We’ve talked about SunnyMoney’s innovative and successful Schools Campaign before, but nevertheless we invited the SunnyMoney team to explain the campaign in their own words. This way our funders can get a better understanding on how SunnyMoney has been able to distribute solar lighting and mobile phone charging systems to rural communities throughout Africa at rapid scale:

Creating a market for solar lights is the only way we’ll eradicate kerosene lamps from Africa. Luckily, the charity SolarAid takes a business approach to tackling this problem.

We’ve turned traditional aid on its head: instead of ‘giving’ lights away, we sell lights ‐ not to make a profit (we’re a charity) but as a strategy to build a pan-African market for solar lamps and so transform the continent. We do this through our not-for-profit trading arm, SunnyMoney.

To achieve this, SunnyMoney brings head teachers together from rural districts where no retail or transport infrastructure exists. We teach them about solar lights and their impact on education.

As trusted community figures, head teachers take samples back to rural schools, spreading the word to parents who buy study lights for their children.

We’re now poised to extend market reach, create jobs for solar entrepreneurs, and lay foundations for a sustainable market that other solar providers can join.

And with this approach, SunnyMoney has made impressive progress on the solar front:

• Over 470,000 solar lights sold, making them the largest seller of solar lights in Africa
• 4 countries reached: Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia
• A target to sell 1 million lights by the end of 2013

Help SunnyMoney achieve their commendable goals by lending to their latest project on SunFunder, which supports students in Tanzania with clean and affordable lighting for their studies.

SolarAid has also recently been nominated as a finalist for Google’s Global Impact Challenge. They need your vote to win the contest and deliver more solar energy to those who need it! So vote now and tell your friends. 

Photo: SolarAid/Steve Woodward

Repost from Sierra Club:

More than 1.3 billion people around the world live in darkness lacking access to even small amounts of life changing electricity. The good news is we can change their fate and help solve climate change at the same time. The bad news is those tasked with solving the problem aren’t getting the job done because they are products of two broken systems - energy and finance. That’s why we need disruptive solutions like solar crowdfunding to transform these systems so that they deliver outcomes that benefit the poor and the planet.

Crowdfunding works by aggregating small amounts of funding through online portals like the one maintained by SunFunder, SolarMosaic, or Milaap. These platforms aggregate small ‘crowdsourced’ amounts of funding into larger sums that directly finance clean energy entrepreneurs. All told, it’s a $90 billion clean energy access opportunity that can help transform people’s lives and the fate of our planet.

But more than the sheer amount that can be raised, what makes crowdfunding so important is that it fills a gaping hole left by traditional financial institutions. These institutions simply aren’t financing enough clean energy - let alone decentralized clean energy that serves the poor. That’s a big problem because we know that to end energy poverty we need to dramatically ramp up decentralized clean energy (at least according to the International Energy Agency). Because, after all, small is big.

Instead financial institutions tasked with ending energy poverty are dumping billions into the problem - large scale coal plants (like the one in Kosovo). This outrageous use of public funds leaves us with the maddening task of banging our collective fists on the brick wall of institutional inertia until the system changes. And change it will.

But in the meantime people living in the dark need solutions now. That’s why myself, and the Sierra Club, are working to increase awareness of the power crowdfunding holds. Not only does it empower individuals to make concrete change in the world, it also sends a political message: we won’t stand by while the planet burns and the poor get screwed - even if our leaders are.

That’s why I personally am putting my money where my mouth is, starting with a new project SunFunder is financing near Kampala, Uganda. SunFunder has already provided clean energy to over 22,757 people by sourcing $75,000 from the ‘crowd.’ Now they’re looking to raise another $15,000 to provide 375 people with solar power via Fenix Ready sets to help power off-grid wireless communications for nearly 4,000 people. Deploying this clean energy will generate over $100,000 in village income over the next three years, increasing poor household income by 36.4% while eliminating 15,000 liters of kerosene and 37 tons of CO2. As you can see, a little finance can go a long way.

