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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.