About Reinvestment Fund
At Reinvestment Fund, we are dedicated to making a tangible difference in the lives of underserved individuals and communities. Our mission is to create opportunity for underserved people and places through partnerships. We marshal the capital, analytics, and expertise necessary to build strong, healthy, and more equitable communities.
As a federally certified community development financial institution (CDFI), our job is to make finance an agent of positive change and equitable growth. We provide loans, grants and technical assistance to businesses and nonprofits. Our borrowers and grantees educate students, support local economies, and create jobs. They build affordable housing and provide community goods and services that include access to nutritious food, hunger relief, physical and mental health care, and other social services.
Clean Energy
Reinvestment Fund is committed to environmental justice and ensuring that the most vulnerable in the communities we serve benefit not only from clean energy investments in their communities but also directly from reduced energy burdens and clean, safe and resilient homes and facilities. Reinvestment Fund began financing clean energy projects in 1993 and has provided over $350 million to a wide range of projects, from wind and solar [energy generation] to energy efficient building components to small-scale distributed-generation projects.
Our clean energy financing currently fits in two project types:
- Contract Financing – We finance Energy Savings Agreements, Power Purchase Agreements, and portfolios of consumer-scale clean energy projects. These projects tend to be complex, highly structured transactions that are relatively modest in size, with most between $1 million and $5 million. Serving this otherwise underserved “middle market” is a critical component of Reinvestment Fund’s mission attachment to the clean energy space.
- Community Facility Financing - We provide financing for energy efficiency and other resilience measures of community facilities (health care, schools, nonprofit spaces) and affordable multi-family and scaled for-sale housing projects in the low-income communities we serve.
With pending capital flows from the Inflation Reduction Act, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Fund (GGRF), Infrastructure Bill, and other existing and changing federal, state, and utility energy incentive programs and resources, this position is expected to work with Lending and Investments leadership to inform new business strategies in the clean energy space that result in more affordable capital directed to eligible projects benefitting residents of disadvantaged communities.
Who We Are Looking For
The Director, Clean Energy and Sustainable Finance will be an energetic and integral part of the Originations team, serving as primary contact for all aspects of Reinvestment Fund’s business of clean energy lending from transaction sourcing, structuring, underwriting and credit approval, to closing. The Director will collaborate with Reinvestment Fund lenders to structure and underwrite real estate and business loans that create energy savings and efficiencies applying clean energy capital sources- current and future.
In addition, the Director will have a demonstrated commitment to the breadth of Reinvestment Fund’s mission – which includes creation of opportunities for individuals in low-income communities and a commitment to advancing racial equity. This individual will be responsible for a target volume of annual originations on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. This role will report to the Managing Director, National Lending, and will be part of a team of lenders that lead specific lending programs with a national outlook.
Job Description
The Director, Clean Energy and Sustainable Finance, will lead the growth of Reinvestment Fund’s clean energy lending portfolio to align with Reinvestment Fund’s mission and strategic plan priorities. This work will include:
- Business Origination: Work with other members of Originations team to foster new relationships with project sponsors, typically for-profit clean energy companies, non-profit developers and owners of community facilities in disadvantaged communities, and to meet annual origination and impact targets. Director will stay on top of industry trends in innovative financing structures and solutions in support of environmental justice. Work with President, Lending & Investments and Managing Director, National Lending to develop and scale a sustainable, impactful climate lending strategy, (in connection with new funds under GGRF) and develop standardized loan products. Transaction Underwriting and Structuring: Perform credit analysis and work with Managing Director, National Lending and Managing Director, Structured Finance to develop transaction structures that appropriately mitigate risk. The position will be focused on assessing mission-alignment, financial credit risk, and understanding the technical aspects of projects (with support from existing staff at Reinvestment Fund and external consultants for detailed assessment of a project’ energy savings, etc.) The position will also lead the documentation and closing of transactions, working with outside counsel. The Director will stay updated on regulatory changes, and best practices related to energy lending in real estate and business transactions.
- Capital Source Management: Working with colleagues across Reinvestment Fund, Director will oversee outreach, eligibility requirements, regulatory compliance, periodic reporting, and deployment strategies with regard to multiple sources of dedicated energy financing capital, in Pennsylvania and beyond. The candidate will be lead operational contact for grantors, investors, and other stakeholders.
- Visibility: Build Reinvestment Fund’s visibility in the clean energy space, participating in conferences, finance and policy working groups, and other public-facing endeavors.