We often say that blueEnergy has been one long string of miracles.  Whenever we have needed one to stay alive and stay the course – one has appeared.  It’s undeniable that we have been very fortunate, but there’s something deeper going on.  I don’t believe necessarily that good things happen to good people (and bad things happen to bad people), but I do believe that you have a much better chance of having good things happen if you work hard and are compassionate. In other words, good things beget good things.

When we launched blueEnergy in Nicaragua in June 2004, we had little to show on the balance sheet.  We showed up with a couple thousand dollars and some big ideas and that was it – we had no house, no shop, no tools, no partners. For good reason people predicted we wouldn’t last 3 months.  Nicaragua, and especially the Caribbean Coast, is not an easy place to work. White foreigners come and go rather quickly in this region and while people wished us well, they assumed our presence would be fleeting.

Three and a half years later we are still here. We have worked tirelessly to build a solid local foundation for blueEnergy that sets it apart from most other transient development initiatives. We have invested in people, in communities and in strategic relationships. And we have invested in our physical facilities. It’s been slow going and a lot of work, but we’re starting to see the payback. My brother and blueEnergy’s Nicaragua Director, Guillaume Craig, deserves special recognition for his efforts in this endeavor. He is a natural weaver of human relationships and has a knack for building workspaces. Day in day out he has worked incredibly hard to build the platform from which we can launch our services. Thank you Guillaume.

blueEnergy’s just celebrated it’s 4th birthday with a big party in Bluefields, Nicaragua. It was clear from the list of attendees and the impassioned speeches they gave, that blueEnergy has entered a new era. It’s official - blueEnergy now has street cred. Nicaraguans know we’re here to stay and they believe in the work we’re all doing together. It’s a great feeling and bodes well for more growth and success in 2008!

It is widely accepted that access to electricity is a necessary, although not sufficient, requirement for modern economic and social development.  Electricity opens the door to a host of technologies that promote education, public health, and economic development, such as emissions-free light, refrigeration, and communication devices.  Without electricity, communities are unable to participate in the benefits of modern advances and are left isolated and literally in the dark.

I get challenged often enough on the morality of blueEnergy’s work.  People wonder if blueEnergy’s work of bringing sustainable electricity into indigenous communities isn’t ruining them.  Aren’t we just neo-colonists corrupting indigenous ways of life and promoting capitalism?

In response I point out that all peoples of all cultures consume energy. That’s a fact of life.  People exploit energy resources for the purposes of heating, cooking, lighting and for a myriad of other purposes.  Electricity is merely a higher form of energy than heat and has the versatility to be used to generate heat, turn a motor, communicate over great distances and generate efficient light.  For many applications, electricity simply does the job more efficiently, safer and with more ease than lower forms of energy. For some applications, electricity is the only feasible energy form.  You can’t after all, get on the internet by lighting a candle.

If one accepts the basic humanist premise that all peoples have the same right to health care, education and economic development, and one accepts that electricity is a cornerstone of these activities, then one must also accept that indigenous cultures have the same right to electricity that the rest of us do.

The key in my mind is separating the vessel from the content.  Most people agree that everyone has a right to education, but will disagree on what people should be educated on.  blueEnergy’s role, as I see it, is to provide the tools for education to flourish, while allowing the other stakeholders to establish the content of what should be taught.  The same goes for healthcare and other basic services.

blueEnergy’s work is more than justified, it is necessary.  While electrifying remote communities in a sustainable way may appear less charitable than giving an at-risk child medicine, it is in fact one and the same.  A vaccine needs refrigeration and in most cases electricity is needed for refrigeration.  By building the infrastructure for sustainable electricity generation, blueEnergy is improving public health, education and economic opportunities and is as deserving of public support as the more direct and visible charitable actions in these fields.

I just recently listened to The Tipping Point on tape during a long drive. In it the author discusses the importance of having a sticky message (one that people will remember) and of having the right connectors (people that are very well connected socially) promoting your message, in order to tip your idea or product from the obscure to wildly popular.

