The sanctuary of Calvary Baptist Church in the heart of Compton, California, hummed with urgent voices.
Congregants were sharing stories of loss and survival. Whose homes were destroyed in January’s Los Angeles fires. Who sat in the dark without power. Who fled, who stayed, who choked on smoke as flames skipped across the horizon.
One truth stood firm among those gathered for a community workshop on climate preparedness: the church could no longer be only a place of worship. It had to be augmented to become something more — a lifeline in times of crisis, a place to turn on the lights when disaster strikes.
RE-volv’s Marques Mason addresses congregants at Calvary Baptist Church about the value of solar; the church is planning to add solar panels and battery storage. (Photo Credit Masha Hamilton)
Transforming Calvary Baptist into a resilience hub will reduce municipal costs and ease the burden on emergency services while providing the community with the power — both figuratively and literally — to endure.
With support from RE-volv, that transformation is underway.
RE-volv is a grantee of The Rockefeller Foundation through the Invest in Our Future network, which is focused on mobilizing funds for investment in communities.
From design to financing and installation, the nonprofit is helping bring solar energy to nonprofits, ensuring that in the face of future disasters, Calvary Baptist will be a source of stability and hope. Calvary Baptist, supported by RE-volv, is slated to get solar and battery power storage later this year.
By the Numbers
- $0MillionMillion
saved by community nonprofits through RE-volv’s work
- 0ProjectsProjects
across 18 states have been funded via RE-volv
- $0BillionBillion
was the cost of damages from extreme weather in the U.S. in 2024
Churches serve as vital hubs where congregants can refrigerate medicine, charge phones, find shelter with cooling or heating, access clean water, and share essential information.
Plus, the economic benefits are clear: every dollar invested in resilience and preparedness for extreme weather yields $14 in savings by reducing damages, cleanup costs, and economic disruptions, according to a 2024 study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Allstate, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
The study models 25 disaster scenarios with damage and cleanup costs ranging from $1 billion to $130 billion across communities nationwide. The findings show that when communities, businesses, and families invest in disaster resilience programs and resources, they can protect millions of jobs and household incomes, reduce displacement, and sustain production — helping local economies recover more quickly.
Solar panels on The Brook. The panels will save the church, which serves Watts, Compton, and Willowbrook, $184,000 over the life of the project. (Photo Courtesy of RE-volv)
“When a house of worship goes solar, it impacts the whole community,” said Marques Mason, RE-volv’s solar account manager, responsible for over 1,000 solar installations across 24 states, creating over $40 million in solar sales revenue. “It’s a seed planted in people’s minds and shows them the church is interested in caring for them, and there is a place they can go during a crisis.”
And churches in under-resourced areas like Calvary, where the need is great, can afford to go solar thanks to Direct Pay, which allows nonprofits and other tax-exempt entities for the first time ever to receive federal tax credits to install solar and other clean energy projects. They receive a check from the government which can cover 30 percent or more of the cost of their solar systems.
“To deploy community-scale clean energy across the U.S., we need to bring together finance institutions, developers, and community partners who can tackle funding gaps and build projects together,” said Rachel Isacoff, Director, U.S. Program and Policy, The Rockefeller Foundation. “RE-volv works to build trust with faith and community leaders to support their renewable energy goals and bring residents into the civic process.”
RE-volv has deployed solar in nearly 80 projects across 18 states, benefiting 200,000 people, saving $35 million, and supporting clean energy jobs.
A Cost-Effective Investment in Under-Resourced Communities
Back at Calvary Baptist, Ingrid Morales, RE-volv’s Community Programs Manager, was among those attending the church’s climate preparedness workshop. She grew up about 35 miles from Calvary Baptist in Sun Valley and Pacoima in Los Angeles’ northeast Fernando Valley — communities that have faced significant environmental challenges in the last five decades. Air quality has been hurt by the presence of industrial facilities, landfills, power plants, freeways, and trucking parking lots.
Her work with RE-volv excites her because she is supporting communities like the one she grew up in — communities that are often underserved.
Jacquelyn Badejo is an environmental leader in her Watts/Compton community who has helped spearhead the expansion of solar, working with RE-volv and others to visit churches to talk to leaders and congregants about the advantages.
She began thinking about pollution when she was just six years old, about to step into a bath in her grandmother’s home in the Watts neighborhood. She noticed the water was brown and began asking questions. “I knew even then that our environment, air and water both, needed cleaning up,” she said.
As chief executive officer of the Watts Clean Air and Energy Committee and a member of Los Angeles’ Climate Emergency Mobilization Commission, she helped start the solar church movement in South Los Angeles with the Watts-Willowbrook Church of Christ, known locally as “The Brook.”
Solar panels were installed in the summer of 2024. The Brook is saving $184,000 over the life of the solar project — significant funds which can be used to support the church’s mission.
“Since The Brook uniquely serves three neighboring communities — Watts, Compton, and Willowbrook — it is the perfect home base to spread awareness, educate, and accelerate local clean energy adoption,” Badejo said.
Badejo and Karelas, along with their partner on the Brook solar project, Bekah Estrada of California Interfaith Power and Light, were invited to speak about the project at the White House for a climate justice summit for faith leaders in August 2024. Badejo also recently joined the RE-volv Board of Directors.
“Churches are the bedrock of their communities,” Badejo said. “We want to be the light at times when it can become dark. From the work we were able to do at the Brook, we have about ten more churches lined up, ready to get solar and become resiliency hubs for their communities.”
