Green Neighbors
GREEN NEIGHBORS is a project of Joint Venture’s Climate Protection Task Force. The members of the Task Force (44 cities, counties, and special districts in Silicon Valley) created Green Neighbors to help community-based organizations raise funds for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support sustainability.
Help Your Community Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions – And take a tax deduction
Do you want to help your community reduce greenhouse emissions?
Green Neighbors identifies local, community-based projects that reduce carbon emissions and posts them on the Web. All of the projects are managed by verified charities so your donation is tax deductible.
This is a new service, and we are just getting the first projects listed. The following are a few examples of the kinds of projects we hope local non-profits will post with Green Neighbors:
- Fund neighborhood tree plantings in a local park.
- Buy energy efficient lighting systems for non-profits, schools, low-income families.
- Install a solar water heater at the community swimming pool.
- Help non-profit organizations conduct home energy audits.
- Help a disadvantaged family insulate their home and save money.
- Buy solar panels for a school or community center.
- Buy cloth shopping bags to give to residents to help them give up paper or plastic bags.
Click here to see some of the first Green Neighbors projects:
- Less Polluting Tractors Mean More Wildflowers in San Mateo County
- Stanford University Church in Palo Alto Wants to Install a More Efficient Furnace
- Hope House in Redwood City Wants to Install More Energy Efficient Light Bulbs
How it works
Green Neighbors has partnered with Bring Light. Founded by two veterans of Adobe Systems, Bring Light is a for-profit company that provides non-profit organizations the opportunity to raise funds for specific projects by posting them on the BringLight.com web site.
Bring Light screens the organizations to make sure they are legitimate 501(c)(3) charities. They help the charities develop their project descriptions and provide tools to reach out to potential donors in the community to more effectively raise funds. The charities pay Bring Light an administrative fee to cover the cost of operating the site and the accompanying services.
Non-profit organizations may choose to raise all or part of the cost of a project via BringLight.com. They may request their contributions from Bring Light when the project is fully funded, or whenever they are ready to use the funds.
Your support for Green Neighbors projects reduces greenhouse gas emissions in your community. You can see directly how your contributions are helping the project along, and meet neighbors who have also contributed.
Although the projects listed with Green Neighbors are not officially certified, the greenhouse gas emissions they eliminate may be considered offsets for emissions generated by your travel and use of energy.
Get started now
Ready to find out what projects are available in your community? Click here to go to the Green Neighbors page on Bringlight.com.
Are you a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization? If you have a project that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, click here to register and post your project. Use GREEN8 as your promo code to automatically add your projects to Green Neighbors.
Project Champions
- Asbjorn Osland, Professor, San José State University
- Tonie Hansen, Nvidia
- Seth Fearey, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network