Empowering a Just Transition to Electric Homes with Kicking Gas

^{Image: Kicking Gas Campaign Managers Erika Lundahl and Natalie Lubsen, and Campaign Director Derek Hoshiko celebrate a major milestone—100 electric heat pumps installed during the campaign’s first year of operation in June 2023 (with a heat pump costume)! Photo credit: Doug Indrick}

Through our Catalytic Climate Finance Program, The Russell Family Foundation (TRFF) partners with organizations that are driving equitable climate action, leveraging their resources to create community-driven impact that not only combats the climate crisis, but also strengthens communities and builds economic equality. 

One of our partners, Kicking Gas, advances these goals by helping households, families, and even renters switch to electric power in Whidbey Island, and surrounding communities in Puget Sound. Kicking Gas raises awareness about the climate and public health impacts of fossil fuel and wood combustion in homes and communities. Through subsidies, financing, and education, their work seeks to address the clean energy affordability gap. 

We talked to Derek Hoshiko, Kicking Gas Campaign Director, and Erika Lundahl, Kicking Gas Campaign Manager, to understand how their organization helps communities take climate action at home. 

What is Kicking Gas’s mission?

Kicking Gas is a coalition-based group working to empower our local community and other local communities to decarbonize, push forward the vision of the 100% electric home, and advance environmental literacy towards the just transition, moving away from fossil fuels. We help individual households, families, and renters—and even a few businesses and organizations—transition away from fossil fuels and towards electrification through subsidies for heat pumps and induction stoves. Making these home retrofits possible is also about justice and health—everyone deserves to breathe clean air and heat their homes through the winter. 

Right now, we have two primary sources of funding. The first is the Community Energy Efficiency Program (CEEP) through Washington State University, our initial funding stream. We received a million dollar grant in late 2022 to support the first year of our program.

Through that, we completed 117 home heat pump installations in 2022 and 2023, which transitioned those homes away from the fossil fuels they’d been using. This past year, we received another $1.1 million grant.

We’re building on the success of the CEEP grant with the State Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates Program (HEAR) program through Washington State Commerce, which is for decarbonization efforts and is directly supported through Climate Commitment Act funding. We’ve newly launched another program in direct collaboration with the City of Bainbridge Island for their pilot heat pump subsidy program. 

How is TRFF supporting your work?

One of the major challenges we’ve faced is access through the traditional financial system to working capital that lets us deploy subsidies and micro-loans to our communities. Because our funding sources are based on a reimbursement model, we have natural funding gaps.

TRFF offered us bridge financing, which provides crucial support between when money is committed and when it actually comes in. TRFF provided a loan guarantee for a line of credit from Beneficial State Bank. That credit lets us support our commitments to local businesses on-time and keep continuity with staffing. It gives our team and board the confidence to move forward with the program and pursue larger grant opportunities as well, which highlights how financing can become a barrier preventing other grassroots organizations from taking action and supporting their communities.

What are the challenges you’re facing?

It’s important to acknowledge that existing financial systems are significant barriers to creating healthier, more equitable, and sustainable communities. These systems often prevent smaller, grassroots organizations like ours from accessing the capital necessary to drive meaningful change. Small nonprofits often lack the resources and financial “chops” to navigate the complex world of finance.

When we started our program, we faced the challenge of finding bridge financing for a grant that operated on a reimbursement basis. We turned to various sources, from a CD-secured loan at our bank to private loans from individuals in our network. At one point, we approached our bank for financing, but the process was slow, and we were eventually denied due to a lack of collateral and credit history as a new nonprofit. Through our connection with TRFF, we secured a line of credit with their loan guarantee, keeping us afloat as we waited for grant reimbursements. The experience highlighted how inaccessible traditional financial systems can be for grassroots organizations like ours.

What are some of your plans going forward?

We’ve just launched our year three program, featuring enhanced subsidies and even more care towards lower-income households in Snohomish County and Island County. Our pilot program in Kitsap County—a full partnership with the City of Bainbridge Island—is particularly exciting. Through it we’re able to offer low-income households a subsidy of up to 100% of their heat pump installation—it’s life changing for many families. Cities investing into programs like these is a scalable solution to decarbonization. We have an ambitious but achievable goal of doing more than 300 installations over the next year, and TRFF is helping us fund that through their investment in our work. 

As we head into 2025, TRFF’s loan guarantee is building resilience for our work and allowing us to expand this program in a really powerful way.

What changes would you like to see in the philanthropic community?

It’s important to acknowledge and use privilege in service of uplifting the communities who don’t historically have access to it. That application can be uncomfortable and requires internal advocacy and a willingness to change existing processes. 

For example, the loan application process for grassroots organizations can be unnecessarily complicated. Financial institutions are often unwilling to take risks, so there needs to be more innovation. There are many opportunities to be more creative in financing the Just Transition. We need more risk-taking and more trust in the people on the front lines. 

One way to do that is through the coalition model, where you work directly with the communities you’re trying to reach. Co-designing funding for these projects with community groups from an early stage is really crucial. It’s all about the common adage, “nothing about us without us.” You won’t get the best possible results if you’re not talking to the community about their needs before even putting out calls for funding. 

Changing Traditional Financing Models

TRFF’s work with Kicking Gas is an example of our commitment to deploying philanthropic tools beyond grantmaking to combat the climate crisis in an equitable and sustainable way. We are grateful to Derek and Erika for sharing their story with us. 

Philanthropic organizations have the ability to influence the flow of finance, directing resources toward initiatives that prioritize social equity alongside environmental impact. Through strategic investments, philanthropy can challenge traditional power structures, allowing historically marginalized communities to lead in creating climate solutions that are tailored to their specific needs and circumstances. 

By shifting decision-making power to local actors, we can support the Just Transition and help community-driven solutions take center stage.