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We place a high value on forging partnerships and leveraging resources from other sources, building on our region’s strengths to accelerate transformative community investment across Central Appalachia. We work hand-in-hand with partners who are deeply rooted in their communities and understand their unique needs. We are continuously developing an array of financial and programmatic strategies that tackle common hurdles hindering investment-worthy projects from becoming investment-ready. Together with our partners, these strategies help to meet the needs of community-focused projects and businesses across the region.
Our ultimate goal is to finance Appalachia’s transition towards a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable economic future.
Discover more about our initiatives and collaborations below. Any inquiry for investment should start with our project submission form.
The Invest Appalachia Fund is a $35 Million impact investment fund providing patient, flexible, and often subordinated loan capital to underserved communities. This Fund is a good fit for projects and businesses with major investment needs that have significant repayment potential. Financing from the IA Fund is often blended with investment from other financial intermediaries, as well as credit enhancements from the Catalytic Capital Fund. LOCUS Capital, Inc. serves as the investment manager for the IA Fund.
The Catalytic Capital Fund is a pool of philanthropic dollars that are used to provide a mix of hyper-flexible investment tools including targeted technical assistance, credit enhancements, conditional repayment loans, and other tools that accelerate investment-readiness, offset risk, and leverage repayable investment into equitable and innovative community projects. Catalytic Capital is just not another source of grant funding – it targets projects where it can unlock significant repayable investment opportunities.
The Appalachian Solar Finance Fund (SFF) catalyzes solar development in coal-impacted communities across Central Appalachia, providing pre-development support, technical assistance, and credit enhancements for community-oriented solar installations. A partnership between Invest Appalachia, Appalachian Voices, and Central Appalachian Network, the SFF anchors an extended network of non-profit organizations, industry innovators, and community leaders across Central Appalachia.
The Appalachian Downtown Developers Initiative is a collaboration between Invest Appalachia, the WV Community Development Hub, and dozens of regional partners working to accelerate downtown development by building the capacity of community-oriented real estate developers across the region, while also addressing barriers to capital, training, and technical assistance. For more background on the downtown development sector, including key concepts and tools, check out the Downtown Revitalization Playbook.
The Community Investment Framers Training uses a cohort model to increase the skills, knowledge, tools and connections of place-based individuals seeking to advance community projects towards investment readiness. This training provides them with the fundamentals necessary to activate investment-worthy projects related to small business, social enterprises, housing, community facilities, and downtown real estate development. Participants are empowered to be an active part of the community investment ecosystem and help to foster a more equitable and inclusive “pipeline” of businesses and projects moving towards investment. Previous cohorts have been conducted in partnership with the WV Community Development Hub & LOCUS (regional) and Mountain BizWorks (Western NC). A 2024 program is taking place in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
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