Unite To Light

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Unite to Light believes that access to clean and affordable light and energy are critical to improving health, education and prosperity.

As a not-for-profit 501(c)3 we manufacture and distribute efficient, durable, low cost solar lamps and solar power. We are a group of volunteers, donors, and one full time employee based in the Santa Barbara, California, area. We have designed and produce and distribute a high-quality, low-cost, solar powered light. Through distribution partners throughout the world, we put lights into the hands of individuals and families in developing countries. Program overhead is low. Office equipment and support facilities and related professional services (CPA, legal, web hosting, and the like) are donated. Distribution is through partners in the local areas which are well established and highly respected. Our typical distribution partner is another 501(c)(3) entity, an international church organization, a school or orphanage, or a local entrepreneur or philanthropist using our lights as part of an overall program to improve the quality of life in whole villages or regions. Increasingly, lights are being sold at a reasonable markup by individual women, women-owned businesses, or women-run organizations. In developing nations, when women can generate income and assets of their own, their stature increases, they become less vulnerable, and the whole family benefits. By making special efforts to distribute lights through methods which benefit women and children, not only are the benefits of the light itself brought to people, the process of distribution creates further benefits.

10/08/2026

Unite to Light has a simple mission: to bring light and power to people living without electricity. A few weeks ago we gathered with a group of people who care deeply about the connections between energy, health, opportunity and hope.

One of the most powerful reminders of why this work matters came from Shudufhadzo Musida, UNFPA's Global Champion for Women and Girls: light is a basic necessity. When a woman has reliable light, she is safer, healthier and better able to care for herself and her family. That light reaches far beyond one person: children who can study after dark, mothers giving birth, health workers providing care, and communities getting through disasters.

Right now, we have a goal of raising $150,000 to bring solar lights and chargers to people who need them most, including UNFPA midwives working in Sudan. Every $10 provides a solar light to someone living without electricity.

Join us on October 20 for a virtual conversation with UNFPA to learn more about their work in Sudan.

📅 October 20, 2026 | 10:00 AM Eastern / 7:00 AM Pacific
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/qaA04zXfQM6R7pVkBXtXTw

To give, visit https://unitetolight.org/donate/ and select Global Health.

10/07/2026

Thank you to everyone who gathered with us in New York.

Thank you to Eva Haller, for bringing together people who care deeply about the connections between energy, health, opportunity and hope.

Thank you to UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, and to Shudufhadzo Musida, UNFPA's Global Champion for Women and Girls, who reminded the room that light is a basic necessity.

And thank you to Haven Lantern, whose solar lanterns reach people living without electricity through our Buy One, Give One program.

You can help send solar lights and lanterns to Sudan. Give at https://unitetolight.org/donate/ and select Global Health. Every $10 provides a solar light to someone living without electricity.

10/06/2026

In early March 2026, violence in Abiemnhom County, South Sudan, destroyed homes and separated families. Many fled to displacement camps in Ajak Kuac Payam, where nights come without electricity.

With Transformation of the World in Christ (TWIC), MAMA Project and Direct Relief, we brought Luke Lights to displaced families, including 17 mothers at Mother Teresa Hospital in Twic County.

A light after dark means a safe walk to the latrine, fewer candles and open flames inside a shelter, and a floor you can check for snakes and scorpions. Thank you to the N.E. Philadelphia Cheltenham and Rockledge Rotary Club and the students of She's the First in Monroe Township, NJ, for helping fund this project.

Read the full story on our blog: https://unitetolight.org/solar-lights-displaced-families-south-sudan/

10/05/2026

After the storm knocked out power to about 90% of Kaua'i, 100 of our Luke Lights and 25 Chandler solar chargers are on their way to mothers, babies, and families on the island's north shore, west side, and Ni'ihau.

Two partners are making it happen: Direct Relief, our Santa Barbara neighbors dedicated to improving the health and lives of people affected by emergencies, are handling the journey — and Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii, the statewide nonprofit supporting families from pregnancy through parenthood, will get the lights into homes that need them.

Solar light doesn't need the grid — when the power goes out, the sun still rises.

Change a life. Light the world. 🌅

10/02/2026

Henry Red Cloud joined our Illuminating Impact Symposium from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where he's been training Indigenous solar technicians since 2003. Over 1,200 graduates so far, working with 70 of the country's 575 federally recognized tribes.

Students spend 80 hours learning solar and energy efficiency, then leave rooftop ready — with jobs waiting. The homes they retrofit cut energy use by 65 to 75%. ☀️

Watch Henry's full talk on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4zOyddjtm8

09/25/2026

Our final Illuminating Impact Symposium panel brought together David Hochschild (California Energy Commission), Bernadette Del Chiaro (Environmental Working Group), Christina Snider-Ashtari (Office of Governor Newsom), and Alelia Parenteau (City of Santa Barbara), with Sigrid Wright of the Community Environmental Council (CEC) moderating.

Their throughline: policy works when it puts the technology directly in people's hands. Rooftop solar. Tribal energy sovereignty. Microgrids at the neighborhood level.

Watch the full panel on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba7J6cNo6Wc&t=6s

09/18/2026

Two days after his first child was born, Josh Cox of Community Power South was stuck in New Orleans with a category 5 hurricane coming. 🌀 The storm spared the city but took the grid down for two and a half weeks. So a group of pastors asked: what if every neighborhood had somewhere to walk to?

Today, 20 community lighthouses across Louisiana — churches and schools on solar and battery — open their doors when the power goes out. During Hurricane Francine, nine of them served 2,300 neighbors. ☀️

Watch Josh's full talk on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NowssYMYA_0

09/11/2026

At our Illuminating Impact Symposium, Marco Fabian Sánchez of World Central Kitchen described something we don't talk about enough in disaster response: darkness sets the closing time. No grid power means no evening service, no safe prep line, no way for a response team to call for help.

After Hurricane Helene, WCK teams worked across four states where roads were washed out and power stayed off for weeks. We sent solar lights and chargers so those kitchens could keep cooking past sunset. ☀️

Watch Marco's full talk on our YouTube channel — https://bit.ly/4r3PTeB

09/08/2026

Last year's International Day of Light celebration in Santa Barbara raised the funds. This spring, 2,000 Luke Lights and 200 Chandler Chargers reached the mountains of Honduras — flown by Airlink, stored by coffee cooperative COMSA, and carried into 20 villages by local mayors and community health Voluntarios who know exactly where light is needed most.

🤝 Guided by Jennifer Smith at our longtime partner Community Health Partnership-Honduras, our CEO Megan Birney Rudert and Board Member Dawn Mitcham saw it firsthand: when you help the helpers, the help never stops.

💡 Read the full story from the field: https://unitetolight.org/solar-lights-for-honduras/

09/05/2026

Happy International Day of Charity.

This summer, longtime supporter Bonnie packed 50 Luke Lights and 2 solar chargers into her luggage and carried them to the Ecuadorian Andes. They went to a mountain church at 11,000 feet, to a clinic where the power cuts out without warning, and to a teacher whose students can now study after dark.

Lights she carried to West Africa last year are still moving. A friend in Burkina Faso rode a public bus 18 hours with her baby daughter to collect them, and has spent the year getting them village to village.

Charity is rarely one grand gesture. More often it looks like this: a suitcase, a long bus ride, and someone deciding to carry the weight.

Thank you, Bonnie.

Traveling somewhere without reliable electricity? You can take lights with you too: unitetolight.org/take-lights-with-you

Change a life. Light the world.

Address

1117 State Street
Santa Barbara, CA
93101

Telephone

(805) 617-0590

Website

http://www.unitetolight.org/

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