Tag Archives: solar crowdfunding

RE-volv and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Offering Hurricane Zones $120,000 of Matching Funds to Install Solar Panels on Schools, Community Centers, Homeless Shelters, Churches and Other Types of Non-Profit Organizations

22 Sep

Good Samaritan’s that Donate $25 to $1,000 to Help Non-Profits Install Solar Power Arrays Will Receive a Tax Credit in Return for Their Donation to Help Generate Clean, Green Solar Electricity

By Robert Hoskins

Puerto Rico – The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation will provide a $120,000 award of matching funds to RE-volv, a solar crowdfunding platform, to install affordable roof top or community solar power for any non-profit organization located in Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas, and impacted cities throughout the United States. This makes it easy for any charity fundraising organization, school, community center, homeless shelter, pet welfare shelter, church or any other type of 503(c) non-profit organization that would like to install a solar power system to go to revolv.org and build a free crowdfunding profile that will allow them to raise enough money from friends, family and the general public to build solar power arrays that will generate free solar electricity for the next 25 years.

RE-volv and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Offering Hurricane Zones $120,000 of Matching Funds to Install Solar on Schools, Community Centers, Homeless Shelters, and Churches

RE-volv and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation Offering Hurricane Zones $120,000 of Matching Funds to Install Solar on Schools, Community Centers, Homeless Shelters, and Churches

Good Samaritans that would like join academy-award winner, Leonardo DiCapri, and RE-volv in supporting solar crowdfunding campaigns to provide free solar power can donate money online with a credit card.  Anyone that makes a donation will receive a tax credit that can be filed with their personal or corporate tax return at the end of the year.

The partnership will provide matching funding for RE-volv’s 503 (c) crowdfunding platform, allowing donors the opportunity to double their contributions with support from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation.

RE-volv supports solar energy projects for nonprofits that lack access to financing options. An estimated 1.5 million nonprofits in the U.S. face financial barriers to obtaining solar power, as they do not qualify for solar tax credits or are too small to attract traditional investors. RE-volv bridges this funding gap for organizations that provide valuable public services to vulnerable communities, including homeless shelters, schools, community centers, and houses of worship. This is the largest grant to date for RE-volv, a two-time awardee of the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative.

“RE-volv is working to make sure that the benefits of solar can reach everyone, including nonprofit organizations and the people they serve,” said Andreas Karelas, Executive Director of RE-volv. “Thanks to this generous grant from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, RE-volv will be able to scale its impact and bring solar to even more nonprofits around the country.”

RE-volv’s unique solar crowdfunding platform is the first to employ a revolving fund. Donors select a specific nonprofit to support and, as the project pays back dividends through a solar lease agreement, the user can then reinvest their earnings into new solar projects through the RE-volv platform. This pay-it-forward model helps to accelerate solar energy deployment in local communities while keeping donors engaged in solar projects.

“The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is excited to support RE-volv,” said Gregory Lopez, Climate Program Director of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. “Not only is their work important in deploying solar energy and reducing greenhouse gasses, their unique solar crowdfunding business model provides an introduction of accessible, renewable energy to new communities.”

To date, RE-volv has raised over $300,000 from over 1,000 people in 22 countries. It has crowdfunded ten solar projects (150 kW of capacity) in four states, include Harbor House in Oakland, which serves refugee, immigrant, and low-income families with after-school programs and ESL classes, and Morris Chapel Baptist Church, the oldest African American Church in Philadelphia.

Thanks to the solar crowdfunding campaigns, grantees are expected to save between 15 and 40 percent on their electric bills. In total, these ten nonprofits will save more than $1.5 million over the life of their solar energy systems. RE-volv’s solar revolving fund, the Solar Seed Fund, is now worth $650,000 in future lease payments from these ten projects – payments which will be used to finance at least 20 more solar energy projects.

In addition to financing projects, RE-volv invites college students, community volunteers and solar advocates to become RE-volv Solar Ambassadors, who in turn lead ground efforts to deploy solar. RE-volv has educated 10,000 people about solar energy through training, outreach, and more than 100 events.

RE-volv empowers people to take direct action on climate change by crowdfunding solar energy projects for nonprofit organizations. Donations made to RE-volv’s crowdfunding campaigns grow a revolving fund that provides solar financing for nonprofits across the nation. RE-volv is an inaugural member of the White House National Community Solar Partnership.

Founded in 1998, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) works to protect the Earth’s last wild places by implementing solutions that restore balance to threatened ecosystems, and ensuring the long-term health and wellbeing of all its inhabitants.

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Robert Hoskins, a seasoned Front Page PR veteran provides more than twenty-five years of external communications, media relations, digital social media and SEO skills to Front Page PR’s crowdfunding PR and media relations service portfolio.
Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR


Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.
On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.
Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding” to see why Mr. Hoskins is considered one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding experts that has amassed a huge social media following, which is dedicated to supporting donation-, rewards- and equity-based crowdfunding campaigns.

