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Interview with Robert Freling
Robert is the Executive Director of the Solar Electric Light Fund in Washington, DC. Interviewed by Michael Feagans on 02.05.03.
4npo: Tell me about S.E.L.F.
Robert: SELF is an acronym for the Solar Electric Light Fund it's a non-profit organization that was founded in 1990 by Neville Williams. The  primary purpose was to bring solar electricity to some of the two billion people in the world that are still living beyond the reach of an electric power grid.
4npo: How long have you been at SELF?
Robert: I joined the organization in 1994/95. I became the executive director at the end of 1997.
4npo: How many staff members do you have?
Robert: We currently have 3 full-time staff members.
4npo: Initially, how did SELF get started?
Robert: Well what do you mean by that?
4npo: What was the impetus? Did a foundation come along and offer a large sum of money to address this problem?
Robert: No not exactly. Neville had been traveling around the world extensively. He saw this technology being used. He actually visited somebody in Honduras that was using this technology to bring solar lights to people's homes and using microcredit schemes to make it affordable. He got inspired and thought it should be done around the world. He put together a couple of proposals and submitted them to foundations and cobbled together enough money to start doing projects.
4npo: Why is this an efficient way to bring electricity to a village?
Robert: Because most of these places are located in remote areas. The population density is low, the villages are dispersed and it's very expensive to string high-voltage lines to these remote areas. It can cost $20,000 or more a kilometer and therefore it's just not practical. So many of these villages are left in the dark. They typically rely on such things such as candles and kerosene as sources of lighting during the evening hours.
4npo: Can you tell me some of the effects that the electricity you bring to the village has on the people?
Robert: In terms of household electrification what it does immediately is relieve them of the need to breathe in kerosene fumes. Typically what they are using for lighting purposes are kerosene lamps. It is said that the average family smokes the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes a day. Not to mention the problems with eyesight and other upper respiratory illnesses that are caused by smoke inhalation. It also very much restricts their ability to do anything at night. And the children really have no opportunity to read and study after the sun goes down. So it's very restrictive.
When you bring electricity to their home the first thing you do is you give them clean electric light that the children can read and study by at night. It extends the productive workday into the evening hours so they can start to engage in various activities at home that they would not have been able to do otherwise. And it gives them hope for the future. That's at the household level.
The mission has evolved. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself Mike. In the first decade under Neville's leadership our primary focus was on bringing this technology to people's homes and using micro-credits as a way of making it affordable to the families. When I took over, my focus was broader and in the last several years I have been expanding the mission of what we do to go beyond the household level to address a broader spectrum of needs at the village level. Everything from water pumping and purification, electrification of health clinics, including provision of vaccine refrigerators, schools, micro-enterprises that help generate income for the families, and communications. You can now come with solar energy and wireless technology and bring voice and data connectivity to these remote villages around the world and we've started to do that.
4npo: Are there any negative effects when introducing electricity to the villages?
Robert: Are there any negative effects? Some people question the wisdom of introducing the modern world as it were, television and communications to these remote villages for fear that their traditional values and cultures will be disrupted. There is of course that possibility. The fact is that most of these villagers are already leaving their villages, their rural areas, and moving to overcrowded towns and cities in search of opportunity. So the fact is their cultures are being eroded now because life is so difficult in the villages. The hope is that by bringing power and communications to the villages we can help stem the flow of urban migration and help to preserve their native cultures.
4npo: Do you find that it's difficult to convince U.S. donors that this is an important project?
Robert: I do sometimes for several reasons. One, conceptually we grew up in a country where electricity is taken for granted. Ever since I was a kid I've been able to flip a switch and the light comes on. And I think that's true for 99.9 percent of the people that live in this country. It's difficult, I think, for many americans to conceptualize what it means to be born and grow-up and perhaps die in a village where this is no electricity. Where there's not even as much as a light bulb over your head. That's kind of an alien concept. And even if they can kind of grasp it, on an intellectual level, it doesn't always hit them emotionally because they've never been there and seen it. Whereas I have. I've been to many of these villages. I know what life is like on the other side of the digital divide and the other side of the energy divide. And, I've also seen what this technology can do to very quickly transform and improve the lives of these people. I've got a passion for this cause but it's sometimes difficult for me to convey that adequately to people who are not exposed to that kind of life in developing countries.
That's one problem. And geographically we're operating in very remote parts of the world. One project we're trying to get off the ground is in Bhutan. Well if I'm on the phone with a foundation, they ask where Bhutan is you know you're not going to get very far. And that's happened. Bhutan is a remote off the beaten path type of country. A lot of people aren't familiar with it so it's therefore difficult to raise money for some of these places.
4npo: Primarily who are your donors?
Robert: We have been funded primarily by foundations in this country. In the past some of the bigger foundations that have supported us include the Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Blue Moon Fund, (formerly W. Alton Jones), Turner Foundation, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, United Nations Trust Fund on New and Renewable Sources of Energy. There have been quite a few foundations that have supported us. Very little in the way of corporate support and some individual support but not so much. We're trying to diversify now. One of my hopes is to actually go beyond the foundation world and reach out to more corporations and individuals to diversify our source of funding.
4npo: How are you planning on finding the individuals who might be interested in supporting you?
Robert: Networking. Board is going to be important. I've worked hard the last couple of years to build our board and I still want to do more. Of that I'd like to bring on some corporate types, corporate CEO types here in the area that are interested in our mission and are willing to get involved. My hope is to get the board involved in that type of solicitation process. And networking.
4npo: When you say networking what do you mean?
Robert: Getting out there and speaking at conferences. Trying to meet with individuals and engage them on a personal level.
4npo: Do you think part of that is marketing as well?
Robert: Absolutely. We actually have a long series of successful projects that we have accomplished that have a wealth of marketing potential that we really haven't taken advantage of. We have great material but we could probably do a lot better in terms of getting this material out and using it for public relations purposes. I wish we had a Public Relations/Marketing firm to work with us on a pro bono basis. But we don't, so right now we can't afford it.
4npo: So you definitely see marketing as a way of getting the message out to potential donors?
Robert: Absolutely.
4npo: Did you find that when you changed your mission from concentrating mainly on individual homes to concentrating more on the villages that there was more interest from the foundations?
Robert: It actually was not the intent but it turned out to be very important. I felt that this technology could and should be used in ways beyond household lighting to improve the quality of life at the village level. So it was something I wanted to do anyway. But as it turns out I think there are a lot of foundations that might not care much about energy per say but care a lot about health or education. By expanding the scope of our mission it opens up the door to a broader range of funding opportunities.
4npo: I would think that by working at the village level you are impacting more people than at the individual home level and that would be more attractive to foundations.
Robert: That's right because you're working at a community basis.
4npo: Do you have a special event that you run each year?
Robert: We don't have a so called special event. We've had a couple of house parties. We want to do more house parties. We would love to do more in the way of special events.
4npo: Do you find it's more difficult to do that kind of thing because you are an international organization and there's not a group of people in the U.S. who are associated with the organization?
Robert: I don't think that is the determining factor. I just think it's size. We need to gather more strength and have more clout. Get some celebrities, maybe, on board to draw people to these events. And have more resources to have something like an annual award dinner because it takes money to put that on.
4npo: Do you have an annual giving program?
Robert: We don't have an annual giving campaign. It's something we would like to develop. I'd like to get an endowment going and a planned giving program. All of those things should be done but we've been struggling just to raise money for our projects.
4npo: Robert, thanks for taking the time to talk with me.
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