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We are pleased to present our most recent Frontier Fund Awards. Grantees are announced on a rolling basis.
2023 – Retro Report: How to Save Democracy
Retro Report is an Emmy Award-winning documentary news organization whose mission is to help solve the information crisis that is threatening our democracy. It is non-partisan, independent, and nonprofit. Retro Report produces trustworthy journalism, steeped in historical context, to bring clarity to complicated issues and combines it with history, civics, and media literacy education. Our work is meant to inspire critical thinking and discussion on a variety of subjects, including history and civics. At a time when misinformation is running rampant and there’s disagreement over objective facts, our method of combining reliable and compelling journalism with history, civics, and media literacy education has proven to be effective.
We are please to offer Retro Report’s documentary series, How to Save Democracy a grant from our Frontier Fund. An educational lesson plans and interactive materials for grades 6-12 will also accompany the series. The project has for mission of creating informed and inspired citizens of the future by elevating civics literacy, promoting critical thinking in our youth, and celebrating diversity in all of its forms. The four-part broadcast and streaming series will provide a dramatic, informative, entertaining, and non-partisan look at the most critical issues defining America today; all through the eyes of Gen Z students vying to win the nation’s premiere high school social studies competition called We the People.
We are please to offer Retro Report’s documentary series, How to Save Democracy a grant from our Frontier Fund. An educational lesson plans and interactive materials for grades 6-12 will also accompany the series. The project has for mission of creating informed and inspired citizens of the future by elevating civics literacy, promoting critical thinking in our youth, and celebrating diversity in all of its forms. The four-part broadcast and streaming series will provide a dramatic, informative, entertaining, and non-partisan look at the most critical issues defining America today; all through the eyes of Gen Z students vying to win the nation’s premiere high school social studies competition called We the People.
Grant Amount: $75,000
2021 – Recycling Plastics
Lonely Whale works with partners to develop data-driven campaigns that address systems issues and reconnect us to each other, encouraging behavior change away from single-use plastic and toward a healthy, thriving ocean. Current initiatives include the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize, Ocean Heroes youth education program, and the UN award-winning Nextwave corporate consortium.
In the summer of 2021 Lonely Whale will launch a new campaign focused on debunking the myths surrounding recycling and providing simple, tangible ways we can change our behavior to more positively impact our oceans. Lonely Whale is proud and grateful to partner with The Rogovy Foundation in this most recent effort.
Grant Amount: $120,000
2019 – Clean Energy for Improved Health in Nepal
The Rogovy Foundation is pleased to partner with Renewable World on their Clean Energy for Improved Health in Nepal project (CEIH). This pilot project aims to improve the health of 4,728 people in four ultra-poor, off-grid communities in Surkhet District, Nepal, using clean energy solutions. Their approach is designed to help reduce the deaths of the many thousands of people, particularly women and children, who die each year from the effects of inefficient, polluting cookstoves. CEIH will tackle this problem by increasing access to energy-enabled healthcare so that care is available at the point of need for isolated, rural communities and rolling out access to clean, improved cookstoves to reduce pollution.
With the help of The Rogovy Foundation, CEIH will be implemented in four sites over the course of 2020. This Frontier Fund grant will kickstart the project and achieve the following impact in one village:
➢ Improved health provision for approximately 1,182 people through access to solar energy-enabled health posts, with improvements in respiratory disease care, vaccination provision and maternity care.
➢ Reduced respiratory disease, pollution and CO2 emissions through access to, and rollout of, more efficient cookstoves initially for approximately 240 individuals (48 families).
Renewable World is a registered charity which tackles poverty using renewable energy. They strive to empower energy-poor communities to develop sustainable livelihoods through the provision of renewable energy systems.
Grant Amount: $16,600
2018 – Ending Solar Poverty
In August 2018, The Rogovy Foundation provided a developmental grant to Beyond the Light‘s solar project in Nicaragua, installing energy kits for homes without electricity, providing lights and USB charging for cell phones, fans and radio. In addition, they are adding solar kits to the local water system, which will add sustainable access to clean drinking water for the village of El Tomate. Plans are also in place to assemble and install sustainable solar energy in El Carmen and La Mora in Nicaragua at the end of the year.
Beyond the Light’s mission is to end energy poverty by providing the resources necessary to bring electricity to homes and training locals to build and repair solar systems for their communities. The dedicated staff at Beyond the Light leave behind a process to provide sustainable energy solutions and job creation.
Grant Amount: $5,000
2016 – Investing in Solar Lights
In 2016 a grant was awarded to SolarAid, whose mission is to provide solar powered lamps to areas without electricity. Read more about how this inexpensive device is providing clean and efficient lighting to rural Africa.
In March 2016, The Rogovy Foundation partnered with the international development charity SolarAid to reach over 38,000 people with life-changing solar lights in the Western and Rift Valley provinces of Kenya.
SolarAid enables access to clean and affordable energy through its social enterprise, SunnyMoney, which seeks to create trust and demand for solar lights in rural Africa through its ‘trade-not-aid’ model.
93% of the rural population in Kenya does not have access to electricity. Most families resort to using the toxic kerosene lamp to light their homes at night. Kerosene only serves to imperil health, impair education, waste household income and emit astonishingly high amounts of carbon.
A small affordable solar light changes everything. Each solar light means a child studies one hour extra each evening. Parents can use the significant savings each year on better food, education or farming inputs. Health improves and life gets better.
Grant Amount: $21,232
The Rogovy Foundation has provided a grant to SolarAid to distribute 7,800 solar lights to empower thousands of families to escape the grinding cycle of poverty.
SolarAid schools campaign in Kenya – Photo by Patrick Bentley
“[Since the solar light] my lifestyle has changed, my kids eat well, study well and we are a happy family now.” -Dickson Murumbi in Kenya