But it doesn’t end here. Supporting these off grid entrepreneurs holds tremendous promise in the battle to disrupt the fossil fuel dominated grids in the Western world. By supporting clean energy where the playing field is actually level - off grid areas - we can create a base of power to launch an insurgency against the industries fueling climate change. That’s why how we power the world’s poor is just as important, and perhaps even more, than how we power the rest.

The Sierra Club is doing its part to bring its 1.3 million members to this revolution. Help us build our ranks by spreading the word. Because with crowdfunding the future is literally in our hands. Check out the project here and tweet: “What if you could shine light for billions living in darkness while fighting climate change? @SunFunder is doing just that: http://bit.ly/109MrvB”

— Justin Guay, Sierra Club International

If you read our last post, you know we’re absolutely thrilled that our debut project, which launched in July of 2012, is fully repaid as of this month. We’re also excited to share with you the latest update from Hybrid Social Solutions, our solar partner who worked on the ground to deliver 100 units of Sun Transfer 2 solar solutions in Palawan. Last time we shared updates from Palawan, the impact was mainly focused around economic improvements. But as you will find below, there are many intangible but equally significant benefits to be had from switching to solar:

• Healthier families. Before families started using the solar lighting and phone charging device, some reported experiencing symptoms of coughing and irritated, red eyes because of the smoke emitted from kerosene lamps. For those who had cough symptoms, 84% said they no longer experience it after switching to solar. 89% of those who reported eye problems say that they can see and feel a major improvement since switching to solar. While these self-reported diagnoses need to be qualified with more scientific data, we think these health benefits have a huge impact on how families lead their daily lives.

• More communal activities. 86 of the 100 families that bought a Sun Transfer 2 say they are now more able to engage in community activities because with the safety of a light, they can now either invite neighbors to their homes or travel to others’ homes at night.

• Reliability and consistency. The families are especially grateful that the product is durable and that they can rely on it from day to day. On windy days, using kerosene lamps can be ineffective and dangerous as it increases the risk of fire. For those who were already on the electricity grid, they would have frequent power outages. One family said the longest power outage lasted for 6 months! All of these problems are solved with dependable solar lighting and phone chargers.

And that’s the beauty of solar—it has tremendous potential for meaningful impact with a ripple effect that lasts for many years to come. And the best part is that it no longer comes with a high price tag, and can only become cheaper. This is why we at SunFunder truly believe in solar empowerment, and we hope you join us by investing in it!

This is what the SunFunder team looks like today:



Why? Several reasons:

• A huge milestone for SunFunder: Our first project’s final repayment is today, making it 100% repaid after just 9 months since the loan was issued to our partner in August of last year. This important milestone validates the viability of solar energy in off-grid communities; it is a practical solution with a quick payback period that is much more advantageous than the incumbent energy sources available in those areas, such as kerosene, candles, and batteries. 
• A new partner, a new project: We launched Propel ZamSolar Solar Scouts project with our new partner yesterday and woke up to a handful of new funders in our community as well as the project being 13% funded. Good work, SunFunders, and welcome to all our new members!
• A finish line so close, we can smell it: Our project in the West Nile region of Uganda is extremely close to being fully funded. We can’t wait to get this project started with smallsolutions and start benefitting 600 families with affordable solar energy, so please help us top it off this week. 

We’re also happy today for a more natural reason: the sunny weather in San Francisco has been amazing and being in the sun is making us even more excited about solar energy. We love sunshine!

Yesterday our team had the pleasure of joining Marc Strassman via Google+ Hangout on Etopia News, where we had a great time talking about how SunFunder works and sharing some future plans we have for SunFunder.

Watch the talk below and hear from Ryan, Sameer, and Cindy:

Co-founder Audrey unfortunately could not join yesterday’s team talk, but fret not, you’ll have other opportunities to hear from her.

In fact, if you’re in San Francisco, you will have many opportunities to directly hear from the SunFunder team. For the majority of this month, the team is all together in one place for the first time! This is a rare occurrence, which is why we decided that while it lasts we will be holding a SunFunder Neighborhood Pop-Up in San Francisco every Thursday. We will be hopping from one SF neighborhood to the next and we welcome anyone to drop by and talk with us.

