Climate United Awarded 6.97B Grant from National Clean Investment Fund
Durham, NC - Self-Help, a Durham-based nonprofit community development financial institution, today announced a historic investment from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) as part of Climate United, a national nonprofit coalition focused on delivering the benefits of clean energy technologies to communities across the county.
Climate United, composed of Calvert Impact, the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC), and Self-Help, was selected to manage a portion of the NCIF, one of three programs under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF).
One of the biggest and most significant direct spending programs within the Inflation Reduction Act, the GGRF presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reduce carbon pollution while building a stronger economy for all Americans.
Climate United applied with the support of more than 350 partners — many of whom they have worked closely with in the past on green community solutions. This large and growing network of partners will bolster Climate United’s ability to drive lasting structural changes in communities across the U.S. Partners include local and state-based green banks, credit unions, Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs), Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), environmental justice organizations, labor and workforce organizations, and private capital providers, among others, who will each play a critical role in ensuring that the program meets its goals.
“We are grateful to the EPA for bringing this historic program to life and are honored to be one of the awardees under the National Clean Investment Fund,” said Beth Bafford, CEO of Climate United. “We are ready to work together to ensure we meet the program’s three ambitious objectives: dramatically reducing carbon pollution, creating direct benefits for American families, and catalyzing market transformation.”
“Climate United is a collaborative force with ready strategies to help build and deliver affordable and accessible clean energy financing solutions,” explains Crystal German, Self-Help executive vice president and member of the Climate United board of directors. “Climate justice involves much more than just reducing emissions; it's about ensuring that everyone, particularly communities of color and lower wealth communities, can breathe cleaner air, see energy savings, and build resiliency and opportunity.”
Climate United’s work will deliver benefits like cleaner air, quality jobs and increased energy security—all while accelerating our path to a clean energy future. In alignment with the Biden Administration's Justice40 initiative, Climate United has committed to deploy at least 60 percent of funds in low-wealth and economically disadvantaged communities, at least 20 percent in rural communities, and at least 10 percent in Native communities.
Self-Help has over 40 years of experience designing consumer, home and commercial lending products tailored to the needs of lower-wealth borrowers, communities of color and those traditionally underserved by the financial marketplace. Eighty-six percent of Self-Help’s direct lending has been to EPA-defined low-income and disadvantaged communities.
Self-Help's strong commitment to environmental stewardship has driven its work to bring the benefits of clean technology to the communities it serves, including providing some of the first investments in utility scale solar in North Carolina and building energy efficiency into its business lending and real estate development projects, including housing renovation, new construction, and transit-friendly mixed use affordable housing units that benchmark energy use and prioritize green building guidelines. In addition, Self-Help became one of the first credit unions to join the global effort to help financial institutions become more accountable in fighting climate change, and partnered to develop a guide that helps organizations measure & report greenhouse gas emissions.
Like so many community lenders, Self-Help's work to bring the benefits of clean technology to underserved communities has been constrained by a lack of subsidy available to create truly affordable access. The unprecedented National Clean Investment Fund program changes that and sets Self-Help and partner lenders on a path to put the communities most harmed by past pollution at the forefront of our country's clean energy transition.
Self-Help will use NCIF funds to strengthen the capacity of other lenders to offer affordable and accessible energy efficiency, solar and electric vehicle loans to households earning lower incomes, small businesses and nonprofits, as well as to directly fund qualified projects.
“Our role is to design affordable, accessible products that help bring the benefits of clean technologies to communities that have been disproportionately harmed by climate change and pollution,” German continued. “We do this by listening, testing, evaluating, and refining in partnership with families and communities often underserved by the financial marketplace, and alongside a national network of trusted community lenders.”
The NCIF made two additional awards to Power Forward Communities and the Coalition for Green Capital. Awards for the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator were made to many Climate United collaborators, including Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv, the Native CDFI Network, and Appalachian Community Capital.
The Climate United team has spent the last five months hosting listening sessions and connecting with partners across the country to gather feedback and input on their implementation strategy, including stops in Durham, North Carolina, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, New York City, and Rapid City, South Dakota].
Learn more at self-help.org and www.WeAreClimateUnited.org.
