By: Zach Miller

Most nonprofits raise money, deliver services, and then return the following year seeking donations to continue the cycle. Rehan Azhar, co-founder and president of Comprehensive Rehab Consultants, has spent the past year sketching out a different model: community spaces that operate as self-funding nonprofits, needing only seed capital before sustaining themselves through membership revenue.

“I thought about a third space, a mix between say Soho House and WeWork for different minority communities,” Azhar said. “The capital injection in the beginning may be $200,000 or $300,000 to build the space up and design it, to staff it. But then with the expenses and the revenue, hopefully the goal would be to break even, and it can run on its own.”

If proven, the model could scale, showing how philanthropic capital might create lasting community value without perpetual dependency.

Infrastructure Over Operating Expenses

Azhar’s giving centers on physical infrastructure rather than recurring costs. After York Private Equity recapitalized Comprehensive Rehab Consultants in late 2023, Azhar established a donor-advised fund and began refining his charitable strategy.

His first year scattered funds across multiple organizations. “In the first year, I didn’t know what I was doing, so I spread about $100,000 across a dozen or so organizations that I was familiar with,” he said. “But I had never had the ability or the means to give this much, so I just wasn’t sure what I was doing.” 

He has since concentrated larger gifts on fewer organizations, particularly those pursuing expansion projects.

The focus on supporting brick-and-mortar projects stems from a desire for permanence. 

“I really liked the idea of the money going to build a physical space and real estate because that’s there indefinitely,” Azhar said. “A building will be there indefinitely. The idea is that there’ll be perpetual benefit from that real estate. It just felt like it made a lot of sense.”

Gifts since 2020 include funding for a New York domestic violence shelter seeking to purchase its own building and support for a Muslim community center in downtown Manhattan. 

“I was supporting the shelter for the past few years, but they wanted to buy their own home right now. They rented, so I gave them enough for a down payment, and I said, whenever you guys do find a home, I’ll fund the rest of that project as well,” Azhar said.

His international giving targets orphanages, schools, hospitals, and teaching facilities in Pakistan. One organization stood out by incorporating AI-driven computer science training alongside basic services. 

“One organization was doing a really good job in terms of communicating, in terms of showing the impact of their dollars, not just reaching out when they needed money, but actually reaching out more proactively,” he said.

The skills-based approach fits his broader philosophy. “I look at causes that I have a close personal relationship with, whether it’s a family member who has been affected or an ethnic background,” he said. 

“I also want to look at areas that have high ROI where you’re not just giving someone a fish, but really teaching them to fish,” Azhar said. “It’s more about enabling someone to get to their full potential.”

39 Months From Launch to Exit

Azhar’s path to substantial philanthropy began with modest means. “I grew up with pretty humble beginnings. I never had any significant means, but even still, I gave the amounts I could along my career,” he said. 

The shift in his ability to give came with the York Private Equity recapitalization.

The company’s timeline compressed into 39 months from founding to transaction. Azhar co-founded CRC in July 2020 and served as COO until March 2024, when he became president following the deal. 

“From the day we actually decided to start working on this to the day we sold, that was 39 months,” Azhar said. “That’s insanely quick compared to most companies’ timelines.”

For Azhar, that speed sometimes rendered the experience unreal. “Sometimes I still don’t believe it, but it’s certainly not imposter syndrome,” Azhar said. 

Before CRC, Azhar led global host growth business development at Airbnb from March 2017 to May 2020 and worked on corporate growth strategies at L.E.K. Consulting. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences from Northwestern University.

The exit has reshaped how he defines achievement. “When I first started, I defined success by title and net worth,” he said. “I wanted to hit certain goals by the time I was 30,” he said. 

Those metrics no longer apply. “Now, how do I define success? I think I have a very different perspective on it. It’s a very privileged perspective because I have that financial freedom and I don’t have that burden on me of asking, ‘how do I provide for my family, my parents, and extended family,’” Azhar said. “I define success by health, by relationships, and by faith. Those are the three things that you’ll carry with you in life and beyond.”

