The Honnold Foundation

The Honnold Foundation envisions a world where all people have equal access to opportunity and live in balance with the environment.

We believe in solar as a proven, environmentally sound solution to global energy poverty, and we award grants to community organizations whose projects are innovative, equity-focused, and have the potential to shift the narrative on what’s possible for energy access worldwide.

The Honnold Foundation was founded by professional rock climber Alex Honnold in 2012. At the time, Alex was living in his car (a Ford Econoline van, retrofitted with a bed and storage), climbing all over the United States and, increasingly, the world. After expeditions to Chad and Borneo, he returned home and spent hours hunched over his laptop, researching carbon offsets, environmental activism, energy access, and charitable giving.

In the end, Alex decided to focus his giving on solar energy because it’s so tangible, and so universally effective. Solar energy can bring light to a single family in Malawi as a lantern, or transform the resilience and sustainability of an entire city at utility scale. The Honnold Foundation does most of our work somewhere in between— supporting community scale projects that increase climate resilience, bolster social and economic equity, reduce environmental impact, and improve peoples’ lives.

We’ve come a long way from our humble beginnings in Alex Honnold’s van, but the Honnold Foundation’s values remain the same— we believe that small, deliberate steps can help us achieve audacious goals, and we’re here to build a brighter and more equitable world for everyone.