Corey McLaughlin ’24 is one of 31 student fellows who completed research with a community-based organization in upstate New York this summer as a part of the Upstate Institute Summer Field School. She describes the project below in her own words:
The Bell Tree, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides a community center in the village of Earlville. The organization primarily provides a safe space for local families to bring their children to play, imagine, and connect with others. But it also offers programming for adults, free meals for kids in the summer, and various other community activities, especially around the holidays. They opened to the public in 2019, just a year before the COVID-19 pandemic. This setback impacted publicity, funding, and its purpose overall.
The building that The Bell Tree occupies is a former Methodist church, built in the 1880s, with older infrastructure that is neither sustainable nor cost-efficient. My project involved identifying means by which The Bell Tree can apply for funding that will cover the upfront costs associated with clean energy transitions. I compiled options that would allow the nonprofit to move forward with plans to develop a more sustainable environment while reducing energy costs.
My goal this summer was to evaluate improvement options and to research possible grants and other funding opportunities for The Bell Tree to utilize in order to further renovate the church in sustainable ways. I began researching local organizations that experienced the same struggles as The Bell Tree in terms of retrofitting their old buildings. I also summarized The Bell Tree’s current energy costs, which NYSERDA had provided in an audit last year.
The board running the nonprofit is made up of volunteers with little time to observe and analyze the expenses associated with maintaining the church building year round. My position this summer was to take the time and put in the effort that the nonprofit’s members do not have and cannot provide for the purpose of researching and planning future projects for The Bell Tree. I worked with Professor Isla Globus-Harris, Bruce Moseley, and Rachel Amann-Burns to gather information and assess The Bell Tree for its future potential as an eco-friendly building.
I learned a lot about nonprofits and the injustices around funding opportunities. Benefits from tax credits that refund residents for energy-efficient retrofitting are not available to nonprofit organizations because they are tax-exempt. Many environmental incentives are created for homeowners and businesses, specifically those that can afford installing new technologies. Low-income communities struggle to reduce carbon emissions when initial expenses for installing new, more efficient technology run high. Similarly, nonprofit organizations with low annual budgets cannot afford these upfront costs, which are often mandatory for grant approval. Agencies sometimes require a project’s expenses to be either fully or partially covered in order to reimburse the organization after their project is completed rather than paying for the retrofits from the beginning. Rebates are often targeted toward households as well, but some are intended for nonprofit organizations to make greener decisions on their properties. Even so, many rebates have strict requirements that limit opportunities for nonprofits.
This program impacted my perspective in terms of nonprofit organizations as well as my path toward my future career. Graduating next year with a bachelor’s degree in environmental economics, I am unsure of what job I would pursue. After working with The Bell Tree, I am leaning towards working in the consulting field for companies who aim to monitor their environmental impact and work towards reducing their carbon footprint.
This fellowship allowed me to better understand the role of a consultant as well as the injustices that are associated with the transition towards clean energy and sustainability. I look forward to finding a job and career that will allow me to express my concerns for financial injustices revolving around environmentally friendly transitions and duties. The complexities of organizations like The Bell Tree must be sorted in order for communities to get as much out of these nonprofits as they intend to provide, and this starts with federal and state policies for nonprofits.