Funding Strategies for Nonprofits: Making the Case for Energy Investments

energy energy improvements um so we'll look at we'll look at making the case today utility rebates in September and then we're going to look at lend lending and investment stacking um in October but I do want to flag too quickly that you know these topics are driven largely by feedback that we receive from the nonprofit community so um you know keep the feedback coming we do have a link on our website to be able to provide your ideas for what and and your interests and what you really need um and that again informs the direction we take these and who we bring to the table to help kind of um help help you provide help provide resources and connect dots to these things for for yall too um okay with that um I'm GNA pass it back to Anna to introduce our panel today speakers today if we could just have them go down the line um and con off mute and share a little bit about their position and their role in their organization we're going to start off with coral Abbott from invest in our future everyone happy to be here with you today um my name is coral abot and I'm a program manager with invest in our future um I'll share a little more in a minute but we're a fund that was set up to support with implementation of federal clean energy programs um and I am focused on kind of the sphere of work related to helping um Community scale Community benefiting projects access um resources from the IRA and other um Federal funding sources um to implement clean energy goals thank you Coral um next up Heather Navaro from the Midwest climate collaborative hello good afternoon um I'm with the Midwest climate collaborative and we are a multi- sector Network covering 12 states in the middle of the country uh we support organizations uh in higher ed nonprofit uh local state government uh businesses as well that are all working towards a um carbon neutral climate resilient interconnected Midwest region and my background um before coming to this was in local government in the city of St Louis and before that I directed a nonprofit with about um 12 employees for seven years working Statewide in the the state of Missouri so happy to be here with you all today thank you so much Heather and then we have marleene Nagel and Arin Caron from the M America Regional Council Marlene if you want to go first um good afternoon I'm Marlene Nagel um I'm community development director for Min America Regional Council we're the association of local governments and Metropolitan planning organization serving the bstate Kansas City area um and we're going to tell you a little bit about um the recent uh Department of energy Grant and sort of how we have worked with foundations Erin hello my name is Aaron Carson um I'm the project manager working on the renew America's nonprofits grant for um Mark um my background's in architecture and construction with u a little bit of focus on sustainability um so this is uh right at my alley forward to uh this afternoon thank you thank you so much um so excited to have you all here with that we'll get started and uh we can yeah thank you Isaac start with coral all right thanks again everybody for joining uh today I'm Coral like I said um and I'm just going to talk a little bit about from my own perspective um some things to consider When approaching philanthropic funders about your climate and clean energy work could go to the next slide so to give a little background on invest in our future to start um invest in our future launched in early 2023 following the passage of the inflation reduction act um the organization came together because a number of climate funders came together in the recognition that in order to meet the vision of the inflation reduction act to decarbonize communities Nationwide philanthropy needed to play a role in helping to fill some of the gaps that government wasn't able to pay for so um many climate funders had been and many still are really importantly focused on policy advocacy um but wanted invest in our future to really specifically focus on implementation so our Focus isn't so much on making policy change it's helping to achieve that bigger goal goal of the IRA to get clean energy investments into communities Nationwide um we're set up as a Tim limited pooled fund which means that a few major foundations provided us with three years of funding to make grants that will help to accelerate implementation of federal clean energy programs through the IRA the ija um or the infrastructure act a lot of folks for that one and the chps and science act um importantly though we know these uh Federal resources are expected to launch climate action in communities Nationwide from the household scale up to those bigger utility projects that generate power for a whole region um but the IRA also provides a real opportunity for transformative change in communities not just in terms of emission reductions but also quality jobs and economic growth Energy bill savings and air and water quality improvement in disadvantaged communities and environment Justice communities um so key to achieving these additional benefits is making sure that transformation is inclusive and so for that reason we're focused on how our grant making can take an equity centered approach so that the individuals and communities that have historically been shut out of opportunities and have been under or disinvested in are instead prioritized for these Investments and job creation wealth creation opportunities um the justice 40 mandates provide a really excellent starting point to achieve this um and we're looking at ways we can maximize benefits to these communities through our work and support the broader um climate funer field to think about things with the same framing as well so to achieve this bigger goal of Equitable implementation at scale um we focus our work on a few key areas so the first one is technical assistance and capacity building um that is making sure that organizations that are eligible for federal funding have the resources and capacity they need to go after them so typically this means that we'll fund third party organizations that have the time and expertise to help groups apply for funding through helping with applications or creating useful guides and toolkits for applicant to use um but can also look like capacity building directly to organizations that are trying to advance their climate and energy work or efforts to help build understanding and expertise in a specific sector