RE-volv

Founded in 2011, RE-volv is a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping other nonprofits nationwide go solar through the power of crowdfunding. Nonprofits currently face obstacles to going solar due to their ineligibility for the federal solar ITC and difficulties demonstrating their creditworthiness. This results in lack of access to the solar lease financing options that have been a key driver of both residential and commercial solar adoption.
RE-volv addresses this gap in the market by offering nonprofits an affordable solar lease financed by a crowdfunding-led revolving loan fund, along with providing training for community volunteers to conduct fundraising campaigns and launch their solar careers. Since its founding, RE-volv has crowdfunded solar projects for seventeen nonprofits, raising more than $1,000,000 from over 2,000 people in 38 states and 22 countries.
Over the Solar In Your Community Challenge performance period, we have met and exceeded our goals by securing nonprofit leasing agreements for 14 solar projects, with installations of 10 projects in 6 states totaling 110 kW of capacity complete. We are in discussions with an additional 60 nonprofits in 20 states that could be developed over the next two years, and estimate a projected long-term pipeline of over 11,000 projects totaling 163 MW.

Currently, RE-volv’s projects are funded on average by 10% revolving fund proceeds, 60% crowdfunding, and 30% foundations and corporate sponsors, ultimately generating an average 7% IRR. Because revolving fund proceeds will increase through compound interest as more projects are completed, the revolving fund will become self-sustaining after 100 projects are installed, enabling a new nonprofit solar project to be financed based solely on revolving fund proceeds every three weeks. This revolving fund is known as the “Solar Seed Fund.” With each new project, the fund grows faster, creating a positive feedback loop that grows exponentially. By continuing to leverage crowdfunding, corporate, and foundation donations, we will be able to scale up and complete even more projects even more quickly.

These projects, as well as future projects in the longer term, are made possible by RE-volv’s unique, self-sustaining financing model. The revolving Solar Seed Fund used by RE-volv to finance its leases is seeded through crowdfunding donations, and a percentage of the lease payments from each project is reinvested back into the fund for use in future solar projects. Through this model, the success of each nonprofit project drives a virtuous cycle that enables RE-volv to support more campaigns, increase contributions to each successive campaign, and to support itself financially.

RE-volv has also mobilized corporate donors to support its community-based solar projects. For example, Starbucks has donated $25,000 to finance one project, and RE-volv is exploring similar partnerships with Google, Amazon, and Apple. Solar equipment manufacturers including Jinko Solar and ABB have also donated solar panels and inverters. Currently, along with foundation support, these corporate donations of funding and equipment have covered about 30% of RE-volv project costs, although this is expected to decline as revolving fund revenues increase.

Foundation support plays and will continue to play an important role in the scalability of RE-volv’s financing model. For example, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, the Clif Bar Family Foundation, First Solar, Patagonia, the Neda Nobari Foundation, and the Joseph and Vera Long Foundation, among others, have all supported RE-volv over multiple years and will continue to do so.
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation played a particularly important role during the Solar In Your Community Challenge, offering matching funds for 5 out of the 10 projects, and spreading the word about our work. While our crowdfunding campaigns usually take 6 weeks to complete, thanks to a tweet from Leonardo DiCaprio on the launch day of the Faith Baptist Church campaign (an African- American church in East Oakland), we raised nearly $15,000 and completed the campaign that afternoon.

RE-volv has developed a robust financial model to project realistic future growth over the next 20 years. The base case scenario is modeled on RE-volv’s actual growth to date; the Moderate and High Growth Scenarios reflect successful execution of the marketing efforts, program enhancements and national partnerships.

Tapping into New Financing Sources and Unlocking New Geographic Markets RE-volv’s innovative model unlocks the potential of crowdfunding, a potent new source of financing, to serve a nonprofit solar market that is currently not served by the solar lease industry. Worldwide, donation-based crowdfunding for all causes generated $5.5 billion in 2017, more than doubling its total in 2015. RE-volv itself has seen its donations increase dramatically, growing from crowdfunding $15,000 in 2013 to crowdfunding $172,000 in 2018.

The opportunity to raise even more funds through crowdfunding to fight climate change by financing solar energy projects is enormous, as over 71% of millennials have fundraised for a nonprofit crowdfunding campaign and 81% of millennials believe in global warming. And, while crowdfunding solar projects has been attempted with various models - including allowing investors to lend money to specific solar projects and raising donations and giving solar equipment to nonprofits for free - RE-volv is the first and only nonprofit in the U.S. that provides crowdfunded solar financing to other nonprofits through a revolving fund.

RE-volv’s model also puts it in a unique position to pioneer solar in untapped markets, thanks to lower overhead costs, grant funding, and access to capital at below-market rates. Moreover, RE-volv’s revolving fund can distribute proceeds from high-return projects (such as our projects in California) to effectively subsidize lower-return projects in states with a less-favorable environment for solar projects. As noted above, we have proven this with successful projects for nonprofits in states like Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin, and we are in discussions to develop projects for nonprofits in other less-established solar markets.

Total Aggregate Capacity: 110 kW

Reach: 10 nonprofits serving 30,000 people

Value: 30% average savings on customer utility bills

Cost-Effectiveness: Average installed system cost of $2.15 per Watt

In our initial application, we set impact goals for the performance period of:
• Completing at least 10 nonprofit solar projects
• Securing $300,000 of private capital to execute projects
• Training at least 50 college students and community leaders to spearhead projects

In the 18 months through October 2018, we met or exceeded all of these goals, signing lease agreements with 14 nonprofit organizations for 204 kW of aggregate capacity, with 10 projects totaling 110 kW of aggregate capacity installed by the end of the performance period. These projects are spread across six states, including both established solar markets like California and relatively new solar markets like Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.

Moreover, we trained over 250 Solar Ambassadors that have helped to raise over $330,000 in crowdfunding donations, foundation and corporate donations, and equipment donations. We achieved an average cost per watt of $2.15, ranging from a low of $1.11 per Watt on a project for Harbor House in Oakland, CA to a high of $4.46 per Watt on a project for the River Revitalization Foundation in Milwaukee, WI.
The value of these projects to our nonprofit customers also met or exceeded our initial projections of 15% first-year electricity cost savings. At the low end, our project for Mission of Mary in Dayton, OH led to 15% first-year savings, and at the high end our Faith Baptist Church project in Oakland, CA resulted in 50% first-year savings, for an average of 30% savings (or $4,300 annually per nonprofit) across all 10 projects completed. These savings are expected to grow over time, and at the end of the 20-year lease period the nonprofits will own their systems.
Of course, the impact of these projects ultimately also includes allowing nonprofits to better achieve their missions. These 10 nonprofits will collectively save half of a million dollars on their electricity bills, thanks to solar. By freeing up funds previously spent on energy, these solar installations will help them to better serve the 30,000 people that currently benefit from their services, and expand their programs to increase the number of people they serve.