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Namaste Solar Foundation Inc at a glance

· Private foundation

Namaste Solar Foundation Inc

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$6k
Granted FY2024still arriving
2
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$3k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Environment$32kInternational$14kReligion$5kHousing & Shelter$4kHealth$4kFood & Nutrition$3kCommunity Improvement$2k
02FY2024 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$3,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$57k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
COLORADO FARM & FOOD ALLIANCE$3,000
TWENDE SOLAR$3,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 82% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT: $3k → 10%SERGE: $2k → 7%RE-VOLV: $2k → 10%HAITIAN SPORTS FOUNDATION: $4k → 13%KILIMANJARO MISSION HOSPITAL: $4k → 9%TWENDE SOLAR: $3k → 12%EMPOWER MALI: $5k → 8%COLORADO FARM & FOOD ALLIANCE: $3k → 7%PIDOLA: $2k → 9%TREES WATER AND PEOPLE: $3k → 11%WILD BEAR NATURE CENTER: $2k → 12%COLORADO NONPROFIT DEVELOPMENT CENTER: $2k → 12%BURN DESIGN LAB: $2k → 9%TEULE USAKENYA: $3k → 7%OUR LADY QUEEN OF PEACE CHURCH: $3k → 7%PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT: $3k → 10%HAITIAN SPORTS FOUNDATION: $2k → 13%TWENDE SOLAR: $3k → 12%CENTER FOR RESOURCE CONSERVATION: $1k → 12%GRID ALTERNATIVES COLORADO INC: $3k → 12%PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT: $2k → 10%CENTER FOR RESOURCE CONSERVATION: $4k → 12%EARTHLINKS: $2k → 12%EARTHLINKS: $2k → 12%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
IL
NY
MA
OR
PA
CA
UT
CO
VA
FL
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 24% of Namaste Solar Foundation Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 38% of the giving stays in CO; by stated purpose, 35%.

Namaste Solar Foundation Inclessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address · 29% directed abroad (not shown)
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

43%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$27k · 5 repeat orgs$36k to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
13

Total granted

$27k
$33k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+29%
+66%

Still filing today

80%
62%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 50% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’23’24
EnvironmentInternationalCommunity ImprovementHealthOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT INCORPORATED
    3× · 2017–2019 · $7k · revenue -18%
  • TS
    Twende Solar
    2× · 2019–2024 · $6k · revenue -6%
  • HS
    HAITIAN SPORTS FOUNDATION
    2× · 2020–2021 · $6k

Funded once

  • EM
    Empower Mali
    one grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue -15%
  • KM
    KILIMANJARO MISSION HOSPITAL
    one grant, 2021 · $4k · revenue +15%
  • TW
    TREES WATER AND PEOPLEgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $3k · revenue +149%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Eden Peopleplanet

To offer the dignity of fair employment to people living in impoverished communities, who become transformational agents of global forest restoration.

International
2
Climate Access Fund Corporation

The Climate Access Fund develops and finances community solar products that serve low to moderate income households

Environment
3
Power for All

Our mission is to build and mobilize a network of partners across the energy access ecosystem that together can accelerate the adoption of decentralized renewable energy.

International
4
International Institute for Energy Conservation

To promote the use of efficient and sustainable energy resources

—
5
Grid Alternatives Affiliates & Subsidiaries

To provide energy cost savings to low-income homeowners through installation of solar electric systems and training in energy efficiency, while providing hands-on solar installation opportunities to job training organizations and community…

Environment
6
Planet Wise Solutions

Planet Wise Solutions provides culturally appropriate co-created technologies with indigenous communities in the rainforest regions of Chiapas and Oaxaca Mexico. Our primary focus is the implantation of high efficiency clean cookstoves,…

International
7
Solar Sister Inc

Solar sister eradicates energy poverty by empowering women with economic opportunity. we are creating a deliberately woman-centered direct sales network to being the breakthrough potential of clean energy technology to even the most remote…

International
8
350 Colorado

We are a grassroots movement working to build a fossil-free future powered by 100% renewable energy. we empower communities across colorado to join together to fight for environmental justice. through our volunteer-led teams, we use a…

Environment
9
Eden Incorporated

Eden invests in vulnerable communitites in africa to address the environmental roots of poverty and cultivate the holistic flourishing of land and lives by facilitating environmental education and landscape restoration.

