This project was funded! Our crowd funding campaign ended successfully on the 22nd of May. Thanks to all the community (39 of you!) that generously chipped in.
We would love to do a project like this again. If you know of a community organisation that could do with solar on their building, please get in touch: info@sunnyshire.org.au
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We’re trying something new.
We are crowd funding a 5kW solar system for Engadine Flexicare and Education Centre.
Since starting Sunny Shire, we have just done rooftop solar bulk buys. We got solar ourselves, saw how much trouble it is to find the right products and right solar company, and sort through all the different info out there. So we set up the bulk buy to make getting solar easier and better.
Now we want to help others get solar. We are going to help crowd fund 5kW of solar for Engadine Flexicare & Education Centre, and we need your help!
The crowd funding campaign is live and you can chip in here: https://chuffed.org/project/engadine-flexicare-solar
The beauty of crowd funding is it can draw on many people, so you only have a to chip in a little. We would love to see one hundred $5 donations!
How it works
For this project, we are partnering with CORENA. They set up a revolving fund 5 years ago to provide interest free loans for solar for community buildings. This will now be their 22nd project! What this means is even if we don’t raise many funds locally, it will still eventually get funded by loan repayments from their previous projects. Low risk for our first project like this.
We like to do things different. We want to raise funds locally, and will be using the crowd funding ‘Chuffed.org’ to do so.
Our initial target is $1,163, 20% of the system. So we need around 200 people to donate just $5 each.
If the crowd funding goes well, we could extend the target to fully fund the system through local donations. As it is a 3 week campaign, and by then CORENA will have around $2,750 in the bank from loan repayments on other projects, our full local funded amount could be around $3,900.
Once the project is funded, CORENA will provide Engadine Flexicare an interest free loan for the solar which they pay back over 4-5 years. The great thing is, the solar savings are greater than the loan repayments, so they will be saving from Day 1.
More about Engadine Flexicare & Education Centre
Engadine Flexicare & Education Centre is based in Calderra Avenue, Engadine, close to the town centre and train station. It is a Not-for-Profit organisation, funded by fees paid by families that use the Centre and its own fundraising efforts. Sutherland Shire Council owns the building and provides it for use by the community-based Flexicare and Education operations.
More about CORENA
Incorporated in April 2013, CORENA is a volunteer run not-for-profit group with nation-wide membership. CORENA provides interest-free loans to pay for solar installations and energy efficiency measures to enable non-profit community organisations to reduce their carbon footprint. Their unique revolving funding model means that anything you donate to one of their projects will be used over and over again in subsequent projects. Their interest free loans have already funded 20 installations for community organisations around Australia. More info: https://corenafund.org.au/