The Context: Identifying opportunities and mitigating risk 

At Afton, we work toward the financial sustainability of clients’ biggest and best ideas: we help identify financial possibilities and the risks that must be mitigated along the way. Our charter school partners come to us when they contemplate decisions like a new facility, debt financing, growth plans, and various operational changes such as compensation packages, school reorganization, school scheduling, and enrollment fluctuations.  

The Goal: Financial strength and sustainability for long-lasting impact 

Each strategic decision has implications for the quality and breadth of impact a school can have on students’ and families’ lives. In our engagements with over 80 charter school operators across the country, we aim to craft solutions and build the capacity to sustain financially strong, high-quality educational environments that drive student success year after year.  

The Approaches and Outcomes: Context-sensitive and multi-faceted services lead to promising trajectories 

One of our partners served 2,800 students, with plans to grow 50% and add 4 schools by 2030 in California. They faced a complex web of school facilities and debt financing choices. With various buildings in different debt structures and a few new school facility decisions to make, Afton assisted the network in evaluating the multi-year implications of different facility and debt structure scenarios. We utilized scenario analysis and long-term projection modeling to explore each potential avenue. Once the most viable solutions were identified, we guided the leadership decision-making process across the C-suite and the board. Our work together ultimately led to two new building decisions and clarity on a path for debt financing. The network continues to maintain its 99% four-year college acceptance rate during expansion. 

Another partner launched its first high-quality charter school and prepared for future expansion. Given the beginning stages of the growing organization, it was not yet time to employ a full-time Chief Financial Officer. Our team stood in the gap to provide strategic counsel on key matters regarding network expansion, board governance, facility planning, the scaffolding of back-office staffing, fundraising, and charter applications. Alongside this guidance, we ensured the organization had clarity on long-term financial sustainability as they made each facility and new school decision. By the end of our first year and a half of engagement, the network has doubled the number of students served, and they successfully launched a new school. Their first school has received the highest distinction that a school can receive in its state’s achievement scoring. 

In one of our longest-standing partnerships, Afton initially stepped in to stabilize a cash flow crisis that was holding a promising, impactful charter school network back from realizing its fullest potential. Our work provided visibility into decisions that could be made to solidify liquidity and build school plans that had short and long-term financial sustainability. Over the years, Afton has advised on the transformation of the organization’s financial leadership, coaching the Controller through the transition to Chief Financial Officer and setting forth best practice financial governance on their board. Today, the network has achieved many consecutive years of 100% graduation and college acceptance rates and recently closed on a loan to transform a blighted property into a thriving elementary and middle school. 

When it comes to creating high-quality charter schools, we love supporting founders in the earliest stages of their journey. Our work with early-stage founders results in increased leader confidence in financial management and governance, clearer financial implications for use in decision-making, and a stronger, clearer cash flow outlook.   In one case, we used financial scenario modeling to ensure that an arts-focused operator in its first year could make an affordable, suitable facility decision. In another case, we clarified the path to increased funding and sustainable operations for a special education charter school exclusively serving children with high and specialized needs.  

Across all our projects, we pursue a thorough understanding of local context, addressing everything from local school funding policy intricacies to facility inventory options. Rather than apply a copy-paste solution, we keep the school’s priorities at the center of our solution finding. Whether that’s staffing, space, or student support, school leaders shouldn’t have to sacrifice what is most important to them and their communities for the sake of the financials. Rather, we set them up so that priorities drive the financial decisions and serve their bottom line. We are committed to outcomes-focused action, as we know that making measurable changes toward fiscal sustainability fuels a school’s mission to serve students well.  

To create successful solutions, all interested parties must have a say. We facilitate internal collaboration for decision-making, encouraging cross-departmental and board involvement to arrive at plans of action that are informed and supported by multiple perspectives. Perhaps most importantly, we are real people serving real people; our approach is as relational and human-centered as it is technically savvy. Getting to know our clients and their communities plays a critical role in every project and the result is stronger schools, better-served students and families, and enduring, impactful relationships.