Alex Honnold, Founder

Alex is a professional rock climber, best known for his ropeless ascents of some of the world's biggest rock walls.

As a matter of principle and practicality, Alex lives as simply as possible. The Honnold Foundation is an extension of that ethic.

How do I apply for a grant or become a Honnold Foundation partner organization?

Honnold Foundation grants are awarded through our open call for applications, which generally occurs once a year. You can learn more about the application process and sign up for announcements here.

Where does the Honnold Foundation’s funding come from?

Alex Honnold created the Honnold Foundation in 2012 by donating one third of his annual income to solar energy access projects worldwide. These days, Alex is still a huge supporter of our work, but he’s not alone. Corporate partners, charitable foundations, and people like you all help us make the world a brighter, more equitable place.

Hundreds of people support our work as monthly recurring donors, and as little as $5/month can have a huge impact for our nonprofit partners all over the world. Join us in supporting solar energy access by making a gift here! Or if you’re interested in a corporate partnership, we’d love to chat— please reach out.

I would love to work with the Honnold Foundation as an intern/employee/volunteer! How do I get involved?

Learn more about careers and internships here.

How do I invite Alex Honnold to speak at my event?

Speaking inquiries can be directed to Alex’s management team at RXR Sports. If your inquiry is in regard to the Honnold Foundation specifically, you can contact our communications team here.

I’d like to put solar panels on my home. Can you help?

The Honnold Foundation doesn’t fund individual residential solar installs, but we’re always excited when people decide to go solar at home. You can learn more about residential solar options here.

How does the Honnold Foundation support solar projects?

We provide grants, project management, and storytelling resources to partner organizations worldwide. Our partners use the Honnold Foundation’s support to increase solar energy access, provide job training, and amplify energy self-sufficiency initiatives that reduce environmental impact and improve peoples’ lives.

How does the Honnold Foundation ensure that our projects are sustainable?

The Honnold Foundation funds grassroots organizations with long histories of involvement and accountability in the communities they serve. As part of the new partner selection process, we look closely at each organization’s leadership structure, community ties, and impact history-- and we only fund organizations who we know have the skill and the commitment to get things done. The Honnold Foundation trusts our partners, and provides ongoing support and funding to help ensure that they’ll be there in the long run to support each project.

What does the Honnold Foundation do to ensure that the solar panels used by its partners are ethically sourced?

The Honnold Foundation sees solar panels’ immense potential to transform lives in under-resourced communities around the world. That said, we are keenly aware that solar panels are not without their complications. We are in the midst of a climate crisis and it is imperative to move away from fossil fuels as expeditiously as possible. However, we cannot compromise on human rights or environmental sustainability in order to do so.

Forced labor cannot be any part of a solution to the climate crisis. At the Honnold Foundation we want to see more transparency in the supply chain. We want our partners to know where the materials used in the manufacture of solar panels originate. This is one of the reasons that we partner with reputable solar providers, like our friends at REC Solar, who can stand by their labor practices.

In addition, we want mining companies, investors and regulators to operate ethically and sustainably. This means giving power and resources to local communities, and treating them as true partners and stakeholders in projects that impact them.

We cannot give solar and battery manufacturing a free pass, regardless of how urgent the transition to clean energy may be. We need a just transition, and that includes not just equitable access to renewables, but also equal investment in ensuring human rights are respected throughout the supply chain. The Solar Energy Industries Association's Solar Supply Chain Traceability Protocol is a welcome initiative and a good example of the transparency and accountability mechanisms that need to be deployed across the renewable energy sector.

Deploying solar isn’t just a solution to the climate crisis. It’s also a uniquely versatile technology that can be used to advance economic equity and environmental sustainability. The simplest solutions are often the best ones, and solar offers simple solutions to complex community needs. We just need to make sure it’s done right.

Doesn’t the manufacturing process for solar require fossil fuels and/or carbon emissions? Is solar really “renewable”?

It’s true – while solar panels are an environmentally friendly energy solution, the materials and manufacturing process used to create them do have a decent-sized carbon footprint, as they involve mining, melting and cooling. Meanwhile, transporting solar to its eventual install point is yet another source of emissions.

However, despite these shortcomings, experts agree that solar is far more sustainable than its nonrenewable counterparts. Studies have found that coal generates a footprint 18 times the size of solar, while natural gas creates an emissions footprint 13 times the size of solar; notably, these studies do not necessarily account for the fact that solar produces 0 emissions once installed.

