Where do program fees or contributions go?

Child Family Health International (CFHI) is a nonprofit organization started in 1992 and based in San Francisco, California.  We have partners in Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Mexico, and South Africa, all of whom benefit directly from our program fees and presence in their community.  CFHI’s mission is to build and strengthen sustainable healthcare services for underserved communities worldwide. 

Like most not-for-profit organizations that run international programs, CFHI’s income is largely generated from program fees.  These fees are an essential way for us to run our Global Health Education Programs and to support our international partners who host our students – all at the same time.  We support our international partners and global healthcare systems in many ways, including CFHI Community Health Projects and professional development opportunities, as well as honorariums for physicians who work with CFHI participants.  CFHI intentionally channels funds into local economies to aid in preventing brain drain of healthcare workers from underserved communities. Well over 50% of the CFHI program fee goes to compensate doctors, homestay families and local CFHI representatives for their work providing the CFHI experience. This important "share" in the profits allows these communities to offer more and better healthcare services.  CFHI contributions are meant to be an additional source of support for communities that have limited financial resources or access to healthcare.  Therefore, participation in a CFHI program does more than simply provide our students with an educational, global health experience.

For more information about what the fee does and does not include, click here.

What it takes to run an international organization like CFHI

CFHI is committed to maintaining an incredibly low overhead cost of under 10% (most funding agencies consider an overhead cost of less than 30% to be good, and less than 15% to be excellent).  You can read more about nonprofit organization standards at www.guidestar.org.  The small overhead goes towards costs involved in running and generating awareness of programs, maintaining the website, ensuring program quality and managing the finances of CFHI, and more.  CFHI has a unique structure that allows our partners autonomy and fiscal stability.  At the same time, we manage a complicated series of programs throughout the world, maintaining accountability and transparency required for organizations working in the current global environment. 

The two diagrams below are show how CFHI is a self-sustaining nonprofit and how resources are allocated. You can also read about how CFHI is ranked by an independent charity watchdog, Charity Navigator.

CFHI Income & Expenses (Based on an independent financial audit for FY 2009)