We are excited to announce there’s a new nonprofit in town that is working hard to create a sustainable future!
The GreenLight Solutions Foundation was formed because we truly believe in the work that we are doing and we want to continuously improve. In order to grow and increase our impact we first had to make our own organization sustainable by forming a nonprofit foundation to support our university chapters. Our chartered purpose statement is: to create educational opportunities for university students, as well as community and business organizations, by engaging them in applied projects based upon leading sustainability research and practices to create strategic solutions.
We want to send a big THANK YOU to everyone who has supported GreenLight Solutions in any way, shape, or form. When our movement started back in 2013, we set out to make a positive impact through student-led sustainability projects with local businesses, and over the past 3.5 years we’ve created a lot of good for our community and for our world. Our many thanks go out to each and every student Solutioneer who has been a part of GreenLight, our faculty advisers at ASU’s School of Sustainability, Changemaker Central at ASU, the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, the Pakis Family Foundation and the SEEDSPOT program (and its staff, supporters, and mentors), as well as every one of you who has encouraged us to keep moving forward. Our movement is about empowering both students and business leaders to be the change makers our communities need in order to create a sustainable and thriving world together. The positive impact we create would not be possible without your involvement and support.
Through our experience in the SEEDSPOT program in the spring of 2015 we determined that a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization would be the best path for our movement. As of July 17th, 2015 GreenLight Solutions became an Arizona nonprofit known as the GreenLight Solutions Foundation, and then on August 31st, 2016 our application was approved by the IRS to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. There are three primary reasons that we felt a nonprofit was the best fit to meet our goals. First, as a co-created, grassroots movement of students at ASU there were no individual “owners” or “founders” of the organization and we want to properly recognize all contributors to our movement. Second, there are not individual owners of nonprofit organizations, they are owned by the community, governed by a board, led by staff, and supported by volunteers and donors. This ownership structure best fits our movement because we are providing a service in the community that the community needs and often cannot afford: applied sustainability projects for college students and sustainable business implementation for local businesses. GreenLight is serving a need in our community that is not being served by government, the private sector, nor academia, thus the need for a nonprofit organization. Third, since we collaborate directly with colleges and universities we want to be sure our organization can interface well with them.
We can assure you that donated dollars make an impact with GreenLight! We have measured the ROI of all dollars donated at the recognized wage for Arizona in-kind volunteer hours of $22.83/hour, and our 13,000+ volunteer hours equates to over $300,000 in human capital value delivered in the community! This value has been delivered from a total of only $15,000 in funding from University Student Government at ASU, Changemaker Central at ASU, the Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, and the Pakis Family Foundation. Every $1 donated to GreenLight has translated into $20 of value delivered into the community! Our lean, virtualized operational model will help keep our costs low as we grow, while keeping our delivered value high.
The GreenLight Solutions Foundation envisions a sustainable world that is catalyzed by students and business leaders collaborating to create real business solutions. We are optimistic and excited to continue building our thriving sustainable future with you all! THANK YOU so much!
Always looking forward,
Nate, Kevin, & Ryan
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