Crowdfunding site Gridmates.com announced a new donation-based energy crowdfunding site April 13 that will allow donors to browse through a directory of distressed electricity customer profiles and then donate energy assistance.
The site seeks to help low-income customers such as single moms with young children, elderly couples, disabled veterans, storm/hurricane survivors and unemployed people that for some reason are living in energy poverty and need temporary help paying their electricity bills. Donors look through a list, and when they find a profile they want to support they simply type in a dollar amount into the energy calculator, which shows contributors how many days of energy they will be sharing. Energy donations can be billed to any valid credit card or to a PayPal account.
The first energy crowdfunding profile to be listed is Mobile Loaves and Fishes’ Community First Village located in Austin, Texas. This coming June, the Community First Village will be moving 240 homeless and disabled people off the streets of Austin into new shelters where they will receive warm meals and hot showers.
Once the energy crowdfunding site has been verified and is ready to scale, Gridmates plans to rollout the service state-by-state in the U.S. and then on a country-by-country basis in international markets. To participate, electric utility companies, corporate sponsors and non-profit organizations can all sign up at www.gridmates.com/corporations. Or send an email to