We kicked off our first Pop-Up at Hayes Valley last week and are open to neighborhood suggestions for the coming weeks. Let us know where you want us to be for the next Pop-Up on Facebook or Instagram, and follow us to know our whereabouts every Thursday.

We hope to meet you soon! 

This is the question we’ve been asking ourselves this week, largely inspired by the actions of one very dedicated SunFunder from down under.

Wayne Trattles is challenging himself to a 300 kilometer bike ride from Darwin to Katharine in July, to be completed in just 3 days. This is a challenge that truly tests an individual’s endurance, and there is hefty training involved for months before the actual trip. We are in awe of Wayne’s determination.

But what makes this challenge even more impressive is why Wayne is doing it: to fundraise $3,000 for SunFunder solar projects in Africa. We feel flattered, overjoyed, and extremely inspired when we learned about this part of Wayne’s challenge. Check out his Go Fund Me campaign page, support Team Wayne, and spread the word.

We’re lucky to have such awesome SunFunders on board in our community, and their stories have become strong motivators for us to continue what we do and do it better. If you have ideas about how you can get further engaged with SunFunder’s mission, run it by us! We don’t bite, and we’d love to help however way we can. 

For those who funded Lighting up schools in Chadiza awhile back, then you would have already received an email update this week about the project’s progress. The program that SunnyMoney is rolling out in Zambia and other East African countries is fantastic: they partner with schools to sell lights to students, teachers and their families and light up entire communities one school at a time!

Some of the testimonials gathered by the SunnyMoney team from the Chadiza project are so compelling, we couldn’t resist from sharing them with other SunFunders. And we’re sure that the more projects our partners implement, the more we’ll get general feedback like these:

“The community was very appreciative of the lights, which are working very well. The lights were even used to catch inswa (a seasonal insect that is a delicacy in Eastern Province) because they only come out only at night and are attracted to light.” — Emmanuel Sailota (Nsadzu Basic School)

“The students are using the lights to study and their parents also use them for checking on their fields and crops at night.” — Kingsley Tembo (Vubwi Basic School)

“The students are benefitting a lot because they can now study properly at night and prepare for school without problems.” — Nyundiwe Chisala (Chiwongo Basic School)

Just look at those smiling faces. Nice work, SunFunders!

Photos from Steve Woodward of SolarAid/SunnyMoney.

Watch below and see for yourself the horrific amount of smoke one kerosene lamp emits in just 5 minutes. No one in the world should have to breathe that much soot on a nightly basis.

The toxic fumes emitted from kerosene lamps contribute to a serious global problem of indoor air pollution that kills more people than malaria in a year. While we usually emphasize the financial savings to be gained from switching to solar from kerosene lamps, we also want to hit home that the health benefits to be gained are equally significant.

The UN General Assembly has declared the years from 2014 to 2024 is the decade of Sustainable Energy for All. Let’s help the 1.3 billion people across the world who have no access to electricity benefit from clean and affordable solar energy, so they no longer have to rely on dangerous and expensive kerosene for lighting fuel.

Our projects are expanding to Uganda thanks to a new, exciting partnership with smallsolutions!

smallsolutions Technology Consultants is a Uganda-based social enterprise providing renewable energy and human development solutions at the grassroots level in East Africa. While smallsolutions started as a non-profit organization, it soon realized that in order to meet customer demand it should shift towards a commercially-oriented model and take control of its growth. Still, the company can’t always meet the huge demand it faces for solar solutions from the communities it serves. This is where the SunFunder community steps in.

We are crowdfunding a $10,000 loan to smallsolutions so they can get on with providing 600 solar lighting and phone charging devices for 3,600 people living in the West Nile region of Uganda, close to the borders of Congo and South Sudan. They will be selling the Sun King Pro and Sun King Solo solar lanterns (pictured above, respectively), both of which surpass Lighting Africa’s performance standards by winning their Outstanding Product award. The Sun King Pro additionally charges cell phones, enabling buyers to save more money or even make additional income by charging other people’s phones for a small fee. It’s the ideal product to have!

We’re thrilled to be teaming up with smallsolutions to light up rural Uganda, and we hope you join us by investing in solar for for 600 families in West Nile.