or a specific community on how to advance um climate related work then we have strategic Communications so this is Communications and organizing that helps people to learn about how the IRA is currently benefiting their Community or how it could if they engage in efforts to help secure those funds locally um then we have Workforce Development so providing resources to organizations that can help to build a quality stable and Equitable Workforce and importantly a diverse Workforce that includes um the people in communities who have historically not had access to high quality clean energy jobs so that could be like uh funding Apprenticeship Training programs that provide wraparound services to make sure people have child care and Transportation uh available so they can attend and then we have barriers to implementation so reducing barriers to clean energy project deployment um this is mostly focused on permitting and sighting so kind of bigger scale um work in communities to focus on those barriers um notably we don't ourselves fund physical infrastructure uh this is in part because we were set up to help folks capture and Implement Federal funding for infrastructure and are trying to really fill the gaps that exist outside of those infrastructure costs um we are also kind of at a national level so do less like Project Specific work but from what I've seen um often the national philanthropies that provide funding for is physical infrastructure do so through low interest loans out of their Investment Portfolio um which I'll get into a little bit in a minute go to the next slide So I myself am new to philanthropy I've been at investing our future for less than a year and in that time I've learned a lot about the different types of funders that are out there so this is a very quick highle overview it doesn't contain everything and there are more resources um online that you can find to walk through these in more depth but wanted to share just a few maybe relevant points to get your wheels turning on the types of philanthropies you might want to engage depending on the work you're trying to advance and how to kind of make the case for how your work fits in with what they're trying to do and fund um so to start um just wanted to cover the difference between a foundation and like a general philanthropic organization so a Foundation is an organization that has an endowment or money that's invested and then generates a return they then use a portion of that endowment they have to use at least 5% every year for Grant making and then they invest the rest of their endowment typically so a few types of Foundations are Community foundations which like the name suggests are based in specific communities or regions and often hold stronger relationships with local groups and provide grants that will directly benefit that community in some way or another they often also have topical Focus but they're really focused on that Community or region often um Family foundations are set up by a donor or a family and then are run by a combination of staff and then members of that family some of them Focus explicitly on the communities where they're located others might do broader Grant making that's focused on specific topics rather than a geography um and then corporate foundations are set up by corporations and also really vary widely in Geographic and sector Focus but often have some sort of correlation to their corporations Focus so a corporate Foundation of say a healthc care provider might do a lot of Grant making around Public Health efforts um then there are groups that are uh philanthropic organizations but not necessarily foundations um old funds and reg granter so invest in our future is both a ped fund and a reg granter these organizations typically don't have an endowment of their own and rely on donations from other foundations or organizations to carry out their Grant making and the other work that they do so the main reason that I bring this up is that most people are aware that foundations make grants but some foundations also have what they call an impact investing arm of their organization um foundations invest some of their endowment into activities or work that creates a positive social impact um some foundations have specific impact investment portfolios so they might have like a climate impact investing portfolio another an education impact investing portfolio um what's important to know about these is that they're offered as loans rather than as grants um the upside to them is that the loans are typically set at lower interest rates or structured in another way to make it more affordable and Fe ible to take on than a loan from A bank might be um from what I've seen philanthropic organizations that don't have an endowment typically don't make impact Investments and really just focus on grants um another quick note is that there's a difference between public and private foundations so public foundations have to provide a higher level of transparency about how their money is spent than private foundations often do um as far this the structure goes philanthropies are typically driven by a strategy that's developed internally across their staff and board um excuse me that provides some framing for the type of Grant making or investing that they'll do so for example um they the strategy determines whether they'll have a focus on climate education Public Health whatever their other kind of topical areas are and then within those categories specific areas of focus as well that really really Drive how they make decisions about their grants or other Investments so um oh sorry can we go back really quickly um I think something else to note is that final decisions are often made by a board which can include the donors themselves and so when you're talking to a program officer even if they seem really excited about your idea they often have to run it by a few other levels and go through a formal voting process before they can actually let you know whether they can give you a grant um so when you're considering reaching out to funders it's a good idea to do a little digging into how they're structured whether they do Grant making and impact investing whether their focus is more National or Global or if they really focus on a specific region and then what their strategy is which they might have on their website or you can reach out and ask um and so I think thinking about this can help you make sure you're reaching out to groups that align with the scope of work