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One of my earliest intellectual memories is my mother’s voice saying the same thing, over and over: Hope springs eternal in the human breast. She was quoting Alexander Pope, though I didn’t know that until I read the original poem years later in English class. It became an anchor of my childhood. It clearly must…
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For years I said the same thing about myself, with a certain amount of pride: I don’t do social media. No Facebook. No Instagram. No TikTok. I said it the way people say they don’t own a television. (I do own a television, but now I am compelled to tell you that I don’t watch…
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This year I added four new roles to my team and brought in a handful of expert advisors. The whole thing cost me about $240. That’s not a typo. But the team might not be what you’re picturing. The roles are filled by AI tools. I now have a researcher who never sleeps, a math…
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A recent RFP asked me for a three-year plan and a five-year plan. The request made me realize strategy work has changed. A few weeks ago, a request for proposals landed in my inbox. It asked for a three-year and five-year strategic plan. The kind I’ve been doing for twenty years. But for the first…
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Something is brewing. All of us in the social impact sector can feel it. I have been doing this for a long time. Consulting for almost 20 years. Working inside mission-driven organizations for even longer. There are ebbs and flows, times of uncertainty and big leaps forward in the work. That has always been true.…
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The SunPower Foundation is working to “change the way the world is powered.” The Foundation supports on-the-ground installation projects for rural communities in places like Mexico and the Philippines, as well as curriculum development for schools. The Solar Energy for Rural Electrification project in the Philippines has impacted over 6,000 homes and schools that sorely need reliable electricity. Launched in…
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2010 will be a day of reckoning for solar projects that have been announced,” said Mark McLanahan, CEO at Renewable Ventures, a Fotowatio company. Five hundred bankers and solar executives speculated about the promise and pitfalls of implementing solar power projects at the 2010 Solar Power Finance & Investment Summit in San Diego last week. Permitting the Biggest…
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During the 2010Solar Power Finance & Investment Summit in San Diego, a large crowd learned that Chinese companies have cash and interest in the US solar energy market, yet partnerships require patience and low risk. To explore the opportunities, R. Thomas Hoffmann, Partner with Ballard Spahr, led a panel with three experts on Chinese solar investing.…
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Twenty-five solar industry and regulatory leaders shared data and forecast a positive future, especially for small-scale projects, at the third Solar Electric Utility Conferencehosted by PHOTON International Thursday in San Francisco. Smaller Is Better Keynote speaker Pat Wood III, former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and now with Wood3 Resources, summarized the dominant theme of the…
Field Notes on Social Impact
A monthly letter for mission-driven professionals in uncertain times.