Freedmen celebrates the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and congratulates the awardees

ATLANTA - April 9, 2024 - PRLog -- On April 4th, 2024, the awardees of $20B of awards were announced for the National Clean Investment Fund ("NCIF") and the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator ("CCIA"). The NCIF and CCIA are two of the three programs that make up the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund ("GGRF"). The NCIF dispersed $14B to Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital ("CGC"), and Power Forward Communities. And the CCIA dispersed $6B to the Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv, Justice Climate Fund "JCF"), Appalachian Community Capital, and Native CDFI Network. These organizations will further distribute their funds to green banks so that they can finance green projects at low interest rates. 40% of the funds are to be used for projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities to meet the administration Justice 40 initiative. Further, these organizations are to find ways to expand these funds to have a larger impact.

Freedmen Green Bank was formed to provide loans, grants, and technical assistance to projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities. Through its partnerships, Freedmen has garnered a large pipeline of shovel ready projects. It is now partnering with funds such as CGC and JCF to finance these projects. The projects include churches, minority serving institutions, public housing, overlooked nonprofits, and underserved municipalities. Currently, the green bank is helping two projects in the suburbs of Detroit, MI and three churches in Georgia.

Over the next few years, Freedmen will work to deploy over $2B into its project pipeline. To achieve our goal, we will work with our financial partners to include GGRF recipients, foundations, and municipalities. Most recently, Freedmen has been funded a planning grant from Kresge Foundation and capacity building funds from the Hive Fund.

"These projects have been historically overlooked, underfunded, and underserved. Green banks can uniquely provide communities, businesses, residential customers, and nonprofits access to low-cost financing for green projects," Said Dr. Reginald Parker, chairman of Freedmen Green Bank.

"The impact of financing these projects are lower bills, cleaner air, and more American jobs. Freedmen stands at the helm of doing this for its multi-billion-dollar project pipeline." Said Tarryn Henry, Director of Freedmen Green Bank.

Learn more at https://FreedmenTrust.org