The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced the nonprofit organizations that will receive some of its $20 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, including $6.97 billion to the Climate United Coalition.

Comprising Calvert Impact, Community Preservation Corporation and Self-Help, Climate United specializes in making green loans to fund specific decarbonization projects while also transforming existing traditional mortgages and project financing markets into greener transactions. 

"Once the EPA put out the [NCIF] framework in April 2023, we then got to work in creating what we thought was the best structure and strategy to apply for the program," said Beth Bafford, Climate United CEO and vice president at Calvert Impact. 

That was when Calvert Impact made the decision to partner with Community Preservation Corporation and Self-Help to create the Climate United Coalition, a combination that enables the formation of a national cross sector and cross market segment strategy.

With the funds in hand, Climate United is able to take advantage of all three organizations' experience working with private sector and investors, expanding their work with the billions now available. 

"We now have this exciting source of federal funds that can be leveraged by private investors," said Bafford, "but every investment that we make in this portfolio will have to meet the qualified project tests."

Requirements to receive funds

Bafford outlined how companies can create successful applications. Here are the main pointers.

Meet two primary criteria: there must be private capital available, in addition to government money, to help fund the project, and the project must be unlikely to receive financing from other sources. "There’s a real focus on unlocking transactions, deals, projects that otherwise could not get done,” said Bafford.

The goal is to activate and accelerate private ca