that you're trying to get f just to kind of save your own time and then also to understand how to make the most compelling case about your work and understand how it aligns with their strategy okay next SL um so before we move into the next presentation I also wanted to just offer some of the broader ways that I've seen philanthropy supporting on clean energy implementation this is definitely not comprehensive it's just what I've observed um in the last year or so so on the grant making side there are a lot of funders that are supporting organizations operating capacity um so for example funding a new staff person that can focus on a climate implementation program that the organization is launching um a lot of funding is also going to programmatic work so Workforce training programs Communications campaigns or development of technical assistance resources are things that I've seen a lot in our corner of the world and then on the impact investing side um this is more whereare I've seen some funding going towards infrastructure project costs or things like Equity investments in uh clean energy companies that are trying to serve more communities and grow their organization um the last note that I'll make before turning it back over is that there are a lot of really skilled knowledgeable organizations and collaboratives that can help smaller nonprofits to navigate and apply for these federal funds and so really encourage folks to engage with them early on to help identify the best sources of funding for what you're trying to achieve um because from what we've been seeing and I know the other presenters will touch on this there's a lot of funding available from the federal government for some of the same activities under different programs and in different forms and so there are a lot of folks doing great work that can help you navigate how to access that as well and understand if that's the route you should be going instead of trying to approach philanthropy first um so that ultimately you can achieve your goals um around getting these projects built out and this work launched um so with that I will hand it back over to our hosts thank you so much Coral I think that was a really great High L over highlevel overview next up we'll hand it off to Heather from the Midwest climate collaborative great thank you good afternoon everyone and um thank you Coral that was a really wonderful overview and I know this is such a huge topic and there's so much to cover um for the last year and a half or so the Midwest climate collaborative has been working with nonprofits as well as local and state governments colleges universities to help match funding opportunities to climate priorities and so I'm going to speak a little bit more from the applicant side of this and it's nice to see a lot of the familiar folks here that we have been working with over the last year or so um and I just want to recognize that you know fundraising is a journey I know there's this again is a huge topic and hopefully I can share something new and helpful here no matter where you are in that journey and whether it's relevant to Ira or opportunities beyond that so next slide so you know the inflation reduction Act is not called actually the one right before that if you can stick with that one thanks uh so the inflation reduction Act is not called the climate funding act for a reason it's it's not limited to groups who are already thinking about lowering their emissions and building resiliency it's really for work happening in all sectors of the economy and social services so whether you deliver fresh produce in a food desert you work in a school or an after um or an after school program you deliver Health Care you teach music I mean it really is worth seeing how these federal funds can support your mission um similarly if you work in a building you require transportation to deliver Services um or any other basic functions you know around running an organization you really should be looking at at what's available at the IRA next or with the IRA and I won't go over this too much because Coral already um went over some of these just you know the support really comes in so many different forms and I think a lot of us especially in the nonprofit sector are really focused on on competitive grants but there are also um formula funds these are usually distributed from the federal government to the state and they're based on a a calculation um you still have to apply in terms of having a a program that meets the qualifications but the amount has already been set aside and it's kind of like money on the table to go get uh there are rebates tax credits which are now available to tax exempt entities in the form of direct or elective pay low interest forgivable loans there's these challenges and competitions that you might have heard about this is usually you submit a project or something you've created or done or working on and you you win money um there's not necessarily A a report at the end so those are kind of interesting um and then there's also technical assistance which can come in the form of Consultants which you're paid for sometimes by a funer or or they can come in form of vouchers to to seek out your own technical assistance um and these can come from a variety of different sources so on the right there you know private foundations can have competitive grants um they also could Pro help provide technical assistance obviously your your tax credits are going to come from the federal government your rebates are usually coming from um utilities but there's a lot out there um Beyond these these um competitive grants next slide so I'm sure this next slide doesn't tell you anything you don't already know if you're working in the nonprofit sector um and we could spend a whole day just talking about um you know capacity gaps I think U when we think of challenges or hurdles you know if you don't know about a source of funding you can't apply for it so there's there's that just keeping up to dat um if you don't know what the IRA is you know then you're missing out and you've got a lack of um you know lack of capacity is is a is a huge huge one um it takes time to understand the issues in the fun to build relationships um then there's the actual application um and then if you get the grant there's often a post awward negoti or pre-award negotiation there's the management there's the reporting I mean these are really full-time jobs to seek out and apply for Grants and that's often another full-time job