 

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Colorado Conference Provides Lessons on Crowdfunding for Solar, Clean Tech and Renewable Energy Projects

8 Sep

Solar and Clean Technology Crowdfunding Experts to Share Cutting Edge Clean Tech Strategies with Responsible Investors on Green Bonds, PACE Financing, MLPs, and REITs

By Robert Hoskins

Solar and Clean Technology Crowdfunding Experts to Share Cutting Edge Clean Tech Strategies with Responsible Investors on Crowdsourcing, Green Bonds, PACE Financing, MLPs, and REITs

Solar and Clean Technology Crowdfunding Experts to Share Cutting Edge Clean Tech Strategies with Responsible Investors on Crowdsourcing, Green Bonds, PACE Financing, MLPs, and REITs

Organizers of the 24th annual SRI Conference will be hosting a leading North American forum on Crowdfunding solar and clean technology projects for investors and investment professionals on October 28-30, 2013 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

One featured Solar & Clean Technology Crowdfunding Session will be moderated by Dan Adler, managing director of the Clean Energy Angel Fund and CalCEF, and will include a presentation from Dan Rosen, CEO of the leading solar crowdfunding companies in the United States, Solar Mosaic, which will explore the clean tech landscape and the newest products and strategies for sustainable and responsible investors.
“Investing in Clean Tech: Expanding Opportunities for ESG/SRI Investors,” will focus on recent developments in crowdsourcing, green bonds, clean energy victory bonds, PACE financing, MLPs, and REIT eligibility.

The  is a leading North American forum for investors and investment professionals involved in sustainable, responsible, impact (SRI) investing, will be October 28-30, 2013 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

First Affirmative President Steve Schueth, producer of The SRI Conference, said, “These clean tech experts are on the cutting edge of investment and financing opportunities available to responsible investors and investment professionals. Dan Rosen from Solar Mosaic will discuss how they are utilizing crowdsourcing or “crowdfunding” in clean-tech deployment opportunities. Solar Mosaic has received a lot of attention recently for raising $6 million of venture capital, including a $2 million grant from the Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, to build an online platform that supports funding of solar projects.”

First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC is an independent Registered Investment Advisor (SEC File #801-56587) offering investment consulting and asset management services through a nationwide network of investment professionals who specialize in serving socially conscious investors.

Solar Mosaic CEO, Dan Rosen added, “Crowdfunding allows early-stage companies, or projects to “crowd in” finance from a lot of small sources over the Internet (you could consider it democratizing finance, in a way). We have seen the power of crowdfunding in local community solar projects here at Mosaic. In one year, we received $350,000 to finance five solar power plants through our zero-interest investment model, and the power of the crowd to facilitate positive local change is increasingly visible. As individuals, we can finally see the impact of our contributions, and together we can help change the world.”

Dan Adler, managing director of CalCEF and president, CalCEF Ventures, will moderate the clean tech session at the SRI Conference. In addition, other leading experts on the clean tech panel will include: Matt Ferguson, principal, Reznick Group; Jeff Eckel, president and CEO, Hannon Armstrong; and Nancy Pfund, managing partner, DBL Investors, and board member of Primus Power, SolarCity, Solaria, Eco­logic, Pow­er­Genix, and Bright­Source Energy. This session was organized by Doug Arent, Executive Director of the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a long-time member of the conference Agenda Committee.

The CalCEF group is a nexus for entrepreneurs, investors, energy companies, industry, government, and academia engaged in development and advancement of clean energy. CalCEF is a family of non-profit organizations working together to accelerate the movement of clean energy technologies along the continuum from innovation to infrastructure using tools from finance, public policy and technological innovation.

Solar Mosaic connects investors to high quality solar projects. Our mission is to open up clean energy investing and fundamentally change the way energy is financed. The fundamentals of solar makes it an attractive component of a diversified investment portfolio: reliable technology, predictable energy output, and stable cash flows. Every Mosaic project is carefully vetted and structured to minimize risk while maximizing benefits to investors and to the planet. Thousands of people from across the United States have invested millions of dollars to finance solar projects through Mosaic’s online marketplace.

CohnReznick is a nationwide network of accounting, tax and business advisory services, with offices from Boston to Los Angeles. Reznick Group has acquired technical consulting firm Think Energy, Inc., enabling the firm to provide full project life-cycle advisory services to clean technology developers, investors and utilities.

Hannon Armstrong is a specialty finance company that provides debt and equity financing for sustainable infrastructure projects that increase energy efficiency, provide cleaner energy sources, positively impact the environment or make more efficient use of natural resources. Formed more than 30 years ago, Hannon Armstrong has provided or arranged over $4.0 billion of financing in more than 450 sustainable infrastructure transactions since 2000. Hannon Armstrong is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “HASI”.

DBL Investors uses venture capital to accelerate innovation in a way that positively impacts an organization’s social ecosystem as well as its financial success. DBL believes that positive social change and a healthy financial performance are inherently connected. The firm invests in and helps nurture outstanding entrepreneurs and companies in Cleantech, Information Technology, Health Care, and Sustainability-Oriented Products and Services.

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