Beam Project: Fight Climate Change with Your Spare Change
Have you ever had an idea for a business but thought, “How would I even get this started?” Or perhaps as a Cleantech Rising community member you’ve had an idea for a cleantech business, which would likely make the struggle to get started all the more challenging.
What a shame that so many people with ideas to make the world sustainable never get them off the ground because of a lack of entrepreneurial support. Two people who felt this inertia to cleantech innovation decided to create a project to help.
Beam Project
Adria Wilson and Eric Parker, two Clean Energy Leadership Institute fellows, realized it takes a village to raise a startup and the fight for the environment is too crucial to leave cleantech entrepreneurs to fend for themselves. Adria and Eric decided to tap into the power of the people and founded Beam Project, a nonprofit that enables anyone to donate small amounts to cleantech startups.
Of course, it wouldn’t make sense to give ten bucks here and twenty dollars there. Instead, Beam pools smalls donations from people like you to create grants of $25K or more to donate. This way, folks who want to make an impact can invest in a startup of their choice that has been screened and their donation through Beam is tax-deductible.
How it Works
Beam has created an app in the form of a Google Chrome browser extension. Users can choose to round up the price of purchases on Amazon so that their spare change goes towards Beam’s grants. Here’s the simple process to get it setup:
Beam in Action
Ampaire is the first company to receive grant funding from Beam Project. Cleantech Rising previously highlighted Ampaire for its innovative take on decarbonizing air travel.
Beam gives cleantech companies like Ampaire, which require substantial and recurring capital to build out their technology, a greater chance of success. And with the stakes as high as they are, shouldn’t we do everything possible to help cleantech companies succeed?
Originally published at https://cleantechrising.com on January 10, 2020.
