Overview of The BrightLight Foundation and Its Goals:
The BrightLight Foundation is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to clean and affordable electricity in communities around the world.  Through various clean-energy initiatives, The BrightLight Foundation will help improve education and increase economic development in communities while reducing negative health and environmental concerns related to the lack of electricity or the use of expensive, polluting sources of electricity.

Currently, the organization is in a conceptual phase. It is envisioned to serve as a facilitator - connecting donors, manufacturers, and NGOs with existing distribution networks - to achieve its goal of distributing solar lamps and cell phone chargers in communities with no or limited access to clean, affordable electricity. Additional goals around improving access to clean, affordable electricity will likely be developed as the organization is successful with this first objective of distributing solar lamps and cell phone chargers.

Two pilots (in Rwanda and Argentina) are underway. Information from the pilots and additional research/evaluation is needed to develop and gain consensus on a more well-defined vision and business plan for the organization.

The organization is supported by Duke Energy and other partners. This project is a priority for Jim Rogers, Duke Energy's CEO, as he chairs the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership (GSEP) in 2013. He would like The BrightLight Foundation to have a solid business plan in place by his chairmanship so that he can draw upon the resources of GSEP to scale up and fund the organization and its initiatives.

Project Overview:
The primary objective of the master's project is to assist the BrightLight Foundation team in refining the goals of the foundation and developing a comprehensive business plan for the organization. The scope can be modified to meet student's interests within the overarching objectives set forth by The BrightLight Foundation. However, the following phases are anticipated:

Phase 1: Research

• Become knowledgeable about The BrightLight Foundation and partner organizations
• Research the solar lamp and cell phone charger industry - market overview, manufacturers, types of distribution organizations (both for- and non-profit), their business models, best practices, etc.
• Deliverable: 1. Overview of types of organizations in this space and best practices/business models

Phase 2: Evaluate Potential Partners (in tandem with Phase 3)

• Identify potential partners, such as manufacturers, existing solar light distribution NGOs, other NGOs with distribution systems (e.g. micro-finance, solar laptops, etc.), other types of entities that might add value, and donors (with a focus on the first four)
• Develop evaluation criteria
• Analyze and recommend potential partners
• Deliverables: 1. Initial list of potential partners; 2. Evaluation criteria; 3. List of recommended partnerships with information on the benefit of each potential partner

Phase 3: Develop and Refine Business Plan (in tandem with Phase 2)

• Draw upon research and information from the existing (and any potential new) pilots to develop a sustainable business model for the organization
• Deliverables: 1. Draft business plan; 2. Final business plan; 3. Recommendations on next steps/implementation plan; 4. (Potential, depending on project needs) Develop/facilitate additional pilots and/or marketing plan.

Interaction with BrightLight Team:
The master's project team will work closely with the BrightLight team throughout the project. John Stowell (VP, Environmental Health and Safety Policy) and Alanya Schofield (Commercial Associate) at Duke Energy and Ben Bunker (SNRE student and former Duke Energy intern) will be the primary contacts for day to day and administrative aspects of the project. However, the master's project team will interact on a periodic basis with other key BrightLight contacts, including Joe Hale and Kerry Clark.

Timing:
We would like to start this project as soon as possible, with the project kickoff in early January 2012. The goal is to have the bulk of the project completed by Dec. 2012.