Acquisition Resources for Social Purpose Real Estate Projects
Get ready before you get represented
Nonprofit real estate acquisitions succeed or stall based on decisions made long before an offer goes in: board readiness, financial capacity, understanding how much space you need, location priorities, and a realistic sense of what ownership actually requires. The tools below reflect the questions we ask every prospective client to have already sat with. Working through them won’t just prepare you to work with us. They’ll prepare you for conversations with your board, your staff, your lender, and your funders.
Real Estate Readiness
Self-Assessment
A short worksheet covering the basics we look for first: financial stability, board authorization to pursue ownership, and a program stable enough to justify a permanent commitment.
Buy vs. Lease Decision Guide
A structured way to weigh ownership against renewing or relocating a lease, covering cost comparison over time, mission fit, risk tolerance, and the organizational capacity ownership will demand.
Funding and Financing Worksheet
A worksheet for mapping likely financing sources, savings, capital campaign proceeds, debt, PRIs, seller financing, bargain sales, NMTC eligibility, and identifying gaps before they become a problem mid-transaction.
Space & Program Needs Calculator
A room-by-room worksheet that translates program plans into real square footage, at three levels of ambition with a section for specialized program spaces like kitchens, clinical rooms, or studios.
Governance & Decision-Making Readiness Checklist
A short assessment of whether your board’s decision-making structure is ready to move at the pace a transaction requires.
Forming a Real Estate Committee
A practical guide to structuring a board committee that can make time-sensitive decisions between full board meetings , including who should sit on it and where a broker and attorney fit in.
Guidance from the field
We didn’t invent the idea of nonprofit real estate readiness. We’re part of a broader ecosystem of organizations supporting community ownership across the Bay Area and beyond. A few we point clients to directly:
Readiness & technical assistance
Community Vision: a Bay Area CDFI whose Real Estate Readiness Toolkit is one of the best free starting points for nonprofit leaders new to facility planning.
https://communityvisionca.org/advising/resources/Nonprofit Finance Fund's Resource Library: free financial management tools for nonprofits, including budgeting templates and their widely used Full Cost framework for understanding what it actually takes to run a program sustainably.
https://nff.org/resources/American Nonprofits: free financial management and real estate technical assistance for smaller California nonprofits.
https://www.americannonprofits.org/resources
Movement & networks
California Community Land Trust Network: a statewide membership network of California CLTs, offering policy advocacy, peer learning, and capacity building through programs like the CA CLT Academy. http://cacltnetwork.org
Community Spaces Network: the national network for nonprofit shared spaces and social purpose real estate, serving organizations across the US and Canada.
https://communityspaces.org/Grounded Solutions Network: the national network for community land trusts and shared-equity homeownership, with an extensive CLT resource library.
https://groundedsolutions.org/
Acquisition Roadmap
Where the Decisions Happen. A phase-by-phase map of the acquisition process, including a rough timeline: what’s happening, who decides what, who’s involved, and how long each phase typically takes.
Touring Checklist
What to ask and look for once you’re touring a specific candidate building, adapted for buyers rather than tenants: building systems, environmental red flags, zoning, and neighborhood fit.
Board Resolution to Proceed
Resolution template ratifying the board’s decision to proceed with a real estate acquisition. Option to from a real estate committee.
CDFIs lenders active in nonprofit financing
Bay Area LISC: the Bay Area chapter of a national community development intermediary, financing affordable housing and community-serving facilities alongside grants and technical assistance for nonprofit developers.
https://www.lisc.org/bay-area/Capital Impact Partners: a national CDFI with a longtime Bay Area presence, financing community facilities, health centers, and affordable housing. https://www.capitalimpact.org/
Community Vision: a home grown, California-wide CDFI offering both responsive lending and early-stage "catalytic capital" for community-owned real estate. Community Vision has deep roots in Bay Area nonprofit and affordable housing financing.
https://communityvisionca.org/Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF): flexible acquisition and facility financing for nonprofits, including community facilities and affordable housing. https://www.liifund.org/
Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF): capital and technical assistance for mission-driven organizations, including predevelopment and acquisition lending.CDFI lenders active in nonprofit facility financing. https://nff.org/