Giving & SolarAid

It is most unlikely that we will be able to conquer the world’s problems without a good deal of philanthropy along the way. People generally don’t seem to favour enforced redistribution of wealth, and yet extremes in wealth distribution as severe as those today undoubtedly undermine their future: it will be very difficult to maintain social cohesion and build a sustainability global society, as things are. As governments default on one promise after another when it comes to poverty alleviation and development, individual and corporate giving assumes ever more importance. And it doesn’t all have to left to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

Many of us have the power to give a little …..or lend

A little can go a very long way these days. In Silicon Valley, a group of entrepreneurs quit their mainstream jobs in 2005 to set up a non-profit organisation, Kiva.org, to facilitate interest-free lending by Americans to entrepreneurs in the south. Often the latter need tiny sums to get started. The maximum size of a Kiva loan is just $25. Ordinary Americans queue to make them: $25 means that the lender-philanthropists do not need to be wealthy themselves, and sure enough, a whole new category of donors is signing up with Kiva. The default rate the other end is vanishingly small. Many lenders don’t even want their money back: they just want to give people in the developing world a leg up. The vast majority of their returned loans go into a revolving fund to bankroll yet more entrepreneurs who want to open small shops, buy sewing machines, or whatever they plan to do to lift the poverty barrier. By March 2008, Kiva had signed up nearly a quarter of a million lenders, and loaned $22 million in 40 countries. It targets a billion dollars of loans within a decade.  Solar projects like solar lantern distributorships, and solar home-system installers, are going to make particularly attractive targets for the “new lenders.”

Solarcentury profits for a purpose …..SolarAid

Solarcentury was set up on the understanding that 5% of the operating profits would go to charity. In 2005, we were profitable for the first time, and with the 5% we were able to set up SolarAid in 2006. Now SolarAid is active in four African countries, training African entrepreneurs to make and sell solar-powered devices for light at night.  Staff at Solarcentury often volunteer or do pro-bono technical work such as product design for SolarAid.


Selected recent history