Solutions for Energy Efficient Logistics (SEEL) in Detroit, a contractor building and growing energy efficiency programs across the U.S., launched a grant writing workshop to help organizations get funding for their major energy and environmental projects.
The workshop will be run by SEEL’s Learning Institute, and it will teach participants, such as nonprofits, for-profit corporations, government agencies, best practices and effective techniques for program development, budgeting and evaluation, grant management, and effective partnership management.
The first workshop is set for May 17 in Detroit. The first virtual class is scheduled for June 21. For more information or to register, visit seelllc.com.
SEEL also is making its experts available on a contract basis to design and produce proposal packages for federal, state, private, corporate, or foundation grants. These services are offered with a range of supports and fees to meet organizations’ specific needs.
“Our newest offerings build on SEEL’s real-world successes helping small nonprofit organizations access grant funding,” says Scott Alan Davis, vice president of inclusion and economic development for SEEL. “We piloted our grant writing training program in Illinois last year, with the support of a utility partner there that wanted to help community-based organizations in their service area participate in programs funded by that state’s Climate and Equitable Jobs Act of 2021.”
Of the eight groups in the first grant writing classes there, five of them report having successfully applied for grants since completing the program.
According to the White House, the Inflation Reduction Act alone contains 119 funding programs related to clean energy, climate mitigation and resilience, agriculture, and conservation-related programs.
These initiatives are spread across a variety of federal agencies including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, Housing & Urban Development, Interior and Transportation, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Administration, Council on Environmental Quality, and even the U.S. Post Office.
Other federal and state laws, as well as initiatives by for-profit and nonprofit utilities and grantmaking foundations across the country, offer thousands of other opportunities for program funding.
Many of these programs offer specific opportunities for initiatives that focus on serving low-income, ethnic minority, or other underserved communities, which SEEL has expertise in engaging as a nationally certified minority business enterprise (MBE) service-disabled, veteran-owned (DVBE) energy efficiency program implementation contractor.
“The federal government, state governments, and the energy industry are recognizing that achieving our national energy and environmental goals requires engagement with the entire breadth and depth of diverse communities that make up our nation,” says E’Lois Thomas, president of SEEL. “That makes it more important than ever that we help organizations that are rooted in those communities to step forward and connect with the agencies and other funders who are trying to improve equity, inclusion, and environmental justice across our country.”
