PAGE UPDATED MAY 30, 2025
‘METRICS’ PAGE UPDATED AUG 20, 2025
Funded by the U.S Department of Energy as part of the Renew America’s Nonprofits Program, the $3.9M Alaska Heat Smart (AHS) NORTHH program will allow AHS and partners, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory-Alaska (NREL) and Information Insights (ii), to assist with improving energy efficiency and reducing annual operating costs of 20 to 30 nonprofit-owned buildings in Alaska serving lower to middle income and disadvantaged populations in the health and housing sectors.
NORTHH will support the nonprofits with an energy audit, construction management, up to $150,000 in retrofit funds, as well as staff training, workforce development, and gaining a deeper understanding of their building.
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NORTHH Project Goals:
- To reduce energy use of the NORTHH nonprofit building cohort by at least 30%;
- To reduce carbon emissions of the NORTHH nonprofit building cohort by at least 30%; and
- To produce a measurable increase in occupant comfort, building resilience to a changing climate, and nonprofit services to Alaska’s population through the retrofits to the NORTHH cohort.
- To bring together a diverse Alaska-wide cohort of energy, health, and housing interests to serve nonprofit building energy needs of the NORTHH project, but also to serve energy and efficiency interests across Alaska over the long term
Eligibility Criteria
- Must be a nonprofit based in Alaska.
- Mission in health or housing, as defined by the Social Determinants of Health.
- Must own the building in need of an energy retrofit.
- Must have energy bill / utility use history for building under consideration
- Please read the NORTHH Fact Sheet for addition application criteria and required documentation
Other Nonprofit Opportunities
The NORTHH team is committed to serving all nonprofits in Alaska and helping advance the state as a whole towards energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions. To this end, as we learn about them, we will be adding resources to our Nonprofit Opportunity page.
Nonprofit Subrecipient Selection Schedule
- COMPLETED: all application rounds have closed.
- COMPLETED: Selection committee review of round one, two, and three applicants
- Selection results are subject to a DOE review and will be publicly announced following DOE confirmation.
Reduced DOE staff has slowed this review process.
Please Read
Consider reviewing the following documents prior to starting your application. This will improve your understanding of program objectives and administration, including some terms you may see in the application: OCED Cost-sharing Guidance, AHS Privacy and Document Security Policy, and AHS’ NORTHH Factsheet. If you have questions about applying or about the application, please send via email to annie@akheatsmart.org.
FAQ
Will applications be considered on a rolling basis?
No. The NORTHH program will have three distinct rounds in which applications will be reviewed between June 2024 and January 2025.
Will AHS be the decision-making body regarding final nonprofit subrecipient selections?
No. The NORTHH team has recruited nine statewide representatives to serve on a NORTHH Program Selection Committee. Selection committee members have been chosen from Alaska experts in housing, energy, nonprofit management, and philanthropy. The selection committee will utilize a scoring rubric, in combination with applicant-provided building and energy metrics, to make their informed and educated decisions.
Can organizations that don’t make it through the current application round be considered in later rounds?
Yes. Organizations that meet the eligibility requirements for the program, but are lacking key pieces of application information, such as energy data or financial information, will be automatically bumped to the next round.
What is the general timeline for the NORTHH program?
This is a 3-year program funded by the U.S Department of Energy and will run through the summer of 2027. It is our hope that all non profit selections are made by early 2025. Once selected, nonprofits will move through the workflow, including energy audits, construction management, work plan creation, training and education, and building retrofitting.
Are there any NORTHH benefits for Alaska nonprofits that are not selected?
Yes! We will continue to update this website with resources and will assist nonprofits not selected, in addition to nonprofits in general, with connections to other programs that can help save energy and provide lower costs for energy audits and retrofits. For starters, take a look at the NORTHH nonprofits opportunities page.
Will the NORTHH program be subject to requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act and / or the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act?
Yes to Davis-Bacon, and ‘it depends’ is on BABA. Here is a link to more than you likely want to know about Davis-Bacon. In short, “The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts apply to contractors and subcontractors performing on federally funded or assisted contracts in excess of $2,000 for the construction, alteration, or repair (including painting and decorating) of public buildings or public works. Davis-Bacon Act contractors and subcontractors must pay their laborers and mechanics employed under the contract no less than the locally-prevailing wages and fringe benefits for corresponding work on similar projects in the area.” (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/government-contracts/construction)
We have more to learn about BABA and will update this page when we have a better understanding of the specifics of the act as they relate to procurement, building type, and actual scopes of work for projects. HVAC appears to be one of the more challenging BABA areas due to limited domestic unit production. And, BABA does not appear to apply to both lighting upgrades as well as envelope improvements such as insulation and air sealing.
Does the NORTHH program have general guidance for community benefits, such as a ‘community benefits plan’?
Yes! The NORTHH team has worked hard to compile a detailed and comprehensive community benefits plan. Markers within the plan, called ‘Smart Milestones’ are specifc program goals that are by definition, ‘specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely’. Eight NORTHH community benefits smart milestones that will be addressed over the course of the NORTHH program include:
SMART Milestone 1: Community Benefits Plan with SMART milestones posted on NORTHH webpage and distributed to all potential nonprofit participants/networks
SMART Milestone 2: Workforce and Community Agreement signed by AHS and each selected subrecipient nonprofit
SMART Milestone 3: Project analysis complete and shared with subrecipient nonprofits
SMART Milestone 4: Workforce development coordination plan and tracking established with partners and contractors, specifically to track local hires and new hires, trained via project partners under NORTHH program
SMART Milestone 5: Hiring review committee reviews one time per year and reports on hiring data at end of project
SMART Milestone 6: Workforce and Community Agreements signed by AHS and each selected subrecipient nonprofit to ensure co-ownership and clear responsibilities on project activities
SMART Milestone 7: Hiring data reviewed one time per year to monitor and reported on with a breakdown of local, disadvantaged, and/or underrepresented community members at the end of the project
SMART Milestone 8: Final list of subrecipient nonprofit buildings with Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool data and description of how the nonprofits are serving J40 communities developed and posted on AHS website
How does the NORTHH project team track and monitor the steps it needs to follow in administering program applicants?
When a nonprofit organization applies to the NORTHH program, the NORTHH team requests a variety of information to assess the eligibility of each nonprofit and to help develop an accurate ‘building profile’ to be used by the NORTHH selection committee in their applicant review process. Collecting detailed organization and building information information allows the NORTHH team to present the mission and need of each organization and the need of their building(s) accurately and fairly. You can read more about the NORTHH program’s ‘administrative checklist’ process here.
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s State and Community Energy Program (SCEP) under the Renew America’s Nonprofits Program and 2022 Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Energy Improvements at Nonprofits Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) Award Number DE-SE-EE0010121.