Develop the procurement, outreach, and loan support resources required to perform your financing activities.

Communicate pertinent results of evaluations to program staff, partners, and stakeholders.

Publicize benefits and lessons learned resulting from your organization’s success in the market.

Communicate program results to contractor partners and workforce development stakeholders.

Identify and implement systems and tools that will support data collection and data quality necessary for effective evaluation.

Communicate the results of your financing activities to internal and external partners.

Focus on the continuous improvement of your financing activities by tracking and evaluating data, responding to feedback, and modifying strategies when needed.

Solidify your program strategy and decide which customers you will focus on; what products, services, and support you will provide; and how you will partner with contractors and others to deliver services to your customers.

Launch your financing activities in coordination with other program components.

Establish relationships with organizations that can help deliver your program by enhancing your knowledge, resources, capabilities and access to customers and contractors.

Establish program goals and objectives to clarify what you want your program to achieve and to guide program design and implementation over time.

Create your organization’s business plan, which describes how your operational and financial structure will support the delivery of energy efficiency services.

Define your business model, including market position, products and services, type of customers, financial model, governance structure, and the assets and infrastructure your organization needs.

Implement marketing and outreach activities in coordination with other program components to generate demand for your program's services.

Establish an evaluation plan that will allow you to determine how your financing activities are impacting the market.

Determine if enhancements to existing financing products or the development of new products are necessary to allow you to achieve your goals and objectives.

Develop a plan to implement your financing activities, with defined roles for financial institution partners, contractors, customers, and your program.

Decide on priority target audience segments, messages, and incentives that will motivate customers.

Identify and partner with financial institutions that can provide capital, underwriting, and other functions to enable your customers to access financing.

Establish goals, objectives, and timeframes for your financing activities.

Establish relationships with organizations that will assist with program marketing and outreach.

Determine how your target audience currently funds energy efficiency services, to what extent upfront cost is a barrier, and whether improvements to their financing options would increase the uptake of energy efficiency measures.

Establish or update your organizational mission, vision, and goals to encompass energy efficiency programs.

Identify and prioritize potential target audiences based on their likely receptivity to your program's services.

Learn about the capabilities and services of existing contractors and training providers working in your market.

Design a residential energy efficiency program that integrates marketing and outreach, contractor coordination, incentives, financing, and program evaluation to provide customers with the products and services they want through a customer-centric process.

Ensure that your program’s customers will have access to affordable financing, so they can pay for the services you offer.

Identify your organization's preferred market position by assessing existing market actors, gaps, competitors, and potential partners. Develop a business model that will allow you to deliver energy efficiency services.

Improve your program’s efficiency and effectiveness through regular information collection, assessment, decision-making, adaptation, and communication.

Develop a strategy for communicating program impacts and benefits to key audiences to create and sustain support and engagement.

Identify the right questions to ask, appropriate metrics to collect, and the processes needed to initiate third-party impact and process evaluations.

Solidify your program strategy and decide which customers you will focus on; what products, services, and support you will provide; and how you will partner with contractors and others to deliver services to your customers.

Establish objectives, targets, and timeframes for your program to support local contractors and the type and quality of service they provide to help meet your program’s goals.

Research and analyze the specific barriers, needs, and opportunities for a residential energy efficiency program in your community.