The Honnold Foundation requires grantee Partners to source their solar needs from local suppliers. While this does not mean that those parts weren’t initially shipped to the installers, it does help ensure that those panels are shipped as efficiently as possible to the installation, rather than passing through multiple third parties.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the solar industry can make significant emission efficiency gains by developing recycling mechanisms for the massive volume of panels that are being rapidly deployed around the world. Since HF’s panels are sourced new, we don’t yet have a reason to develop and scale a recycling program internally. However, we support and research these opportunities so that when our Partners’ installations reach end-of-life in 25-30 years, we’ll be ready.

What about batteries? Don’t those double down on many of the challenges of solar?

Like solar energy, battery storage offers an imperfect solution to the climate crisis, but it does offer a solution.

Battery storage systems do require the extraction of materials such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel, which does raise both environmental and ethical concerns. However, it's crucial to note that the technology’s overall impact needs to be assessed through a lifecycle analysis. The extraction and manufacturing phase is just one part of the story. Once in operation, batteries play a pivotal role in reducing reliance on fossil fuels, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and facilitating the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources like solar power into the grid.

Battery storage enhances the reliability and stability of the electrical grid. In areas prone to power outages or with unreliable grid infrastructure, batteries ensure a consistent power supply. This is particularly transformative for historically marginalized communities, offering them access to reliable electricity, even when the sun goes down, to improve education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. Meanwhile, other grid-tied communities face increased rates of severe storms, and with it, long-term power outages. Here, battery backed solar installs bolster climate resilience and help ensure continuation of services in the midst of natural disasters.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that the battery storage industry is rapidly evolving. Researchers and manufacturers are actively working on improving battery technologies, making them more energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and economically viable. Continued innovation is expected to lead to the development of batteries with reduced reliance on scarce materials, further enhancing their sustainability.

Why doesn’t the Honnold Foundation support wind, or (insert alternative renewable here)?

The Honnold Foundation knows it will take multiple solutions to decrease the global community’s reliance on fossil fuels. New and emergent technologies (including but not limited to wind, hydropower, geothermal, and more) offer crucial pathways to a clean energy transition.

HF originally focused on solar because it’s a clean, elegant, and scalable solution that experts have identified as a crucial component of the clean energy transition. And, most importantly to our work, solar is well-suited to helping communities meet their needs, at both small and medium scale.

We’ve received thousands of applications for solar energy projects around the world, most of which are from organizations that would have a difficult time accessing the funding needed to make these projects a reality without HF’s support. Considering this massive pipeline and opportunity for impact, and HF’s relatively small size, it makes the most sense for our team to focus narrowly on this area of expertise rather than diversifying the types of projects we support.

Utility scale wind and solar projects will happen with or without the Honnold Foundation, at volumes of capital (trillions) that far exceed our organization’s financial capacity. Meanwhile, our support provides crucial funding for grassroots partners worldwide.

Where and what do my donations ultimately go towards? Is the Honnold Foundation fiscally responsible with my donation?

When you make a gift to the Honnold Foundation, 100% of your gift goes directly towards our programmatic work. Our founder, Alex Honnold, covers the organization’s overhead & administrative expenses, ensuring that our donors’ support goes directly to resourcing our network of partners around the world. HF’s budgets are outlined in our annual impact reports, and transparent financial data, including budget allocation, grantees, board of directors, and executive compensation are made publicly available in our annual Form 990.

We can’t help but note that, while we’re lucky to have a founder who invests radically in our work, not all nonprofits can lay claim to the same. Many philanthropies' and donors’ relationships with their grantees get caught up in red tape, and significant reporting structures. Grants, especially those given to small, grassroots nonprofits, are often restricted to a specific program or project.

Moreover, organizations have no option but to figure out how to make their expenses fit into restricted grant categories and if they can’t, crucial elements to any growing organization like staffing capacity, employee training, program development, and employee wellness initiatives remain underfunded.

The restricted funding model leaves nonprofits with difficult decisions. Nonprofit leaders may take on projects specific to a grantmaker's priorities in hopes of building a relationship that could guarantee future funding. In turn, this prescribes funder-tailored solutions to community-level problems, undermining the clear advantages of community-based, community-centered work. Ultimately, this is why the Honnold Foundation’s grants are “unrestricted”; doing so enables organizations to focus on what matters most: their growing impact.