Nonprofit community-based institutions work hard to deliver mission-driven programs and services. Whether providing affordable housing for the homeless, assisting at-risk youth in gaining job skills in public charter schools, or ministering to the conscience of a community in houses of worship, these institutions regularly push their internal capacity and strain their budgets just to advance a public mission of service.

When choosing to install new energy saving technology like more efficient lighting or boilers, or upgrading to renewable energy with solar panels, the choice too often comes down to a trade-off between using scarce capital resources to either upgrade their physical plant or carry out their mission.

Financing building improvements using MCED can enable nonprofits to overcome upfront cost barriers and easily access capital that is paid for over time through savings. MCED offers fixed rates and long terms to minimize payments and provide a solid value proposition for mission driven organizations.  That’s a good deal not only for the community, but for local clean energy businesses, the regional economy, and our shared environment.

Community-based organizations often have constrained budgets, substantial deferred maintenance challenges, and very large unmet capital investment needs.  Nonprofits are typically under-served in debt markets because they have unusual forms of credit or cash flows, making PACE an ideal mechanism to finance building upgrades because it attaches to the land record of the property not the credit of the borrower. For this reason, nonprofit properties frequently have low debt levels, further simplifying PACE underwriting by reducing the need for lender consent to establish a special PACE tax assessment.

Although PACE is a powerful tool for nonprofit institutions, it has not been widely available or accessible to these critical community-based institutions… until now. The cost of capital can be a major factor for institutions that low priced debt. In order to serve this important market, it is essential to structure creative financing solutions that bring down pricing for nonprofits.