to manage a grant I currently um the Midwest climate collaborative is hosted at um a Washington University in St Louis and so being here on the University side you know I can see that there is a reason that higher ed institutions you know they have a negotiated indirect rate with the federal government because they know it takes a lot of work to do this well and you know those of us in nonprofits you know who um you know are doing the work are not generally the ones who have the time or the experience to handle um everything that it takes to apply for an Implement a Federal Grant and you don't you know you don't necessarily want them to you want those people to be doing doing their job not not the paperwork so um tremendous tremendous capacity have so I think really the question is you know how do you navigate this world of funding to leverage what you have to get the most for your organization and your mission and so that's what I want to um talk a little bit more about so next slide so to get funding I mean there's a lot of things you need but one you know if you are a nonprofit you you probably need board approval um you need the right Partnerships because many of these funders for good reason want to see that you're working with others to pull resources and expand your reach and you'll likely need some sort of technical assistance um you know if it is for some an energy project you may need engineering drawings you may need to do a greenhouse gas inventory or you know grant writing support um and all of these things each one of these takes additional capacity you know communicating with your board is a time commitment in itself it may require one-on ones with specific board meet board members it could be additional meetings um you may need to be bringing in other voices with experience on a specific topic or researching and expressing to them how your mission is supported by a new source of funding um Partnerships require time for relationship building you know getting to know the organizations the people in them the people they serve um you know striking up your first conversation um with a potential partner while you have a Federal Grant application in your hand is generally not the right foot to start start off on you need to you know build in that time um upfront um and then finding the right technical assistance you know entering into a contract if necessary um takes time just digesting this maybe getting additional feedback um relaying it back to your staff or your board getting everybody's buyin all of these things take time when you're going to go after a new funer and I mean I'm just one I just want to say I I get it I I hear you all this is not it's not an easy thing I know these grants come out and it's like hey we have something that's been tailored just for you and your community um but it's much more than just filling out a few boxes um and so that's what I'm trying to demonstrate here that at all of these legs we know that there's there's additional capacity that's that's needed uh so next slide so in talking with your board or or a fun so you want to make the case that um you know some of these funds especially through the IRA whether it's you know clean energy climate resiliency especially if these are not areas of funding that you've been in you may really need to make the case to them and so first just starting off with you know who's the audience um is it is it your board is it a specific board member who's going to be most interested or most skeptical um that may be the person that you need to spend the most time talking to um maybe you need to get your staff on on board first um or maybe it's a funer that doesn't usually fund organizations like yours and you want to show them how your missions align in which case you know your audience is may be a specific staff member there it may be their board members it may be one of their donors so really get specific with who are you talking to um and in terms of craft in a a compelling a compelling message so and then find out what's important to them you know find out over coffee if you can I mean otherwise you know look to the website but also look at news releases talk to other grantees you often find out more you know by Word of Mouth of what's important to to this particular audience and then who the right messenger is you know if your bored is the audience um you know maybe they need to hear from you but maybe they need to hear from the funer directly that you are the type of organization they want to fund um you know if you're thinking about a funer maybe need to hear from someone that they already have an established relationship with maybe it's another grantee or it's another fund in the same orbit you know if it's Community Foundation maybe they need to hear from other community foundations um it maybe that they need to hear from an expert voice that can cite research to say that yes funding neighborhood organizations to work on home weatherization is a valuable way of improving indoor air quality you know find the folks who have the credibility to deliver the message to that specific audience unfortunately having the facts and saying all the right things often isn't enough you really have to have it come from the right person so next slide so this is an example you know if you're talking about energy Investments and this might again maybe you're in the business of um you know running a food pantry um so think about kind of like a glossery of terms is what we've got here like how you can equate energy Investments um to what your mission is so um like for example you know in homes that have been weatherized that have switched to Electric stoves for example or other electric appliances um they've installed programmable thermostats those residents report higher levels of safety and comfort you know that's your message you're talking about safety and comfort um when buildings are cooler at the end and start of the school year students retain more Mo knowledge and have improved learning outcomes so that's what you're talking about you're not going to your board or your funer talking about climate out of the gate or anything you're talking about your mission um so when we make energy investments in our buildings for example or our climate our clients buildings and homes they have more money to spend on healthy food rent Recreation and I think you can always come back to the argument we have building repairs to make anyway right so why not use these funds uh and reap all of