Hope Enterprise Corporation

What Hope Enterprise Corporation does

Hope Enterprise Corporation (HEC) is a non-profit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) founded in 1994 and headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi. HEC operates a community development lending platform serving low-income and disadvantaged communities (LIDACs) across Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, with a product mix spanning community lending, small business financing, housing support, and financial services for under-resourced Deep South communities.

In 2024, HEC was awarded Solar for All grants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the highest-scoring applicant in both Arkansas and Mississippi, establishing it as the sole statewide program administrator for residential-serving solar projects in those two states. The Solar for All program, structured as a five-year initiative under the federal Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, deploys capital through three product tracks: a Residential Solar Lease Program with vetted solar installer partners for low-income homeowners (no money down, fixed monthly payments, and a 20% minimum bill-savings guarantee); a Community Solar Project Financing product offering below-market construction and permanent loans with principal forgiveness and waived origination fees to community-scale solar developers; and a Multifamily Solar Project Financing product serving residential building owners with analogous terms. The model explicitly recycles the initial EPA grant into revolving capital pools and mobilizes additional private capital to expand solar deployment.

The go-to-market approach combines a self-serve, product-led residential lease funnel with a formal enterprise-style Request for Proposals (RFP) and Request for Qualifications (RFQ) procurement process for developers, installers, engineers, and underwriters. Revenue mechanics derive principally from federal grant disbursement, interest spread on below-market loans, recurring residential lease payments (with federal Investment Tax Credit benefits passed to homeowners through lower monthly costs), and origination/administrative fees on developer financing. As of August 8, 2025, HEC received EPA notice of the agency's decision to terminate the Solar for All program and existing grants, and the company has disclosed it is assessing its obligations going forward.

Name

Hope Enterprise Corporation

Legal name

Hope Enterprise Corporation

Website

https://hope-ec.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Hope Enterprise Corporation is a non-profit CDFI founded in 1994 that provides community lending, small business financing, and housing support to low-income communities across the Deep South, and since 2024 has also operated the EPA-funded Solar for All program in Arkansas and Mississippi.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Development Finance

NAICS

Business, Professional, Labor, Political, and Similar Organizations (8139)

akta.pro primary industry

Solar PV Power Plant EPC (Utility-Scale) (EUAEAAAG)

Keywords

• Community development finance
• Solar project financing
• Residential solar leasing
• Community solar programs
• Multifamily solar financing

Headquarters

HQ city

Jackson

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. EPA Solar for All Grants: HEC was awarded grants by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2024 to establish and administer statewide Solar for All programs for Arkansas and Mississippi. These grants are part of the larger Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
2. Solar Leasing Revenue: HEC partners with vetted solar companies to provide rooftop solar leases to homeowners. The leasing structure allows passing federal solar tax credit (ITC) benefits to customers while generating recurring lease payments.
3. Commercial Solar Lending: HEC provides below-market interest rate financing to developers of community and multifamily solar projects. Financing includes combination of below-market rates, principal forgiveness on construction and permanent loans as milestones are met, and waived origination fees. Projects must deliver 20% energy savings to households.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Hope Enterprise Corporation (HEC) is a community development financial institution (CDFI) administering the EPA-funded Solar for All program in Arkansas and Mississippi. It delivers three interconnected offerings: a Residential Lease Program that pairs homeowners with vetted solar companies for rooftop solar with no money down, and two below-market financing products — Community Solar Project Financing and Multifamily Solar Project Financing — for developers building residential-serving solar projects. All three products require a minimum 20% reduction in household energy costs for low-income and disadvantaged communities.

Product overview

Hope Enterprise Corporation (HEC) is a community development financial institution (CDFI) that operates the Solar for All program in Arkansas and Mississippi. The program offers three interconnected products: the Residential Lease Program for homeowners seeking rooftop solar with no money down, and two financing products—Community Solar Project Financing and Multifamily Solar Project Financing—for developers building community-scale and multifamily solar projects. All three products require a minimum 20% reduction in household energy costs for low-income and disadvantaged communities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• HEC Solar For All: A program funded by the EPA to incentivize solar energy projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities in Arkansas and Mississippi.

Products and services

• Residential Lease Program Program through which HEC partners with vetted solar companies to deliver rooftop solar systems to homeowners in Arkansas and Mississippi. Homeowners go solar with no money down, fixed monthly lease payments, no operations and maintenance responsibilities, and a guaranteed minimum 20% electricity bill savings. The lessor claims the federal 30% Investment Tax Credit and passes the value to the customer through lower monthly payments.
• Community Solar Project Financing Below-market financing product for developers and owners of community-scale solar projects in Arkansas and Mississippi. Provides construction loans, permanent loans, and ITC bridge financing, including principal forgiveness on milestones and waived origination fees. Funded projects must deliver at least 20% energy cost savings to households in low-income or disadvantaged communities.
• Multifamily Solar Project Financing Below-market financing product for developers and owners of solar projects serving multifamily residential buildings in Arkansas and Mississippi. Includes construction loans, permanent loans, and ITC bridge financing, with principal forgiveness on milestones and waived origination fees. Funded projects must deliver at least 20% energy cost savings to renter households.

Quantifiable outcome

• 20% minimum electricity bill savings for participating households
• +1 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• PosiGen: PosiGen leases rooftop solar to low- and moderate-income homeowners with bill-savings guarantees, directly competing in the same residential lease segment HEC is launching for AR and MS.
• Inclusive Prosperity Capital: IPC is a clean energy financing intermediary that partners with CDFIs to deploy capital into LMI solar and resilience projects, mirroring HEC's CDFI-led deployment model for residential and community solar in underserved markets.
• BlocPower: BlocPower finances and deploys energy efficiency and small-scale clean energy upgrades in low-income buildings, with a similar LIDAC-targeted financing-and-program-administration model that overlaps HEC's multifamily and community solar stack.
• GRID Alternatives: GRID Alternatives is a national non-profit delivering no-cost rooftop solar to low-income households, a near-direct comparison to HEC's no-money-down residential lease program targeting LIDAC homeowners.
• Coastal Enterprises Inc (CEI): CEI is a Maine-based CDFI operating clean energy lending and community development finance programs, a comparable CDFI-led model that combines social-purpose lending with renewable energy deployment.

Broad incumbents

• Self-Help Credit Union / Self-Help Ventures Fund: Self-Help is a long-standing CDFI focused on responsible, affordable lending to underserved communities across the South and nationally, sharing HEC's Deep South mission and CDFI lending architecture.
• Reinvestment Fund: Reinvestment Fund is a large, established CDFI pursuing community development lending and clean energy/finance initiatives nationally, a broader-incumbent comparable to HEC's CDFI model at greater scale.

Emerging players

• Apogee Climate & Energy Transitions: Apogee is a non-profit financier delivering clean energy to communities historically dependent on fossil fuels, sharing HEC's LIDAC focus but with a different transition-fuels framing and smaller footprint.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hope-enterprise

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hope Enterprise Corporation