes, and delivering housing stability services to thousands of individuals. CHN is a chartered member of the NeighborWorks America network.
CHN is at a pivotal inflection point, transitioning from a historically government-funded, service-oriented model to a more capital-intensive, earned-revenue-driven enterprise. This evolution is centered on growth in real estate development, construction, and lending, requiring more sophisticated financial strategy, capital planning, and infrastructure. Now is an especially compelling time to join the organization and help shape its next chapter.
POSITION SUMMARY
As CFO, you will be the CEO’s trusted partner in shaping CHN’s financial future. This is more than a finance role. You will drive capital strategy, ensuring every dollar supports growth, sustainability, and mission.
You will lead enterprise-wide planning, capital allocation, and risk management, turning long-term vision into actionable, high-impact financial plans. Your insight will guide leadership through key decisions, surfacing opportunities and navigating constraints as CHN moves into its next era.
This is a pivotal moment for the organization. We are evolving toward a more capital-intensive model, and you will architect the strategy to support it. You will help shift us from a predominantly fund-based model to impactful, forward thinking financial leadership.
Reporting directly to the CEO and advising the Board on financial strategy, you will lead a talented Accounting and Finance team of twelve to fifteen people and play a central role in CHN’s transformation.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTTIONS OF THE POSITION
Enterprise Capital Strategy & Planning
- Partner with the CEO and executive team to design and execute a long-term capital strategy aligned with organizational goals and risk tolerance.
- Lead multi-year financial forecasting and modeling, including scenario and sensitivity analyses.
- Evaluate and prioritize capital investments, projects, and initiatives based on financial return, mission impact and strategic fit.
- Develop clear capital allocation frameworks to guide investment and divestment decisions.
- Ensure capital plans are financeable and executable within liquidity, debt covenant, and cash flow constraints.
- Build and implement a three-year strategic capital plan that supports growth across real estate development, construction, and lending platforms.
Strategic Financial Leadership
- Serve as a strategic advisor to senior leadership on growth, investment, and sustainability decisions.
- Translate organizational strategy into annual and long-range operating and capital budgets.
- Present complex financial concepts, trade-offs, and risks in a clear and decision-oriented manner.
- Participate as a key thought partner in major organizational initiatives, expansions and partnerships.
- Provides leadership and oversight to the Accounting and Finance teams, ensuring accuracy and accountability for team deliverables.
- Act as a “financial translator,” equipping non-finance leaders with the tools and understanding to effectively manage and own their budgets.
Balance Sheet, Liquidity & Risk Management
- Oversee balance sheet strategy, including cash management, debt structure, reserves, and credit facilities.
- Assess and mitigate financial risk related to capital structure, interest rates, funding sources, and market conditions.
- Ensure the organization maintains sufficient liquidity to support operations and strategic initiatives.
- Monitor covenants, compliance, and financial capacity relative to planned investments.
Financial Reporting, Compliance & Stewardship
- Ensure accurate, timely financial reporting in accordance with GAAP, nonprofit accounting standards, and government regulations.
- Oversee audits, internal controls, and regulatory compliance.
- Maintains strong relationships with auditors, lenders, investors, public funders and regulatory partners.
- Provide transparency and accountability to the Board and other stakeholders. Act as a strategic thought partner in enterprise-wide planning and execution.
Senior Leadership
- Act as a strategic thought partner in enterprise-wide planning and execution.
- Champion data-driven, financially disciplined decision-making.
- Balance mission outcomes with financial sustainability.
- Proactively surface strategic risks, opportunities, and capital implications.
- Serve as a visible leader who builds trust across operations, development, and external stakeholders.
- Create a welcoming culture within reporting structure and in collaboration with line of business partners that incorporates CHN’s core values into the fabric of the workplace.
- Serve as a leader, mentor and coach to company staff.
- Develop talent within lines of business and business functions to ensure an engaging, enriching experience for staff, leadership development and retention, and continuity in all critical positions.
- Drive performance management, accountability, and goal clarity across the finance function, including strengthening budget ownership at the director and VP levels.
- Lead change management efforts tied to financial systems modernization, process improvement, and cultural shifts toward data-driven decision-making.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business or related field required.
- CPA, MBA, MPA or similar advanced degree preferred.
- Significant senior-level financial leadership within affordable housing, community development, real estate finance, construction or Community Development Financial Institutions.
- Experience leading financial systems implementations or transformations (e.g., ERP conversions such as Blackbaud) strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience structuring and managing complex, multi-source capital.
- Experience working with Boards, public funders, lenders, and auditors.
- Proven ability to lead financially complex organizations through growth and change.
- Demonstrated experience of ethical team leadership and experience working with staff on all levels.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment that drives for results that positively impacts the lives and communities of our customers.
- Outstanding verbal and written communication skills.
- Ability to make business projections three years into the future.
Critical Technical Competencies
- Enterprise financial modeling and scenario planning
- Capital allocation and investment decision-making
- Balance sheet strategy and liquidity management
- Risk assessment and trade-off analysis
- Financial systems modernization, process automation, and data infrastructure development.
- Strategic partnership and influence
- Long-range planning (3–10-year horizon)
- Translating strategy into financeable plans
- Affordable housing finance
KEY CHARACTERISTICS
- Leadership/Staff Development
- Approachable/Visible Leader
- Strong Executive Presence
- Strategic Thinking
- Problem Solving
- Business/Financial Acumen
- Innovative
- Communication Skills
- Decisive decision-making
- Relationship Building
- Collaborative
- Change management
- Influencing & Leading
- Teamwork
- Diplomacy
- Ability to deal with ambiguity
- Adaptability
- Mission driven
FOR CONSIDERATION
This is a unique opportunity to shape a comprehensive capital strategy at a pivotal moment of growth, with a “blank canvas” to modernize financial systems, processes, and team capabilities, all while advancing meaningful community impact alongside a collaborative, high-integrity, and low-ego leadership team. If you are a strategic financial leader motivated by purpose and energized by building in a dynamic, mission-driven environment, we are interested in speaking with you. Please submit your resume in confidence to:
Patti Shumay | Sr. Executive Search Consultant | pshumay@ratliffandcompany.com
