Freedmen Green Bank & Trust

Bringing clean energy solutions to high potential communities

Freedmen Green Bank & Trust is a nonprofit and charitable trust organization created to provide capital access, renewable energy, and climate resiliency solutions to overlooked, underserved, and low to moderate income communities.

Minority Serving Institutions

Faith-based organizations

multi-family facilities

About us

In partnership with both public and private sectors, we leverage innovative financing and community investments to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy and climate smart technologies. Freedmen Green Bank & Trust is committed to building a green power footprint and pathway for marginalized communities to stimulate economic viability and improve environmental sustainability.

Freedmen Green Bank & Trust has a strategic advantage with delivering greenhouse gas reduction and economic development for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, minority faith-based organizations, multi-family facilities, and solarized EV charging solutions in EV charging deserts.

Our services

Credit Enhancements

CRA

Foundation & Philanthropic Investments

Debt Management

Enhancements for cleantech founders

Securitization

"We believe that the green energy industry has the potential to lift historically disenfranchised communities out of poverty, across the country, at massive historical scale."

– Donnel Baird, Founder, BlocPower

We're built different

At Freedmen, we don’t just invest in projects. We seek to empower people and partner with them on their impact. Not only will their power bills go down, we will see greenhouse gasses reduced and communities transformed. The monies that are saved will not go back into their pockets, it will go back into their programs for impact.

Therefore, we have zero clients at Freedmen. We have Impact Partners.

Our impact partners are not just people who we invest in, but they are people who invest in us. We received a $50K planning grant from Kresge Foundation and a $500K capacity award from The Hive Fund. We are anticipating allocations from our partners with the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to continue to make these impacts to continue to support our Impact Partners as we go forward. With these monies, Freedmen is becoming stronger.

Not only are we Freedmen Trust, but you will grow to understand why to trust Freedmen.

Our Unique Approach

Freedmen seeks to provide loans, grants, and technical assistance to institutions in low-income and historically disadvantaged communities.

Project

Pipeline of climate resiliency projects at institutions in low income and disadvantaged communities

Platform

An ecosystem of BIPOC founders able to deliver climate resiliency services and technology

Partnerships

Partners with organizations offering technical assistance to both project clients and platform partners

Strategic Partnerships

Driving technology for minority communities

How it all began

1863

Emancipation Proclamation

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.”

1865

Freedmen's Bureau / Freedman's Bank

Congress established The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Record Group 105), also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau in March.

Meanwhile, a group of missionaries, abolitionists, and businessmen saw that African Americans would need support and education to become financially secure. In April 1865, they succeeded. The Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, often called “the Freedman’s Bank,” opened for business.

1899

Lasting Impact

The DC headquarters of the Freedman’s Bank was torn down in 1899. About 20 years later, the US Treasury Department built its new Annex building on the same spot. To honor the bank’s legacy, on January 7, 2016, the Treasury Department commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Freedman’s Bank by renaming the Treasury Annex the Freedman’s Bank Building.

2023

Coming Full Circle

In honor of the history of the Freedman Bank and the historic investment into communities of color through the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure legislation, Freedmen Green Bank & Trust was formed.

U.S. Department of Treasury

In the media

The legacy of Freedman’s Bank also serves as a reminder that we must continue striving for greater financial inclusion for all Americans – particularly those in underserved communities – so that they can share in the benefits of our growing economy.

– Jacob J. Lew, Fmr. Head of the U.S. Department of Treasury

For all inquiries

We’d love to hear from you.

Contact our team today!

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