Community Lenders Chart New Paths to a Clean Energy Transition

In 2025, dramatic federal policy changes reduced and eliminated many resources that had previously financed affordable energy and community resilience projects. These projects benefited low-income communities across the country. In early 2026, the Center for Impact Finance (CIF), in partnership with the Kresge Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), published Resilient Communities and Affordable Energy: Charting Roles for Community Finance, a report outlining the challenges to financing these projects in the wake of lost funding, as well as the operational pivots, business model shifts, capital pathways, and expanded partnerships that community lenders could make to pursue clean energy and resilience.  

As energy prices soar, community lenders continue to play an essential role in creating and sustaining energy affordability. Community lenders, including community development financial institutions (CDFIs), credit unions, and green banks, finance the efficiency upgrades, clean energy, and resilience investments that lower energy burdens and improve sustainability for financially underserved communities.  

On September 23, CIF and Inclusiv, a nonprofit network of community development credit unions, hosted a convening at New York Climate Week to discuss CIF’s report, assess the current state of the community-financed clean energy transition, and listen to community lenders describe how they have strategically aligned over the past year to expand their impact and deliver affordable energy benefits through efficiency and clean energy financing. Stakeholders representing a range of community lenders, mission-driven developers, investors, philanthropic organizations, and research organizations attended the convening. 

Inclusiv President and Chief Executive Officer Cathie Mahon, United Nations Federal Credit Union Director of External Relations Elisabeth Philippe, and CIF Executive Director Ellen Lurie Hoffman offered welcoming remarks. Next, CIF Senior Fellow Eric Hangen and NRDC Senior Director Adam Kent defined three key collaborative strategies the report identified, which community lenders have embraced. These strategies have allowed lenders to continue delivering benefits to underserved communities, attracting investment to meet growing needs, and ensuring sustainable and scalable lending. Hangen then led a panel discussion highlighting examples of these approaches. Panelists included US Green Bank 50 Executive Director Dan Adler, Justice Climate Fund CEO Amir Kirkwood, and Inclusive Prosperity Capital CEO Kerry O’Neill. 

Increasing efficiency through collaboration is the first strategy identified in the report. Previous CIF research has demonstrated that for many community lenders, operating costs can influence financial performance more than capital costs or loan losses do.¹ Over the past year, many community lenders have embraced new models to reduce costs and promote efficiency in their approach to clean energy finance. For example, Adler described how many green banks are embracing partnerships with CDFIs and credit unions and are building shared services, to help make lending processes more efficient. 

The second approach community lenders have taken to maintain clean energy investments is to prioritize market building by focusing on state and local action and partnerships. In 2026, many community lenders developed relationships with state and local governments with strong climate policies and a commitment to supporting the clean energy transition. For example, Kirkwood announced that Justice Climate Fund and the Hive Fund are collaborating to create loan loss reserves to support clean energy projects financed by community lenders, focusing on communities and states in the Southeast. In addition, Adler reported that many green banks are working closely with state and local partners and some are harnessing capital from state governments. For example, the Maryland General Assembly approved $23.7 million for the Climate Catalytic Capital Fund run by the Maryland Clean Energy Center (the state’s green bank), as well as $4 million for operating capital. Other green banks that exist without state legislation or dedicated public funding are considering alternative ways to leverage state resources. For example, Sustain Energy Finance, a nonprofit green bank in Utah, is exploring potential collaborative capitalization opportunities with the state, including by using emissions fees or an appropriation to help develop an industrial emissions reduction revolving loan program.  

The third strategy highlighted in CIF’s report—embraced by community lenders to increase capital for community-financed clean energy investments—is creating standardized financial products to support aggregation and scale. For example, O’Neill discussed how Inclusive Prosperity Capital’s Smart-E Loan Program incorporates a standardized loan product and impact reporting to minimize risk. Kirkwood noted that Justice Climate Fund is working closely with the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs to build out standardized products to support collective underwriting and syndication of loans, enabling CDFIs to take on larger projects. Adler added that green banks are eager to understand how standardized financial products can help provide greater liquidity. 

Following the panel, the audience divided into smaller thematic groups to discuss their own experiences with these strategies. Groups discussed the challenges and opportunities associated with collaborating, creating standardized lending products, sharing data and due diligence processes, and accessing capital. Each group reported the key themes of their conversations to the larger group before the event concluded. 

For more information about how CIF’s practitioner-driven research and professional training and technical assistance support community investments in clean energy and climate resilience, please contact Molly Gionta, CIF’s clean energy director. CIF’s clean energy and climate finance work is supported by Invest in Our Future, the New York Community Trust, and the Wells Fargo Foundation. 

¹Carsey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire–Center for Impact Finance. 2012. Swack, Michael, Jack Northrup, and Eric Hangen. The CDFI Data Project: Providing Capital, Building Communities, Creating Impact. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Community Investments Review. [Please note: These author names do not appear on the CDFI Data Project. They do appear with something called CDFI Industry Analysis: Summary Report.] 

Ellen Lurie Hoffman is the executive director of the Center for Impact Finance at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Lead image: Participants at CIF’s convening at Climate Week NYC. Credit: Center for Impact Finance.