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Meet our New Partners

Meet our New Partners

By Dory Trimble, Executive Director

We’re delighted to announce the eight exceptional organizations that will be joining the Honnold Foundation partner slate this year. We received 712 applications from 91 countries on every continent except Antarctica— and from that group, our Grant Advisory Committee and internal review team selected the following organizations. 

To highlight a few:

  • In Cambodia, we’re supporting the dedicated physicians and midwives of The Lake Clinic as they provide solar-powered health services to remote villages by boat;

  • In the USA, we’re working alongside the team at Coalfield Development to transition Appalachian towns to a solar-powered future;

  • In Indonesia, we’re funding KOPPESDA, who encourage rural farmers to pay for their solar home systems with bamboo poles or coconut oil instead of cash;

  • In Ecuador, we’re supporting Kara Solar and the solar-powered canoes they’re using to transform water transportation on the Amazon River.

And in Brazil, Guatemala, the Solomon Islands, and Mexico, our other new partners are developing their own solar powered community initiatives, providing access to water, food, and power where before there was none.

Each of these organizations works in different ways, but they’re united by a common vision: a world where solar power can improve people’s lives, reduce environmental impact, and increase their community’s ability to weather change.

Now, we’re all experiencing an unprecedented change. In the face of the pandemic, the Honnold Foundation has watched our existing partners rise to the challenge. We’ve been awed by their resilience, creativity, and perseverance. Our commitment to their work has only deepened over time, even as some solar installations are put on hold to protect the communities they serve. 

Our work continues. Our partners are not doing less during this crisis, they’re doing more. Your support matters now more than ever. I encourage you to meet our new partners, consider the essential roles they play in their communities, and join us in supporting their work. Together, we can build a brighter world.

 
 

Meet our Spring 2020 Core Grant Recipients


This year, the Honnold Foundation is committed to giving away US$1M. We can’t do it without your help. If you’re inspired by these partners, and want to join us in advancing their work, we invite you to make a gift today.

A Message from Alex

A Message from Alex

By Alex Honnold, Founder

I’ve been struggling to write anything that doesn’t sound inconsequential in the face of a global pandemic, so I’ll get right to the point:

Our work at the Honnold Foundation continues. This year marked our first open call for new grant partners— the first time we’ve actively asked the world to submit their best ideas. That work continues in spite of the pandemic swirling around us, and we’ll announce our new grantees in April. For me, choosing new partners is a much needed relief from the daily news, and reading grant applications is one of the most heartening parts of my day. There’s something incredibly refreshing about reading peoples’ best ideas for using solar energy to do something useful for their community, and all of us at the Honnold Foundation are excited to share those stories with you soon. 

 

Energy access is essential, and our mission of promoting solar energy for a more equitable world is as important now as ever. 

 

In the coming months and years communities will be tested in new and challenging ways (I write that thinking about COVID-19, but it applies more broadly to our changing climate as well.) Solar energy access is a powerful way to boost resilience— it creates jobs, reduces environmental impact, and increases self-sufficiency and self-determination for marginalized communities. It’s important work— meaningful enough to me that I started a foundation to support it while I still lived in a van full time, seven years ago. And while it can be hard to look past our current crisis, energy access remains essential. 

There’s no ask here. If you’ve supported the Honnold Foundation in some way in the past, we want you to know we appreciate you, and, and that we remain as committed to our work as ever. This year we plan to give more than $800,000 to our nonprofit partners around the world. In Puerto Rico, we’ve been working with Casa Pueblo to build the island’s first cooperatively managed solar microgrid, and after a year of planning and community organizing, the first solar panels were installed on February 28th. 

So in a day that’s probably full of gloomy news, enjoy this photo and know that there is still positive change being made in the world. 

Thanks. And stay safe out there, 

 
Alex+Esig+2.jpg
 
 
 

The first solar panels in the Adjuntas, Puerto Rico microgrid, installed on the roofs of local business. These panels are mounted with an innovative new racking system designed to withstand the 165 mile per hour winds associated with Category 5 hurr…

The first solar panels in the Adjuntas, Puerto Rico microgrid, installed on the roofs of local business. These panels are mounted with an innovative new racking system designed to withstand the 165 mile per hour winds associated with Category 5 hurricanes. (Photo: Casa Pueblo)

 
 

Community Engagement with Casa Pueblo

Community Engagement with Casa Pueblo

The Honnold Foundation and Casa Pueblo have been hard at work on making Puerto Rico’s newest cooperatively-managed and community-owned microgrid a reality. Soon, Rivian’s second life batteries will be used as the energy storage solution for a microgrid that powers small businesses in the town of Adjuntas— ensuring climate and disaster resilience for the heart of the community.

