The Center for Planning Excellence and the Baton Rouge Area Foundation have partnered to create the Louisiana Clean Energy Fund.
History & Expertise
The Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) is a statewide nonprofit organization championing the power of good planning to build livable, resilient communities across Louisiana through our work as policy advocates, educators, and planning experts. CPEX provides best-practice planning models, innovative policy ideas, and technical assistance to state entities, NGO partners, and individual communities that wish to create and enact plans that address transportation and infrastructure needs, environmental issues, climate adaptation and mitigation, public health, and quality design for the built environment. Over the course of its 17-year history, CPEX has consistently evolved to meet the most pressing planning challenges facing Louisiana communities. From downtown revitalizations to large-scale disaster recovery, resilience building, and climate change adaptation and mitigation, CPEX has helped light the way to the plans, policies, and best practices needed to guide the state’s trajectory and support Louisiana communities.
The Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF) seeks to improve the quality of life in greater Baton Rouge and across south Louisiana. BRAF pursues its mission by serving donors to build the assets that drive initiatives and solutions, supporting local nonprofits to ensure overall impact and sustainability, engaging community leaders to develop appropriate responses to emerging opportunities and challenges, and by partnering with others to leverage collective resources and create the capacity to be a stimulus of positive regional change.
Among the largest community foundations in the country, BRAF has a long history of creating transformative non-profit organizations and public-private partnerships. Their responses are uniquely tailored to local needs and often result in establishing and managing funds designed to solve complex challenges. Included among these are the Center for Planning Excellence and The Water Institute, two organizations dedicated to building thriving climate-resilient communities in Louisiana and beyond.
Located on the Gulf Coast, BRAF knows hardship. They started Employees 1st, a supporting organization, to deliver hardship grants after natural disasters. This program works with employers to stand up funds for their employees to apply for and receive individual grants after experiencing a qualified event and meeting IRS guidelines in their application.