the co- benefits that come with them next slide so you might get push back you know is this Mission drift um you know we don't work on climate or energy um but really your mission is not changing and if you hit next I've got an example here so let's say that you your your goal is to serve a certain number of children every year you deliver books and healthy snacks to their their home or their daycare and you have a b budget for this that includes you know a variety of things including the books and and food but also vehicle maintenance and gas so imagine if that piece of the pie went away or is drastically reduced how much more you would have to deliver services or pay employees for example um so this is just another way of of making the case based on what your mission is next slide please and then this slide just makes some more connections depending on you know what your your mission is um I think it's really helpful to map out where you see interaction where you see those intersections for your audience what what matters to them so you know I've seen foundations that'll say oh yeah we support X and then you're like oh great we do X and then they come in and say oh well actually we don't support that um so sometimes you need to help make the case show those connections and so um you know in this case you're talking about indoor air quality there 's going to be an intersection when you're looking at these funds Energy Efficiency upgrades um Electric Appliance Replacements um maybe your organization works on disaster preparedness and you're looking at funds for energy storage solar panels resilience hubs there's going to be an intersection there um Economic Development if that is um I see we've got a lot of folks from like Main Street organizations um a lot of these grants have Workforce Development components small business support um so you know really identifying where those intersections are and then where you can find funding at that at that intersection um let's see next slide so you know thinking about to um you know who are the other partners so thinking about um you know you you think about the folks that you specifically directly work on with um your particular Mission but you can really expand beyond that even if you're the only one in town who provides a particular service you're going to need someone to help promote your your service even if that means in line at the grocery store you're going to need someone potentially to service your vehicles or maintain your office space to provide tools or equipment um when you're looking at some of these um funding opportunities they may feel really overwhelming but recognizing that you have built in Partners in your community and you know thinking I just put a list here of some of the ones that we don't always think about but have come to me and said hey we want to be a partner we may not be the lead but we have things to offer and that could be libraries you know they do have campuses if you're looking for a place maybe to Pilot a project um or to host a meeting um you know think about your libraries I've had land trusts come to me and say hey we have land we would love to be um figuring out how we can put this to better use or to demonstrate certain practices schools same thing you know they have land buildings their students are often looking for projects and on and on um many of these Partners though are also resource constrains so you know you might look at their website and just because something's not on there it doesn't mean they're not interested and they're not working on it and so you know if you do find somebody in another organization um who has similar interests or is thinking in the same vein I really encourage you just to set up a standing meeting you know maybe once a month just touch base on what's going on because then when these opportunities arise you're ready to go you already know somebody you've built a relationship um and you can hit the ground running um and also you know think about the work that you have to do and what can be contracted out so if you don't have the capacity for all that financial reporting for example example find a bigger organization who does you know you could see if maybe there is a local college or university you could partner with definitely ask what their you know fees are but you know there might be somebody who has experience in this area and has capacity to to fill in some of these gaps um also is there's someone else already creating maybe educational or promot promotional materials that you could work with is there someone who's already convening or hosting the people that you want to convene for your particular project you know work with them meet them where they are we don't all need to be spinning our Wheels doing the same thing um and then there are there are organizations and there are funders um you know I've seen private funders they'll provide a grant writer for their grantees to be able to apply for other sources of funding so you know don't be afraid to to ask um you don't have to wait until you win the award to get funding there is um you know application funding out there to help you prepare so those are a few of the things that you can be doing to rely on other folks in your community to expand your capacity next slide please um I'll just go through these super fast because I know we're running out of time but um these are just examples of places you can go to get readymade Graphics to talk to your audience so this these are from climate Central um if you want to go to the next slide um it's EPA en virro Atlas and EJ screen um you know and if you're not familiar with these tools there may be you know an intern that would love a project I know a lot of the schools and universities have GIS programs and their students are looking for projects and for practical application so these things are out they can tell really compelling stories to to your audience and then the next slide is um the CJs tool the climate and economic Justice screening tool which a lot of you have probably used before uh next slide and I'll just um focus a couple of quick examples success stories this is the new Northside Missionary Baptist Church in St Louis it serves a community facing poverty and all of those challenges that come along with it and back in 2014 they decided to install solar panels using um State incentives um and Reverend Burton here you know he says the church saves thousands of dollars each year and they serve as a demonstration to