Naturally, it got me thinking about what elements we are missing to spark large-scale interest and support for our work.  Our work is compelling, I know this because I get bombarded by emails and phone calls telling me so.  So that’s not the issue.  It must be a combination of the message we’re sending, both consciously and subconsciously and the messengers who are delivering that message.

Here’s what we think we are communicating: “We provide a basic service, electricity, to some of the world’s poorest people.  We are a small, efficient nonprofit organization, that needs your support to help us carry out our work.  We don’t rely entirely on charitable contributions, but they are indispensable to our survival.”

Here’s what I think people are hearing and thinking: “blueEnergy provides energy to people.  They have a nice website, offices in several countries, and appear to be doing quite well.  Energy isn’t really necessary for survival and energy companies make so much money... I like what blueEnergy does but I think I’ll donate to people who are truly in need.”

Are we being haunted by people’s negative feelings, both conscious and subconscious, towards energy companies?  Environmental damage, price gouging, rising fuel prices, all while pulling in record breaking profits... these are the things associated with energy companies.  Enron and Exxon come to mind as soon as someone mentions the word “energy”.  People love energy – they do not love energy companies.  I suspect that people have a harder time wrapping their brains and hearts around blueEnergy than they do with more classic charities, like those feeding the homeless or delivering medication to sick orphans.  Intentionally or not, people have a hard time seeing energy service delivery as compelling charitable work worthy of their support.  While they admire the work of blueEnergy, this admiration isn’t compelling them to open their wallets.

So how do we change this paradigm into one where people’s fascination with our project translates into donations and other offers of support?  That’s what I aim to sort out over the next couple weeks and your suggestions are most welcome.  My current thought is that we need to change our message to one that emphasizes the link between energy and all other basic services, like education and health, so that our work can be more tightly linked emotionally with traditional charitable work that people are compelled to support.

I'm honored to be joining the Social Edge team. This is my first time blogging and I look forward to learning this new communication tool. If you've got ideas on what you’d like me to write about, send me an email at mathias.craig@blueenergygroup (with a .org at the end). My first post is a little long, but please bear with me.

blueEnergy is a nonprofit organization that provides a low-cost, sustainable solution to the energy needs of marginalized communities through the construction, installation, and maintenance of hybrid wind and solar electric systems. blueEnergy manufactures wind turbines and other key components locally to keep energy costs low, improve equipment serviceability, and create employment where it is desperately needed. blueEnergy currently has 8 energy systems installed in 6 communities on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, service approximately 1,500 direct and indirect beneficiaries. For more background, please visit our website.

For three years we toiled in darkness. Not literal darkness, but rather figurative in that we were out of the public eye. Then in July of this year the media spotlight found blueEnergy.

My friend Matt Flannery, of Kiva.org fame, made an introduction that would bring blueEnergy into the light. He and his wife and Kiva.org co-founder, Jessica, had been profiled by CNN as part of their new CNN Heroes program. CNN was looking for more heroes and Matt introduced them to me in May. By June CNN had a film crew down in Nicaragua documenting blueEnergy’s newest installation in the community of Monkey Point. The 2-minute TV segment they were preparing was going to air on every CNN channel, between major shows for a period of a week.

I spent a great deal of time and energy in June and July preparing our website and organization for the expected onslaught of support the TV segment would attract.

But the wave never came. To be sure, there was a wave of interest in blueEnergy, but more on the side of people looking for our help or offering up a mere pat on the back for a job well done. There was no wave of support. In fact, during the three months after the CNN segment was first introduced by Anderson Cooper on his AC360 show, we raised no more than $1,500 that could be attributed to the CNN exposure. Other CNN Heroes profiled reporting raising more than $50,000 from the exposure. To be sure, the CNN exposure helped us in other ways, like recruiting advisors and volunteers and in getting more media exposure. Since its maiden voyage on CNN in July, blueEnergy has been featured in nearly a dozen major publications in Nicaragua, France and the US, on Larry King Live and most recently in a New York Times insert and on air for CNN’s Heroes Tribute Show in New York City on December 6th (view). Again, more valuable media coverage, but again no wave of support.

So what’s going on?  Why is blueEnergy not converting interest into support like other, more traditional charities seem to be?  Some theories to follow next week...