Appalachian Community Capital (ACC)

In 2024, ACC was selected to receive a $500,000,000 grant from the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, a program of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) organized under the Biden Administration‘s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ³

Background

Appalachian Community Capital (ACC) is a community development financial institution (CDFI) that, according to its website, provides financing to “Black, Brown, Indigenous, and woman-owned small businesses” ¹ as well as weather-dependent energy projects in the Appalachian region. It was formed in 2013 and received certification from the U.S. Treasury Department in 2016. ^{1 2}

ACC was launched with $15.5 million in seed capital, first drawn from an initial investment of $3.5 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission and various foundations and partners that was subsequently supplemented by $12 million from Bank of America, Calvert Foundation, Deutsche Bank, and the Ford Foundation. ¹

Activities

Appalachian Community Capital (ACC) does not lend money directly but rather raises money on behalf of its clients, which are often other community development financial institutions with similar advocacy goals. According to its website, as of 2025, ACC had raised over $50 million for its clients since 2015. ^{1 2}

ACC’s “Green Bank for Rural America” program provides capital investments and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations and public initiatives in the Appalachian region towards developing green and weather-dependent energy projects. It listed community development financial institutions (CDFI), public-sector lenders, and nonprofit entities capable of making loans as eligible recipients. ⁴

Financials

In 2023, Appalachian Community Capital (ACC) reported a total revenue of $4,344,653, total expenses of $4,263,882, and net assets of $4,976,194. ⁵ That same year, the ACC also reported receiving $2,768,485 in government grants. ⁶

In 2024, Appalachian Community Capital was selected to receive a $500,000,000 grant by the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, a program of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) first launched by the Biden administration‘s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allocate federal funds to organizations and other groups to promote policy against climate change as well as providing green energy access for disadvantaged communities. ^{7 3}

In November 2024, ACC was listed as one of five groups to receive funding from the Clean Communities Investment Accelerator in order to create a “hub” for redistributing funds and providing technical assistance to community leaders and initiatives engaged in constructing “clean energy” infrastructure. The grant ACC received was earmarked for its Green Bank for Rural America. ³

As of July 2025, following the passage of the federal spending bill, titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the second Trump administration‘s EPA has blocked $20 billion of the total $27 billion allocated from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) in National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) grants previously authorized through the Biden Administration’s EPA. ^{8 9 10 11}