Afterglow
Climate Justice Fund

About the Fund

Candide Group’s Afterglow Climate Justice Fund seeks to build momentum toward effective and equitable solutions to the greatest crisis in human history.

The Afterglow Climate Justice Fund focuses on the root causes of the climate crisis through an intersectional lens of racism, classism, capitalism, economic injustice, and environmental harm. The Fund will lend to organizations serving communities living in persistent poverty, facing high energy costs, lacking access to clean transportation, and disproportionately suffering from the effects of extreme weather. We share movement leaders' views of shifting to a regenerative economy based on ecological restoration, community protection, equitable partnerships, justice, and full and fair participatory processes. Across the board, our investments will support the creation of green jobs and solutions with leadership and ownership proximate to the communities served.

General
Investment Strategy

The Fund provides debt capital to support climate solutions that create access and benefit for historically marginalized communities. Our capital finances novel, inclusive underwriting models, provides bridge financing for tax credits, development capital for construction facilities, and/or brings down the cost of capital for frontline community development. In addition to providing capital aligned with the needs of the organizations we fund, we offer non-financial assistance, such as access to networks of funders and mission-aligned organizations.

Current Fund Size

$46M

Impact Thesis

The Afterglow Climate Justice Fund seeks to expand access to and ownership of affordable clean energy solutions for communities marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by climate change. The Fund was specifically designed to achieve these goals by providing debt to primarily community-centered clean energy developers to finance distributed generation solar installation projects, electric vehicles, green buildings, and other projects, with an explicit focus on serving such historically marginalized communities. Complimentary benefits will include providing relief for wealth-deprived communities, eliminating prejudice and discrimination, and combating community deterioration.

Team

Founding Partner & Managing Director

Managing Director

Senior Associate

FAQs

  • The fund’s title is inspired by the book Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, a compilation of short stories offering sobering, yet hopeful, visions of a future where those most harmed by climate change are surviving and thriving. We encourage you to check out the book and get your own copy here*!

  • Our belief is that, as impact investors with a commitment to social justice, our role should be to zoom in on the social aspects of the transition to a low carbon economy. While institutional capital is increasingly flowing to finance this transition to clean energy, we’re always looking to ask who is benefiting from this transition and who isn’t. We have specifically identified a need for debt capital to fund project deployment in this space. The need for ‘early stage project finance’ is a well-known gap in the climate space. But this need is that much more pronounced when it comes to climate justice focused developers, since (i) these developers can rarely attract much equity capital at the corporate level (they are likely to be SMEs, not venture style businesses) and (ii) they are often pursuing some kind of alternative inclusive financing models, which makes it even harder to access that early project capital.

  • The Fund is a blended capital vehicle supported by philanthropic dollars as well as mission-oriented capital.

    Investors include:

    Builders Vision
    Ceniarth LLC
    ImpactAssets
    Grove Action Fund
    John D. and Catharine T. MacArthur Foundation
    McKnight Foundation
    Schmidt Family Foundation
    Sobrato Organization
    Social Finance

  • The Climate Justice Fund seeks a just transition to a regenerative economy. This work is grounded in three core concepts developed by climate movement leadership:

    Climate Justice focuses on the root causes of the climate crisis through an intersectional lens of racism, classism, capitalism, economic injustice, and environmental harm. (*Adapted from Alternatives for Community and the Environment and Indigenous Environmental Network.)

    Just Transition is a framework for unifying place-based practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a Regenerative Economy. (*Adapted from Climate Justice Alliance based on historical Just Transition principles developed by the Alliance informed by many members including the principles by the Just Transition Alliance, and the Indigenous Environmental Network and Movement Generation.)

    A Regenerative Economy is based on ecological restoration, community protection, equitable partnerships, justice, and full and fair participatory processes. (*Adapted from Movement Generation, Indigenous Environmental Network, Climate Justice Alliance, People’s Action, and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance drawing upon Indigenous leadership and generations of work and vision from Black farming cooperatives and labor movements.)

  • To center community in our decision-making process, the fund established a formal Community Advisory Board (CAB). From inception, the CAB shapes how and who the Fund invests, advising on strategy, credit decisions, and climate justice approaches. The CAB consists of leaders across lived experiences related to climate justice, race, gender, class, age, sexual orientation, and region.

    Two members of the CAB will serve on the Credit Committee for each deal based on expertise, capacity, and interest. The Fund’s two Managing Directors and an additional external advisor also sit on the Credit Committee. The credit committee analyzes and subsequently approves or rejects loans. CAB members will rotate on the Credit Committee to allow for a balanced distribution of responsibilities and learning opportunities. The committee ensures that the loan meets the Fund’s lending policy and will achieve the fund’s climate justice mission . The Credit Committee conducts deal pre-screens and credit memo reviews for loans conducive to portfolio development. The CAB members have a veto vote: no loans can be made without their consent.

Community Advisory Board

Portfolio

Investors

Service Providers

Afterglow Fund Newsfeed

Disclosures

Information that appears on this website contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties and is only intended for accredited investors. There can be no assurance that the investment objective of the fund will be achieved or that loans made by Climate Justice Fund, LLC (doing business as Afterglow Climate Justice Fund) will prove as successful as other loans that might have been made. Certain investment and lending practices, including the use of leverage, can, in some circumstances, have an adverse effect on the investment and loan portfolio of the fund, or increase the risk thereof.

General Disclosure:

This website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer or solicitation to sell shares or securities in the Climate Justice Fund, LLC or any related or associated company. Any such offer or solicitation will be made only by means of the confidential Offering Memorandum and in accordance with the terms of all applicable securities and other laws. The information contained on this website or certain pages in this website about the Climate Justice Fund, LLC may be considered to be a general solicitation of and general advertising for the sale of exempted securities to accredited investors under Rule 506(c) of the Securities Act. As such, prior to the sale of any security to any investor, the company must take reasonable steps to verify that all potential investors are accredited investors. None of the information or analyses presented are intended to form the basis for any investment decision, and no specific recommendations are intended. Accordingly, this website does not constitute investment advice or council or solicitation for investment in any security. This website does not constitute or form part of, and should not be construed as, any offer for sale or subscription of, or any invitation to offer to buy or subscribe for, any securities, nor should it or any part of it form the basis of, or be relied on in any connection with, any contract or commitment whatsoever.

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