$550,000 in 24 Hours

Azhar’s community commitment extended into politics during Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral primary campaign. Despite never contributing to any political candidate or PAC, Azhar became one of the campaign’s most active fundraisers after watching what he viewed as disproportionate spending threaten a candidate he believed offered something different.

“I started spending some time in New York closer to the beginning of this year, and I just saw him on social media,” Azhar said of Mamdani. “I just saw that there was something special with his personality, with his social content, with his branding, with the comments and the passion of those comments.”

When former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg contributed to Andrew Cuomo’s PAC shortly before the election, prediction markets showed Mamdani’s odds dropping. “Two, three weeks before the election, [Mamdani] started trending up, started surging on [prediction market] Polymarket,” said Azhar. “He got to 40% two weeks before the election on June 24th, but the week before the election, Bloomberg contributed millions to Andrew Cuomo’s PAC and Mamdani’s odds dropped to around 13%.”

Azhar decided money shouldn’t determine the outcome. “Money should not be a reason that someone that’s really popular loses an election. That would be really unfortunate,” he said. 

Within 24 hours, he mobilized his network through calls and texts, raising approximately $550,000, including his own contributions, 40% of the total PAC at the time. 

“I blasted all my contacts, I called all of them,” he said.

The PAC director expressed surprise that a first-time donor would contribute at that level. “The head of the PAC said, Rehan, how long have you been contributing to political endeavors in the past?” Azhar explained. “I said I’ve never given to any politician, let alone a PAC, in my life. This is my first time. She was just stunned that a first-time donor gave this much.”

Mamdani’s platform included taxing the wealthy, and Azhar has no business interests in New York. Azhar said his support came from seeing someone who shared his Muslim background running on policy rather than identity. 

“He’s Muslim. I’m Muslim. I have that affinity. I’ve never seen someone like me run for office and actually be successful,” he said. “He was unapologetic about his culture and his background. He didn’t shy away from it, but he also didn’t really dive into identity politics, and both really meant a lot to me. He wasn’t leading with, ‘I’m the first Muslim candidate.’ He didn’t say that. He said his piece and his policies, and then he said, ‘also, I’m these things’ and I really admired that.”

Faith and Business as Aligned Systems

For Azhar, spiritual and business principles don’t compete. 

“I think they’re actually very aligned, surprisingly,” he said. “I think generally a lot of successful business people believe in karma, believe in doing the right thing for yourself, for your employees, for your community.”

The Islamic principle of giving “where it’s a little painful” helps ensure charity represents genuine sacrifice relative to one’s means. “If I can give 10,000 dollars but it’s not painful, then am I really purifying my wealth and giving back as much as I can?” Azhar asked.

The philosophy extends beyond financial contributions to relationships and business decisions. 

“A lot of times it just comes down to looking at situations and doing the human thing,” he said. “The most successful businesses generally have good customer service, they have good design and branding, whatever it might be. Both faith and business support the idea of excelling in your craft, in your trade.”

At Comprehensive Rehab Consultants, this meant providing an employee with a home loan. “One of our employees, for example, needed a loan for a home. And so we just fronted him the money because we trusted him, and he was a great employee. Why not? We had the money, we could do it. It was a big deal for him and his family,” Azhar said.

Azhar has considered deeper political involvement. “It is something that I have considered significantly given some recent events,” he said when asked about running for office. “Being the mayor of my local city, where I grew up. I think there’s so much that can be done.”

He sees parallels between entrepreneurship and governance. “Instituting change in a small city is no different than disrupting an industry with your startup. It involves looking at what’s done, and asking: How can we do it better? What do people want? Let’s listen and try to figure out how we can give them what they want,” Azhar said. “I see so many parallels between running a local government and running a company.”

Azhar’s approach reflects a perspective gaining traction among entrepreneurs who have experienced liquidity events: using business strategies to create community infrastructure that doesn’t require perpetual fundraising. Whether through sustainable nonprofit models, skills-focused international aid, or mobilizing networks for political engagement, Azhar is testing how seed capital can generate lasting community value beyond traditional philanthropic models.