Actor matching solar donation dollars

Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation tweeted about CCU's Solar Ambassador Campaign on Thursday, March 29. He is matching CCU's solar campaign dollar for dollar, according to Pam Martin, professor in the Department of Politics and faculty adviser for the Solar Ambassadors.

https://twitter.com/dicapriofdn/status/979386497609621504

Martin writes:

As you may know, solar energy is on the rise in South Carolina — installations are up and many people are lowering their energy bills. However, nonprofits cannot take advantage of the 55 percent tax credit for solar panels (since they are not tax paying entities).

In a creative merger, Coastal Carolina University Solar Ambassadors and Re-volv, a nonprofit, solar seed fund from San Francisco, have partnered to finance solar for those who serve our community. This year, the Solar Ambassadors are working with Post 10804 Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) in North Myrtle Beach.

Rather than waiting for someone else to lower energy bills so the VFW can serve our veteran community, we're taking it on ourselves - with their help. In other words, we are emPOWERING our community. If successful in this effort, we will choose one nonprofit each year on which to put solar panels - to guarantee to lower their energy bills and to help make our community a better place to live, work, and play.

At Coastal Carolina University, this means educating students on renewable energy, solar installation, energy policy, and the nonprofit community. Most of our students go on to get jobs in the energy sector from this experience.

https://re-volv.org/project/volts4vets/