Building an inclusive Green Appalachia Innovation Accelerator (GAIA)
Community-led and data-enabled approaches to building equity in the clean energy transition for Rural America.
Shining Rock Ventures was pleased to support key partner Appalachian Community Capital and its President and CEO Donna Gambrell for the second consecutive year as a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment Maker for its Inclusive Data Hub initiative, on September 18th and 19th in New York City and also at the Opportunity Finance Network Annual Meeting on October 16th, 17th and 18th in Washington, DC.
The Data Hub aims to materially broaden and deepen access to capital for small and growing businesses across the 13-state, 423 County region of Greater Appalachia through creation of scalable market and business insights, product and service design, and business process efficiencies to ensure that the 2 million small businesses of the region - especially those owned or managed by underinvested Black, Indigenous, or Communities of Color (BIPOC) leaders and/or those from and serving distressed rural areas - have the financial resources to grow and thrive, generating tens of thousands of high-value jobs. This effort aligns to and supports the launch of the GAIA initiative in a round table event co-hosted by ACC-member Bridgeway Capital in Pittsburgh, PA in April of 2023 with the participation of a dozen partner CDFIs and an additional six national commercial bank and clean lending partners,
With initial Phase I support from July of 2023 through June of 2024 from the Dogwood Health Trust and the Microsoft Nonprofit Tech Accelerator, ACC and regional Community Development Financial Institution partners Partner Community Capital (PCAP), Carolina Small Business Development Fund/Western Women’s Business Center (of NC), Mountain BizWorks, Institute Capital (ICAP), Carolina Community Impact (CCI) and Thread Capital are being supported by a team of Shining Rock Ventures experts to design, build and test a scalable data-as-a-service prototype for the region, and beyond.
Notably, ACC recently led a major national response to the EPA Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) round, proposing the creation of a Green Bank for Appalachia, Energy-affected Communities, and Rural America - or more simply the Green Bank for Rural America (GBRA) - which Shining Rock Ventures was very proud to support with design inputs around the governance and management framework, as well as risk management and other aspects of institutional start-up structuring elements, with award announcements to be made in Q1 of 2024. The Data Hub will support mapping and prioritization of key investment sectors, projects, and communities for efficient and effective deployment of GGRF funds, in the event of an award.