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Projects & Partners › Current Projects

Ecotrust CDE & New Markets Tax Credit

Mobilizing New Markets Tax Credits for projects that strengthen climate resilience, intergenerational wealth-building, and lands and waters stewardship.

Goals

  • Climate resilience, Intergenerational wealth-building, Stewardship of lands & waters
  • Oregon, Other, Washington

   2004 – present

  • Built environment, Business development, Climate resilience, Food systems, Forestry, Indigenous leadership, Racial equity

Biologists band a U’au kani (Wedge-tailed Shearwater) chick, as part of a shearwater nesting restoration effort in the Mokio Reserve of Molokai, Hawaii. Ecotrust CDE provided NMTC funding in support of this work. Photo credit: Richard A. Cooke III; courtesy of Moloka’i Land Trust

Overview
What are NMTCs?
Ecotrust Staff & Services
Apply
Impact
Resources

Overview

What are NMTCs?

Ecotrust Staff & Services

Apply

Impact

Resources

 

Ecotrust Community Development Entity (CDE) invests New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) in operating businesses and community and utility infrastructure projects in frontline communities across rural areas, on tribal lands, and in urban neighborhoods that are disproportionately impacted by climate change.

Ecotrust CDE investment goals are: 

  • Climate resiliency though funding manufacturing and health care, education, emergency response, or other community support facilities that improve quality of life and address inequities in areas that currently bear the brunt of climate-induced health risks stemming from extreme heat, poor air quality, flooding, extreme weather events, and vector-borne diseases. 
  • Stewardship of lands and waters with infrastructure investments in water, wastewater, broadband internet, electricity, and other sectors incorporating climate-smart technologies that can shift the paradigm towards ecological and cultural restoration, and racial and economic justice.
  • Intergenerational wealth-building by supporting sustainable economic development by creating quality, accessible jobs that build tangible wealth for historically marginalized populations. We also prioritize projects that create asset and/or business ownership, provide capacity-building opportunities, or advance community-ownership models.

What are New Markets Tax Credits?

Congress established the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program in 2000 to attract investment capital in Low-Income Communities as determined by census tract demographic data. NMTCs can provide up to 20 percent of total funding for capital projects of over $5 million in the form of a grant-like subsidy. 

A person in a bright orange uniform and safety vest operates a large machine outdoors, next to a large calm body of water.

The AU-Aleutians Fiber Project aims to bring high-speed Internet infrastructure to rural communities in Alaska. Ecotrust CDE provided NMTC funding in support of this project. Photo courtesy of GCI Communication Corp

Two biologists working outdoors next to a decoy of an albatross bird

Moloka’i Land Trust and partners work together to set up a social attraction site for globally Near Threatened Laysan Albatrosses in the dune restoration site on the Anapuka peninsula within the Mokio Preserve. Ecotrust CDE provided NMTC funding in support of this project. Photo courtesy of Moloka’i Land Trust

Ecotrust Project Team & Services

Want to learn more? Check out the full Ecotrust Staff & Board and all of our Tools for Building Collective Change.

Ecotrust project team
  • Chief Impact Officer
  • Director of 3E Research and Evaluation
  • Managing Director of Ecotrust Investments
  • Compliance & Asset Manager
  • Measurement & Evaluation Manager
services

Capacity building

We cultivate leaders and assist with funding sources.

Three people wearing brightly colored uniforms install wires, against a backdrop of a clouded mountain reflected in clear water.

Apply

Interested in applying for NMTC funding through Ecotrust CDE? Email us at nmtcinquiry@ecotrust.org or through the button below.

Contact us

Key Attributes of an Ecotrust CDE NMTC Project:

  • Total project budget of > $5 million
  • Located in a Low-Income Community
  • Alignment with CDE investment strategy and goals
  • Readiness to close on financing (e.g., site control, executed vendor contracts, balance of funding is committed)
  • Eligible use of proceeds (e.g., construction or renovation, equipment procurement, working capital)

Photo caption: The AU-Aleutians Fiber Project aims to bring high-speed Internet infrastructure to rural communities in Alaska. Ecotrust CDE provided NMTC funding in support of this project. Photo courtesy of GCI Communication Corp

“

Ecotrust CDE investments recognize that social, biological, and economic health are both interrelated and interdependent. These projects are self-sustaining economically, self-regulating environmentally, and self-actualizing for the community.
—Sara Pietka, Director of Community Investments

Impact

$ 387

million

in NMTC allocation awarded to Ecotrust CDE since 2004

28

projects funded

in nine states since 2004

75 %

rural investment

in the past ten years

1221

PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY JOBS

created and retained in the past five years

195733

TONS OF CARBON CAPTURED

in 2021

Resources

research

Article

Urgency, Ambition Essential in NMTC Investments in Fight Against Climate Change

Published by Amy Hook, Nick DeCicco in the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits, Volume 13, Issue 11, November 2022.

research

Article

Impact of Food-Related NMTC Investments Can Ripple Through Communities

Published by Amy Hook, Nick DeCicco in the Novogradac Journal of Tax Credits, Volume 13, Issue 10, October 2022.
A modern-looking school facility, painted tan, with a green lawn, small parking lot, and flagpole at the front. An asphalt driveway curves from the school towards the foreground. In the background, a few clouds are scattered across a blue sky.

Blog post

Rebuilding Native nations in eastern Oregon

A conversation with John David “J.D.” Tovey III, Planning Director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

All current projects
  • Last updated April 11, 2024
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