others about what's what's possible and this is this is not a church that's in a high income area with lots of time to spend on you know eco-friendly projects he really saw the connection between the work he's doing and the high energy bills that his um his congregation was facing and you know really figured out how to make this work uh the next one next slide thanks is uh williamsfield Illinois and this started off it was a student project um um and then it turned into a clean energy project project that they were able to fund with money from Doe's renew America Schools project um program and they're realizing the benefits of clean air for the students the drivers and the community and they've updated their vehicle to grid technology so they're able to put energy back on the grid from the school buses which are only running a fraction of the time and they're saving $30,000 a year so that's money that can go back into the kids in the school next and this last one is from a project here in St Louis this was funded through a private Foundation that paid for charging infrastructure and vehicles to deliver people and services um for a community center youth and senior service program and these were installed in a neighborhood that is not talking about climate change every day but definitely feeling the effects and so this helped them to upgrade their Fleet which they were going to have to do anyway and put in the infrastructure that um is helping clean the air quality right there in their neighborhood and it's also demonstrating to their clients and the community uh what's possible next and so just in closing I just want to say that you know I know how overwhelming it can be to lead an organization or a program and there's never enough capacity and even when you get the money it's often restricted uh doesn't pay for the staff that you need to do the additional work um that you've been funded to take on but you know and getting more money takes money so while there are systemic shifts that are needed to fix this long-term these long-term issues we can work together now take advantage of the opportunities in front of us to lighten or shift that load um nonprofits and government agencies often um offer these cohort learning experiences and yes they do take some time out of your day but you often end up with information that would have taken you days to find out on your own anyway um many of these funding agencies have newsletters they post to social media when they have an opportunity available and again it can be overwhelming you don't have to read them all but again think about what are those key priorities where are those intersections for your organization and you know skim through them and really highlight those you can there also other people who are sifting through these for you so like I do this for the Midwest as best as I can and I host a federal funding Friday each week and we hop on and we share about grants and toolkits so that we're learning these things together and we don't have to handle all of this on our own um and even if there's not an opportunity um you know with your local Community Foundation or Family Foundation you know right now still look them up get to know them let them get to know you um you know many of us in the nonprofit world are not familiar with um Finance topics so we tend to avoid things that might say loan or financing Vehicles you know I think we're more comfortable trying to convince people of the merits of our work through a competitive Grant sometimes than understanding interest rates but um these programs can also unlock all sorts of funding and there's all sorts of other services that come with them so you don't have to design and execute a project on your own so you know Community Development Finance institutions um your local banks be talking with them as as well um so my last slide uh I just want to say you know we're not alone in this work uh you can find me at the Midwest climate collaborative and I look forward to answering any questions at the end of the presentation thank you thank you so much Heather I think uh that was a really great overview of challenges capacity so much more um and I think that was a really good transition as well to our final panelist of the day um from the mid America Regional Council um this speaker is a little bit unique in that they are recipient of the renew America's nonprofits grant that um was was open last year and uh I'm going to hand it off to you too great thank you very much Anna and thank you to the Department of energy for the both the support you've given our community with the grant as well as allowing us to share uh some perspective um on the webinar uh today um next slide and uh Erin and I are going to kind of tag team this um just a bit of background um our organization is um I think I mentioned an association of city and county governments we serve a bstate area portions of Missouri and Kansas along the state line um we are a public nonprofit but in 2005 we formed a 501c3 to allow us to raise additional dollars from both um Federal sources as well as uh philanthropy um and we have a long track record of um serving the community work working with nonprofits uh to in particular to support disadvantaged populations um we're the Head Start grantee and work with lots of organizations to serve about 2400 children in their families where the Area Agency on Aging and so in a lot of different ways we're supporting disadvantaged populations in our metro area and then we have a partnership with a uh a regional Environmental Group climate action KC and they're building um uh energy exchange um to to really look at high performing buildings and how we really change the um the region and in terms of um being more energy efficient and sustainable um next Kon I think is going to tell us tell you a little bit about the grant that we're kicking off so I'm I'm working on the uh the renew America's nonprofits Grant um and it's basically uh set up to to provide some um upgrades for Energy Efficiency for nonprofits so that they can um reallocate that money toward serving their mission um so we uh we're planning to uh to to serve about 25 to 30 nonprofit organizations um we received the funding from the doe of uh 4.7 million and then we um we sought out and found 1.5 million uh in priv private Foundation support um to go along with that and uh throughout this the application for the grant as a as a prime recipient um we partnered we had several partners that that uh also continued