NCN’s CEO Pete Upton met with Administrator Isabel Guzman of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Jackson Brossy, from the SBA Office of Native American Affairs, on October 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C. The primary focus of this high-level meeting was to engage in strategic discussions regarding collaborative initiatives for 2024. Administrator Guzman will also be participating in the 4th Annual Native CDFI Network’s Policy & Capacity Building Summit, December 3-5, 2023 in Washington, D.C.
Upton shared NCN’s groundbreaking Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) application with SBA’s Administrator Guzman. NCN has strategically spearheaded the development of a comprehensive clean energy finance ecosystem tailored for Indian Country. NCN has not only submitted a unique application that exclusively serves Native communities to the EPA’s CCIA program but have also been actively involved in supporting other applications that present well-defined strategies to include Native lenders and Native communities within the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF). Upton highlighted NCN’s partnership with Climate United, a consortium comprised of Calvert Impact, Community Preservation Corporation, and Self-Help, for an application to the EPA’s National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) program.