Renew America’s Nonprofits: A competitive grant from the Department of Energy promoting energy efficiency in nonprofit facilities was recently announced.
Faith communities may qualify for funding for energy efficiency improvements to their house of worship building, provided they own their building and are in the Green Umbrella 10 county Tri-state region. If your faith community does not own its worship facility or is outside the Green Umbrella region, you are not eligible for this program.
Over 40% of the heat trapping pollution in the atmosphere is generated from buildings through burning of fossil fuels. Under this pilot program grant, “Renew America’s Nonprofits”, funding for energy efficiency upgrades in buildings is offered to faith communities for the first time in history by the Department of Energy (DOE).
The Renew America’s Nonprofits grant will cover energy efficiency upgrades such as new roofs, windows, doors, insulation, replacing old lighting systems with LED lighting fixtures, and replacing old heating and cooling systems and ventilation systems with new systems that produce less heat trapping emissions. The grant could offer up to $200,000 to each faith community for upgrades in energy efficiency. In addition to lowering a building’s heat trapping emissions, retrofitting a building with energy efficient products can lower the facilities’ utility bills by as much as 30% according to the DOE.
There are three tiers of participation. The Prime-recipient is a nonprofit organization who compiles a portfolio of other nonprofits who need energy efficiency upgrades. Green Umbrella will be the Prime-recipient representing Faith Communities Go Green. The Sub-recipients must be nonprofits that own their buildings, and Partners are the managers, workers, and installers. At least 40% of Sub-recipients and Partners must come from minority / disadvantaged communities, as defined by the Justice 40 designation.
Faith Communities Go Green will select 15 to 20 faith communities representing a diversity of faiths with at least 40% in a Justice 40 district. Faith communities with a Green Team or those that have had an energy audit are encouraged to submit their interest form below to get involved.
If your faith community would be interested, please complete by June 7th, the FCGG grant interest form.
For questions, go to FCGG.org Contact tab and put “General” in the subject line.
If you or your faith community would like to support this effort, donations would be greatly appreciated. To donate, click FCGG.org/donate/. Your dollars will help cover the costs of energy audits for faith communities that cannot afford them.
Faith Communities Go Green partners with religious communities to create a more sustainable and equitable future for all by mobilizing their moral voice to reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change.
To learn more and join Faith Communities Go Green,
a Green Umbrella & EquaSion Collaboration,
go to FCGG.org