For the past year, the Honnold Foundation has worked side by side with the community to develop an energy solution that addresses local needs. Providing the materials and engineering expertise is just one part of establishing a community-owned microgrid.

Casa Pueblo

Casa Pueblo

Adjuntas, PR

Adjuntas, PR

Honnold Foundation Project Manager Cynthia Arellano has spent extensive time in Puerto Rico, working with Casa Pueblo founders Tinti Deyá Díaz and Alexis Massol González, along with their son and current Associate Director, Dr. Arturo Massol-Deyá. With their support and guidance, Honnold Foundation has gotten to know the small business community in Adjuntas, and learned more about their vision for a solar-powered island.

Founders Tinti Deyá Díaz and Alexis Massol González

Founders Tinti Deyá Díaz and Alexis Massol González

 
Dr. Arturo Massol-Deyá, Associate Director of Casa Pueblo

Dr. Arturo Massol-Deyá, Associate Director of Casa Pueblo

Cynthia Arellano, Project Manager

Cynthia Arellano, Project Manager

 
Arturo introduces Honnold Foundation, Rivian, and the microgrid project to the Adjuntas community.

Arturo introduces Honnold Foundation, Rivian, and the microgrid project to the Adjuntas community.

Alex Honnold meets with community members during the team’s initial planning visit.

Alex Honnold meets with community members during the team’s initial planning visit.

After a series of community meetings, it became clear that solar panels would have the greatest impact for small businesses in the center of Adjuntas. Not only are these businesses central to the Adjuntas economy, but in natural disasters, they become hubs for community services. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, local business owners powered up diesel generators to provide families with food, cold storage for medical supplies, charging stations for cell phones, and other critical support services.

Ultimately, Adjuntas’ residents determined that the microgrid’s solar energy should be owned and distributed by the community via a newly formed nonprofit, ACESA. ACESA will provide small businesses with energy at a reduced rate. After reinvesting some profits into microgrid maintenance and repair, ACESA plans to invest earnings into social good initiatives throughout the town of Adjuntas.

Meet some of ACESA’s leadership team and Casa Pueblo’s staff, pictured below.

We’re delighted to play a role in building a brighter future for Adjuntas, and immensely proud to work alongside the talented teams at Casa Pueblo and Rivian. Check out a few more photos from our time in Puerto Rico, and make a gift today to support Casa Pueblo, the city of Adjuntas, and future Honnold Foundation community partners.

 
Donate Now
 

Photos by Ben Moon and the Honnold Foundation

 

Become a Honnold Foundation Partner

Become a Honnold Foundation Partner

By Dory Trimble, Executive Director

In 2012, Alex Honnold was living in a van he couldn’t stand up in. He was a sponsored athlete, sure, and to rock climbers he was well known — but to most of the world, Alex was still just another guy who happened to be very good at a sport not many people cared about. And that year, on the drive back from a day of climbing in Colorado’s Eldorado Canyon, he decided to start giving away one third of his income to support solar energy access worldwide.

Since then, a lot has changed. The Honnold Foundation continues to fund solar energy access initiatives all over the world, and Alex continues to guide the organization with his now-famous candor, clarity, and commitment to taking action. In the past seven years, we’ve supported frontline solar energy access work in Malawi, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Angola; we’ve provided grants to fund residential solar installations in suburban Sacramento and for chapter houses in the Navajo Nation. In 2019, we made our first ever multi-year grant commitment to our partners at GRID Alternatives, and we supported the North End Woodward Community Coalition’s vision for a solar-powered Detroit.

GRID Alternatives volunteers hard at work on a solar install for a homeowner on the Navajo Nation. Photo: Irene Yee

Rev. Joan Ross (Director of NEWCC,) Betty (homeowner and solar install beneficiary,) Alex Honnold, and Dory Trimble look on as the first solar panels are mounted on Betty’s roof. Photo: Mandy Moran

In 2020, we’re taking one more step toward a brighter world. All of us at HF are delighted to announce the launch of our first ever open call for grant proposals. Starting on January 13, 2020, we’re inviting community-based organizations engaging in solar energy access work all over the world to tell us about their impact and their aspirations. Our unrestricted grants will generally range in size from $10,000 to $100,000, and are designed to support precedent-setting solar energy projects that reduce environmental impact and improve human lives.

No matter who you are, or where you live, we believe that energy should be clean, affordable, accessible, and easy to use. We hope you’ll join us in spreading the word about this open call for proposals, and we can’t wait to meet the communities and solar leaders whose work we’ll be supporting this year.

Learn more about our open call for grant proposals here, or join our mailing list to get reminders about the application process. If you have questions about the open call, or would like to make a press inquiry, you can contact the team at grants@honnoldfoundation.org.