Climate United Fund
The Climate United Fund is a left-of-center nonprofit coalition formed to bid on federal grant money awarded during the Biden administration. It was formed by three investment organizations: Calvert Impact Capital, the Community Preservation Corporation, and Self-Help. It received a $6.97 billion award from the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the National Clean Investment Fund component of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, also known as “green bank” funding. In 2025, the second Trump administration froze and later terminated access to the grant, calling it a “scheme” to rapidly deploy funding to groups linked to left-of-center organizations and former Democratic political appointees with limited oversight, which led to litigation. 1 1 2
Contents
Background
Climate United was established in 2022 to compete for Inflation Reduction Act funding. The group was formed by the nonprofit lending organizations Calvert Impact Capital, Community Preservation Corporation, and Self-Help, which are among the largest such organizations in the country and have operated similar community development grant programs, including environmentalist programs. The coalition submitted its application in October 2023 and was selected in April 2024 as one of eight organizations that collectively were awarded $20 billion from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was one of several left-of-center environmental policies included in the Inflation Reduction Act. 3
Climate United was selected to receive the fund’s largest single award of $6.97 billion and held a press conference with then-Vice President Kamala Harris and then-EPA Administrator Michael Regan to announce the award. The group committed that “In alignment with the Biden administration‘s Justice40 initiative, Climate United has committed to deploy at least 60 percent of funds in low-income and disadvantaged communities, at least 20 percent in rural communities, and at least 10 percent in Native communities.” 4
Activities
Prior to the 2025 freeze of federal grant money awarded to the organization, Climate United launched programs using the federal award, including a $30 million pre-development grant program for weather-dependent energy projects in low-income communities, a $250 million program for electric drayage trucks, and investments in community solar and energy-efficient affordable housing retrofits. The coalition’s approach focused on using government dollars to attract private capital for weather-dependent energy sources, electric vehicles, and decarbonization of buildings in low-income areas. 5 6
Federal reviewers of the original EPA application raised concerns about high executive compensation and questioned whether certain proposed budgets “made sense.” 1
Funding
Climate United’s primary funding source was the $6.97 billion EPA grant awarded in April 2024 under the Inflation Reduction Act. The funds were held at Citibank and were frozen by the Trump administration in February 2025 and terminated in March 2025. As of early 2025, the organization reported it would soon be unable to meet payroll or disburse funds to borrowers without access to the grant, and filed suit against the EPA and Citibank in an attempt to unfreeze the funds in March 2025. 7
In freezing and ultimately canceling the $20 billion grant program, the Trump administration EPA cited a December 2024 video from right-of-center activist group Project Veritas that circulated of a Biden administration EPA political appointee stating that, in regards to the rapid deployment of funds for the grant program, that “it’s like we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge.” 1
The Trump administration also cited “apparent self-dealing and conflicts of interest of the eight pass-through, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) selected as the prime recipients of $20 billion in taxpayer funding,” including several individuals tied to the Climate United Fund, having worked as political appointees in the Obama or Biden administrations. 1
President Donald Trump’s signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act legislation in July 2025 formally rescinded the grant program and stripped the EPA of the ability to administer the program. 1
People
Beth Bafford has worked as CEO since the organization’s formation. She previously held the role of vice president of strategy at Calvert Impact Capital and worked as a special assistant in the Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget, as well as a regional field director for Obama for America. 8 9
The board of directors of the organization has included individuals with prominent left-of-center political and activist backgrounds, such as former Obama administration Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, Patrice Willoughby of the NAACP, and Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers. 10
Financial Statistics
Total Assets
Total Revenue
Total Expenses
Revenue Detail
Expenses Detail
Employee Compensation
Highest Earning Employees
Grant Activity
All-time grants received statistics from Candid dataset:
- Total Grant Value: $1,332,000
- Number of Grants: 3
- Number of Funders: 2
Selection of highest value grants received from the last seven years:
| Amount | Year | Funder | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| $729,500 | 2024 | RF Catalytic Capital, Inc. | TO SUPPORT CAPACITY BUILDING |
| $600,000 | 2023 | RF Catalytic Capital, Inc. | FEDERAL CLIMATE INVESTMENTS |
| $2,500 | 2024 | Aloha Foundation | OPERATIONAL SUPPORT |
All-time grants given statistics from Candid dataset:
- Total Grant Value: $325,881
- Number of Grants: 1
- Number of Recipients: 1
Selection of highest value grants given from the last seven years:
| Amount | Year | Funder | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| $325,881 | 2024 | The Community Preservation Corporation | GENERAL SUPPORT |