Good Energy Collective: Grantee Spotlight (2026)

Grantee Spotlight: Good Energy Collective

The Giving Green Fund plans to award a grant to Good Energy Collective (GEC) for its work on establishing evidence-based community engagement best practices. GEC is a policy research organization focused on building the case for advanced nuclear energy as part of the broader climate change agenda.

GEC’s work falls within our philanthropic strategy of unleashing clean energy in the U.S. Please see Giving Green’s strategy report for more information, including recommended sub-strategies, theory of change, and key uncertainties.

Last updated: November 2025

What Is Good Energy Collective?

GEC, founded in 2020, is a U.S.-based policy research organization focused on rethinking how nuclear energy can help address climate change. It supports the deployment of advanced nuclear reactors—designed to be safer, cheaper, and more flexible than traditional ones—as part of an equitable clean energy transition.

GEC’s research, policy, and government affairs work is organized around four integrated themes: (1) supply chain capacity for meeting nuclear energy tripling, (2) community engagement practices for facilitating social license, (3) policies and practices for improving spent fuel storage and management, and (4) innovation pathways for advancing energy solutions.

What Are We Funding, and How Could It Help Address Climate Change?

We are funding GEC’s research on effective evidence-based ways to engage communities around nuclear and geothermal projects. GEC’s research team will use social science methods, such as surveys and analysis of community discussions, to measure how well different engagement practices work. It will review key indicators, including breadth of participation, community influence on decision-making, and effectiveness of issue resolution. Its goal is to turn this data into practical, evidence-based standards for industry and regulators. GEC will also advocate for these practices to be adopted in federal permitting reform, helping ensure that clean energy projects move forward faster and with stronger community support. Funds will be used for a mix of staff salaries, direct program costs, and policy engagement.

In our report on unleashing clean energy in the U.S., we identified deploying and commercializing clean firm technologies as a major pillar of our strategy. We think GEC’s work aligns with our plan and can help shape the systems that enable clean firm power to scale and advance U.S. climate goals. We believe its work can help address climate change by accelerating timelines and reducing cancellations of clean energy projects, leading to faster decarbonization.

Why Do We Think Good Energy Collective Will Use This Funding Well?

We think GEC’s work on cultivating nuclear power’s social license to operate fills a unique niche by enabling and accelerating the deployment of advanced nuclear reactors. To our knowledge, no other organizations are tackling this important but neglected issue, and we believe continued support for this work helps ensure its success.

We think GEC’s work in this area will remain fruitful. Despite major leadership and organizational changes in 2025, GEC has made progress and developed its niche in the field. Most recently, it transformed its collaboration-based siting initiative from a narrowly focused U.S. Department of Energy project into a research-driven social science program that is shaping both policy and practice. We have a positive impression of its work on developing rigorous, peer-reviewed research and think it could help lead to frameworks that regulators and developers can use to distinguish meaningful engagement from minimal compliance.

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Giving Green believes that additional climate donations are likely to be most impactful when directed to our top nonprofits. For several reasons, we may choose to recommend grants to other organizations for work that we believe is at least as impactful as grants to our top recommendations. We are highlighting this grant to offer transparency to donors to the Giving Green Fund, as well as to provide a resource for donors who are particularly interested in this impact strategy. This is a nonpartisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.