Exclusive Solar School Partner

In addition to the benefits listed in the introductory page, as an Exclusive Solar School Partner:

You are automatically deemed a Diamond Partner.

You’ll be provided with a detailed description of the project, region, school and community.

You’ll receive regular progress reports with images and videos (when available) – starting from the agreement with the school, equipment shipping to construction. This may include Skype/Zoom hook ups with the school and from the site during installation. Please note, communications can be challenging in these remote regions – but we will do our best!

A delegation from your business will be welcomed as guests of honour at an opening ceremony.

You will receive a customised video, three canvas prints and photo books depicting the project and your support (in addition to many other videos and images of the project).

Please note, equipment and service sponsors are also involved in the project and are acknowledged.

Why an upfront payment or maximum 6 months payment period?

Ideally, payment for an exclusive partnership is upfront and we immediately link you with a school and start the exclusive relationship. However, the value may be accumulated via payments over a period no more than 6 months.

It may seem logical to indefinitely accumulate the value to be an Exclusive partner and one day in the future your partnership converts to “Exclusive”. Unfortunately, that is not possible because longer than six months and we will have spent your contributions on projects – so if multiple organisations meet the Exclusive target over a longer period we simply would not have enough schools projects available to retrospectively label your business as exclusive to a school. The upfront or 6 months limit means that we direct funds quickly and label exclusively for your business.

Please note, the actual school is not named/offered until the value is achieved.  To do otherwise would put Its Time Foundation in the precarious position of having many of our surveyed schools potentially ‘stranded’ awaiting funding that is not guaranteed.  We much appreciate your understanding in this regard.

Why is it a fixed value and how does that work?

Of course, the actual cost of each project varies and is influenced by many factors, including those listed below.  So, your nominated school project will likely cost greater or less than the partnership payment. We commit to squeeze as much value as possible from your support and that may mean some of your contribution tops up another project or it may be the case other funds are used to top up your project. Either way all of your money will be spent on Pacific Island school solar projects to transform kids’ lives.

To do otherwise and have individual negotiations with each partner is difficult considering the cost variables, including:

Schools range from less than 100 to greater than 500 students,

Some schools require full electrical wiring where as others only require make-safe works.

Many schools have teachers’ homes in the school precinct that are wired to access the new system. Teachers then have a better quality of life and they pay a small fee to the school to buy more learning resources for the kids (it’s a nice win/win).

Logistics vary significantly to get materials and team to the site. Our forward projects include one that is only a couple of hours from the mainland with several reliable transport options; whereas another is a seventeen-hour ferry journey followed by some hours in small boats (the ferry is only weekly and sometimes skips a week with little notice).

We have great support from our major equipment supporters, but the actual value of the support varies from year to year and those items may not be precisely priced at the time of engaging the exclusive partner.

A small portion of donations are used for maintenance of previous projects. For example, some of our projects are at or near 10 years old – and that means replacement of the installed lead-acid batteries is needed (please note, our lithium units are expected to have a longer life). These contingencies are consistent with our philosophy of not installing and forgetting it (which unfortunately is the case for many good intentioned remote infrastructure projects).

How much goes to administration?

Further to gaining best possible value for your contribution via equipment service supporters, please know that our administration costs to cover the following items does not exceed 15% – this is significantly less than most registered charities. Includes provision of management services; office space, fixtures, electronic equipment and consumables; telecommunications and internet costs; bookkeeping and accounting, business compliance and reporting; general fundraising and partner management.