The Clean Energy Credit Union Is Building A Greener Economy

Supporting the Clean Energy Credit Union (CECU) is one of our favorite examples of a high-impact grant. When CECU was in the idea stage, the New Belgium Family Foundation committed to three years of operating support to get the project off the ground. Over those three years, CECU obtained its financial charter, built out its platform, and launched. CECU offers savings accounts and CDs to customers, and uses these deposits to provide loans for solar panel installations, electric cars, and energy-efficiency upgrades for homes.

As of October 2019 (about a year and a half since it’s launch), CECU had 1300 members and had made 1000 loans across the U.S. totaling $15 million dollars and avoiding an estimated 65,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. CECU has a robust pipeline of loan applications and is actively trying to grow its membership to fulfill the demand for clean energy loans. It plans to begin offering checking accounts to customers by the end of 2019.

Learn more about the Clean Energy Credit Union (and open an account!) here.