Community First Partnership

How Community First Helps Massachusetts Residents

Community Partner Teams will be eligible for up to $60,000 in funding annually for three years, as well as in-kind marketing and technical support from Program Sponsors.

In 2020, the seven Community Partner Teams efforts helped achieve:

• 1,500 online Home Energy Assessments
• 2,354 home heating and cooling upgrades

674 small businesses served with energy efficiency upgrades

Selected 2023-2024 applicants may receive:

• Up to $60,000 per year to support project costs, including to hire a part-time Energy Advocate
• Comprehensive training in energy efficiency offerings, especially residential weatherization, residential heating and cooling upgrades, and Small Business Turnkey program
• Co-branded multilingual marketing materials designs (printed by communities)
• Monthly progress reports
• Program participation guide
• Best practices to encourage program participation, training; and
• Local event support, such as guest speakers for local events

What will I need to do as a Community First Partner?

All partners will need to commit to participating for two years with annual program progress review.

Host a variety of activities, including but not limited to:

• Collaborating with participating Mass Save Program Sponsors (Local utility companies)
• Including a member of your Community First Partner team to work 10 hours a week as an Energy Advocate to help residents and reach program goals (depending on your community's goals, you may want to consider a 19+ hour a week position)
• Submitting outreach, marketing, public engagement activities and communications plans
• Actively tracking participation barriers and program performance
• Engaging in community based social marketing
• Participating in initial trainings, as frequently as once per week for period of 1-2 months
• Participating in monthly calls and submitting monthly activity reports
• Participating in training to learn about energy efficiency offerings
• Completing local community organizing
• Creating innovative strategies and initiatives to engage residents
• Working closely with Community First Program Manager and team of coordinators to create a robust strategy to reach customers

Eligibility Requirements

Municipalities and registered non-profit organizations (or those with a fiscal agent), as well as teams of municipalities and/or registered 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6) non-profit organizations are eligible to apply. Additional program requirements include:

• Must commit to a 2 year participation in the program
• Must participate in monthly calls and submit monthly outreach reports
• Must participate in initial trainings, as frequent as once per week for two months
• Must track and report progress
• Must be open to building partnerships with local community organizations
• Must propose to focus outreach in Environmental Justice census blocks among renters/landlords, low and moderate income residents (at/below 80% state median income), English isolated residents, and/or small businesses