Last fall, Clean Power Alliance and Calpine Energy Solutions selected 12 non-profit organizations in CPA’s service area to receive over $275,000 from the Community Benefits Grant to focus on advancing energy goals, such as growing green jobs, promoting environmental education, and supporting energy equity and diversity initiatives in the 35 communities that CPA serves.
Awards to recipients ranged from $15,000 to $30,000 and have been utilized to advance a broad spectrum of renewable energy focused initiatives, including the purchase of electric vehicles to support local community events, sustainability workshops and education opportunities for students, and research on potential local energy projects.
Eugene Shirley, President of Pando Populous, a non-profit educational organization developing civic engagement programs, shared how grant funding allowed them to expand their Pando Days program.
Pando Days is a project-based program that brings colleges and universities together from throughout the California Southland to help implement regional sustainability goals. The program offers the framework and resources needed for higher education courses, studios, or labs to conceive and implement projects for real-world, community-based implementation.
“The grant funding provided the opportunity to reach out to more colleges and universities and enroll them in the program and allowed us to make more resources available that wouldn’t otherwise exist,” Shirley said. “It is indispensable to our planning and success and the additional support from CPA and Calpine made all the difference.”
The benefits grant is an innovative partnership between CPA and Calpine Energy Solutions, CPA’s customer support and billing services provider. Grant funding has grown each year since the program launched in 2021, with 2% of the value of CPA’s contract with Calpine reinvested back into our service area to support community-focused programs.
2023-24 Community Benefit Grant recipients include Climate First, Columbia Memorial Space Center, Friends of the LA River, Sustainable Claremont, Pando Populous, the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability, Tree People, Santa Monica Mountain Fund, Merito Foundation, Ventura County Community Foundation, Oxnard Performing Arts Center and the U.S. Green Building Council.
The benefits grant is an ongoing program, and another call for grant applicants will happen in the fall of 2024.
To learn more, visit cleanpoweralliance.org/calpinegrant/.