Philanthropy
10
Africa Minigrid Developers Association Inc

Amda is an advocacy organization for off grid renewable energy utilities that works with donors, financiers, policy-makers, governments, and other stakeholders to build the decentralized utility sector in africa and ensure universal…

Public Benefit
11
Grid Alternatives

Grid alternatives envisions a rapid, equitable transition to a world powered by renewable energy that benefits everyone. our mission is to build community-powered solutions to advance economic and environmental justice through renewable…

Environment
12
Global Forest Generation

Global Forest Generation restores and protects forest ecosystems in partnership with grassroots leaders and local communities across vast landscapes which play a critical role in preserving water, protecting biodiversity, storing carbon,…

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Grid Alternatives Colorado Inc; the most unlike its peers is Pidola. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

15 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 15 of the 19 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
6
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/15
Grantees still filing
10/15
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT INCORPORATED: $7,000 · InternationalPARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT INCORPORATEDTwende Solar: $6,000 · InternationalTwende SolarEmpower Mali: $5,000 · InternationalEmpower MaliPIDOLA: $2,000 · InternationalPIDOLAHAITIAN SPORTS FOUNDATION: $5,600 · OtherHAITIAN SPORTS FOUNDATIONCOLORADO FARM & FOOD ALLIANCE: $3,000 · OtherCOLORADO FARM & FOOD ALLIANCEOUR LADY QUEEN OF PEACE CHURCH: $3,000 · OtherOUR LADY QUEEN OF PEACE CHURCHIndividual grant recipient: $2,900 · OtherIndividual grant recipientSERGE GLOBAL INC: $2,000 · OtherSERGE GLOBAL INCREGENTS OF UC CU BOULDER SOLAR DECATHLON TEAM: $1,500 · OtherREGENTS OF UC CU BOULDER SOLAR D…RESOURCE CENTRAL: $4,500 · EnvironmentRESOURCE CENTRALTREES WATER AND PEOPLE: $3,000 · EnvironmentTREES WATER AND PEOPLEGRID ALTERNATIVES COLORADO INC: $3,000 · EnvironmentGRID ALTERNATIVES COLORADO …BURN DESIGN LAB: $2,000 · EnvironmentBURN DESIGN LABWILD BEAR NATURE CENTER: $1,500 · EnvironmentWILD BEAR NATURE CENTERRE-VOLV: $1,500 · EnvironmentRE-VOLVEARTHLINKS INC: $4,000 · Community ImprovementEARTHLINK…THE COLORADO NONPROFIT DEVELOPMENT CENTER: $1,500 · Community ImprovementTHE COLOR…KILIMANJARO MISSION HOSPITAL: $3,900 · Health
International$20,000Other$18,000Environment$15,500Community Improvement$5,500Health$3,900

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTwende Solar: $6,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetEmpower Mali: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetRESOURCE CENTRAL: $4,500 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetEARTHLINKS INC: $4,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetKILIMANJARO MISSION HOSPITAL: $3,900 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetPIDOLA: $2,000 over 1y, 9.9% of budgetSERGE GLOBAL INC: $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBURN DESIGN LAB: $2,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE COLORADO NONPROFIT DEVELOPMENT CENTER: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWILD BEAR NATURE CENTER: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetRE-VOLV: $1,500 over 1y, 0.5% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

The Denver FoundationAmerican Endowment Fo…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …American Online Givin…Amazonsmile Foundation
The Denver FoundationCO12.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Denver Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Namaste Solar Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Namaste Solar Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 30%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%6%13%19%25%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    3get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Namaste Solar Foundation Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Namaste Solar Foundation Inc through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 19 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Namaste Solar’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home