to help us um with the execution of the grant um we partnered for community outreach with Community Capital Federal or Capital fund and United Way of Greater Kansas City um we had initially anticipated um getting about 50 applications for this Grant and we received close to 70 so the Outreach was was really good and we're really fortunate um to receive that additional support um we also have partnered um for some additional nonprofit expertise with climate action KC and uh building energy exchange KC as well as a metropolitan Energy Center um they'll also be helping us do some of the energy assessments and then we have two local um engineering firms that are going to help us with the energy assessments the level one Lev level two Audits and then the um design and um and then into construction and construction management um we anticipate uh you know the upgrades for these are going to be um you know HVAC upgrades we're going to be commissioning some of the um existing HVAC units uh doing monitoring controlling services or devices um upgrading windows and doors instulation some minor building envelope improvements and LED lighting so the scope isn't really isn't huge um but we're anticipating about $200,000 per nonprofit and we're looking at a 15% energy Improvement um if after the improvements are done and we'll be monitoring and tracking the 12- month prior energy usage as well as the energy um usage after the improvements are complete and by tracking this um we were hoping to to provide case studies for U additional um for future Grant um opportunities so that we can show to foundations in our area that the dollars that they're giving us are having a a direct impact on the community that they live in and also to to partner with those uh those nonprofits and and maybe a few examples of of how much of an impact that had and how many additional people were they able to serve um with these these energy improvements back to you Marlene okay next slide so um you know what started our work in this area um toward um securing this grant was really our history of addressing important Community issues working with Community Partners Heather mentioned the importance of that um and like um Coral mentioned we serve as a regran organization in a lot of ways our annual budget this year is 133 million and about 75% of that we bring in and we pass right out to local governments nonprofit organizations school districts and other community institutions um work working with them to ensure that um programs and services in the community are um well designed and well and delivered well and then we have strong fiscal capacity that gives our um funders um comfort that the the dollars will be spent as intended and spent well next slide and so what we have found over time in approaching and working with foundations is really to um uh again as um I think Heather mentioned you know sort of aligning um year work with the mission and the interests of um of Foundations um we've built relationships and have built trust and that has really been important so we have a track record of performance um when covid first hit and uh the pandemic caused lots of agencies to um close and lots of people in the community to lose their um their jobs and their livelihood uh we worked with United Way um the Community Foundation and Lisk and raised um over $25 million in a matter of a few weeks um and we were able to um work with numerous foundations and funders and um and then regranted those dollars out to over 400 nonprofit organizations in our community um and what was helpful about that experience was it showed to a lot of our foundations who had previously just funded the larger more established nonprofits is that some of the most important work in serving disadvantaged people in our communities is done by Grassroots organizations and so there became more of a focus on trust-based philanthropy in our community um and has served us all well as sort of a a result of that experience and then again sort of our experience in um seeking and utilizing federal funds has um given some confidence by the not only um what we said next next slide um and so in addition to those strong relationships and our and sort of demonstrating our ability and gaining their confidence to deliver um we approached four foundations with whom we had prior relationships um and they KN we knew they had an interest in serving in supporting nonprofits that serve disadvantaged residents and communities and so our pitch to them was while it was about Energy Efficiency um it was really more about helping nonprofits in our community reduce their operating costs and put dollars into Direct Services so so many foundations are really interested in improving the capacity of nonprofits to serve their clients and the community and so helping them see that this program really was about that um and um some of the benefits that Heather mentioned we we talked a lot about making buildings healthier and more um comfortable um for um both employees of the nonprofits but also um of clients that are being served and what we heard um from many of the nonprofits is that many of the clients they serve have faced trauma um have mental health challenges um have just stressed from daily life and so being able to come and and receive services in a in a healthy and comfortable environment was really important to the delivery of services and the um and the outcomes that the nonprofits would see in serving those clients and then um what foundations found helpful is seeing their dollars uh leveraged uh with the federal funds with other Foundation resources and and with the nonprofit support uh going into the program next slide and one of the things we also observed as we've been started to review these 70 applications that Erin mentioned is that many of them have already received some funding in the past Capital dollars to help them with solar uh panel systems with HVAC um Replacements and and other improvements and again they were making the case uh for the long-term benefit that these Investments would have in their ability to serve the community and so um sort of stressing that long-term benefit um particularly as energy costs are going to continue to Rise um and climate is going to impact um our our community and I'm sure yours in terms of needing to address hotter Summers and colder um winterers um and uh and so this program really encourages those nonprofits that are assisted to focus on efficiency Investments certainly we want to demonstrate um