Michigan Saves

Objective: Make clean energy affordable, and make the whole program run

Michigan Saves is the nation’s first nonprofit green bank. Based in Lansing, it exists so that everyone has the opportunity to improve the health and efficiency of the places they live and work. Through a network of lender partners, Michigan Saves finances energy upgrades for homeowners, lead abatement and septic replacement, and efficiency and renewable energy projects for businesses, nonprofits, local governments, multifamily housing, and project developers. Every one of those projects is delivered by an authorized contractor who has been vetted, trained, and approved by the program.

That model only works when a lot of people move in step: the homeowner applying for a loan, the contractor doing the work, the lender funding it, the sponsor backing the program, and the inspector confirming the job was done right. Michigan Saves needed three things from Web Ascender: a marketing website that brings homeowners and building owners in, a Find a Contractor experience that connects them with the right professional, and the software that runs the entire program behind the scenes.

What Web Ascender Did

The marketing website and Find a Contractor

• Designed and developed the WordPress marketing website - organized around the people Michigan Saves serves, with dedicated paths for homeowners, building owners and developers, contractors, and lenders, and clear explanations of eligible improvements and loan products
• Built the Find a Contractor tools - a location-based search that ranks authorized contractors by distance, shows service areas, specialties, ratings, and reviews on an interactive map, and lets a customer contact a contractor in one click
• Made it embeddable - Find a Contractor is a React web component driven by live program data, so lenders, utilities, and other partners can drop the same search into their own websites

The program platform, since 2011

Michigan Saves’ first project with Web Ascender was the software behind the program itself, and we have built on it ever since. It connects homeowners, contractors, lenders, sponsors, and quality assurance inspectors, and it tracks every project from contractor approval to a funded, inspected job.

• Contractor portal - contractor applications and authorization, certifications, licenses, and insurance with expiration tracking, training records, and the authorized contractor directory that feeds Find a Contractor
• Projects and certificates of completion - project sheets for residential and commercial work, document uploads, and certificates of completion that move a job to funding
• Lenders - lender file uploads and imports, lender reports, and payment updates
• Quality assurance - inspector roles, QA reports, and inspection tracking, with regional coordinators overseeing their areas
• Energy and carbon savings - kilowatt-hour, therm, and carbon reduction calculations for residential, appliance, and commercial measures, rolled up into energy reports for public and grant partners
• Sponsor portal and reporting - sponsors see the programs and campaigns they back, with reporting built for them
• New programs as the mission grew - lead abatement and remediation, septic system replacement, and multiple certificates of completion per job
• A training center - training assignments for contractors, integrated with Michigan Saves’ e-learning tools, with prompts that keep contractors current
• Security and operations - two-factor authentication, an audit trail, hosting, backups, and a monthly maintenance plan that keeps the platform current

The Outcome

Michigan Saves runs its program on software built around how the program actually works. Homeowners find an authorized contractor in seconds, contractors manage their participation in one place, lenders and sponsors see the data they need, and staff oversee every project from application to funding without stitching together spreadsheets and vendor portals.

Fifteen years in, Web Ascender continues to develop and support the platform, the website, and the Find a Contractor tools as Michigan Saves takes on new kinds of projects.