Energy savings that's a big part of the grant but we also want to see better outcomes for the community and there's a real emphasis in in our program around justice 40 communities and populations we're hoping to promote and support Workforce Development for area residents and and to utilize um small and um and disadvantaged businesses as part of our Workforce and then uh important to doe but also to us and to our foundations is being able to measure the results and to demonstrate Effectiveness um next slide so with that um we have some information on our website we're happy to um we're look for we'll look forward in the few minutes we have left for any questions but certainly can follow up later with any of you thank you so much marleene um we can move on to the next slide and get into questions um I love seeing how active the chat has been throughout this a lot of resource sharing um and and that's really great to see uh I know a lot of questions have been answered I feel like as we've spoken so if people want to um reput in their questions and bring them towards the bottom that would be helpful um to highlight a couple tools I know uh Katherine a while back mentioned listing uh providing a list of different funding options for um nonprofits to research and um I'm curious if any of you all have places where you find lists of funding options um that we provide a newsletter that provides Federal funding opportunities for nonprofits but if there's any that go beyond that that you would recommend I'll share a couple um I dropped one in the chat um it's called the afford tool I'll drop it in there again actually maybe it has and maybe now they're calling it something else but um it's put out by RMI part of the American City's climate challenge and um I think this one you can put in there what kind of entity you are what type of project you're looking for funding type what phase and it'll tell you right away um you know what are the deadlines is there match you know who are eligible entities and then it's I guess easiest shopping for a cell phone you can select three or four of them and it'll match them up against one another and you can see which one you'd like to go for and then the other one actually University of Michigan has a um a really good tool let me pull this up it's a a list um and they break it down they've got the incentives in here as well as they're tracking opportunities as they come out so this is just a Google spreadsheet and I will copy this one and also drop it in the chat thank you so much Heather and I know I I saw someone a while back drop in the tool the uh desire tool which we also think is incredible to see about incentives by state and by region because we know it is so Regional and I'll put that link back in the chat as well um so uh there's a couple questions about do support and federal funds and we will provide a a link to sign up for our email um and I feel like that's the best way our newsletter every month provides resources for federal funds and all things ta specific for nonprofits um I also see some questions about tax credits and uh where to get the best information on that um I know a lot of resources have been shared but if any of our panelists have like uh their goto ones that they'd want to talk about because I know that's a big barrier and new for the nonprofit sector yeah I know a really good ta provider in the space right now for the tax credits that nonprofits are newly eligible for is lawyers for good government um they have made a put together a lot of resource I saw some of them in the chat and they're starting a kind of clean energy tax Hub as well that I think somebody included in the chat here as well um where they're sharing all their uh learnings and examples um that they have um to projects um or to folks who are considering applying for tax credits and kind of helping walk through the process um would be a probably a good place to start thank you um there's a question early on and I kind of hope we touched on it but someone was asking they were saying that Arkansas will probably not participate in IRA and they're wondering if their nonprofit can access the IRA funds um and we want to make that very clear that you can um I don't know if any panelist wants to expand on on how nonprofits can directly access Ira but I mean I'll just share I mean Ira just refers to this piece of legislation which has a whole bunch of different programs and um and funds through various agencies so um yes defin these different tracking trackers these spreadsheets and these websites we've been sharing are great ways to kind of sort through you know as a nonprofit what are you eligible for some of these grants are going straight to local governments or state governments but there are a lot of them that are going straight to nonprofits for that very reason if you're in a state that may not be going after some of these funds it does not lock you out of of these opportunities so just look for those eligible entities that's what you want to look for and and that'll open up the door for you thank you I think in the final minute if we can go to the next slide and just um again make a nod to the upcoming webinars which will focus more on uh diverse funding mechanisms for nonprofits utility rebates and incentives and then lenders and investment stacking with more to come um you can look for that on our email list and on our website and then next slide um like I said this is all being recorded we'll share all of these slides um and on these slides you can provide link there on this slide there's a link to sign up for our newsletter and a link to where we want to hear more from you um a a quick survey this idea or the next idea on utility incentives is actually something that a nonprofit um responded and to this survey and where we have gotten this inspiration from so we'd love to hear from you how we can best support you um yeah I'm seeing lots more questions in the chat okay I I think we will have to wrap up today the series will keep going um thank you so much for everyone coming uh we really appreciate your participation um thank you again for our panelists it was really great for you all to be with us to kick off this first series this webinar in the first this first webinar in the series um and we look forward to hearing more from uh all these participants and and the survey that we'll send out it'll be posted on our website in the next week okay thank you so much thank you thanks sorry I talked too long it was great and it