Because I work in the field of nonprofit management, I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can help more people, how my organization can help more people, and how other nonprofits can help more people. It’s kind of how us nonprofit folks work. But what is becoming increasingly clear is that we can’t do big things alone. Not one person, not one nonprofit, not even all of the nonprofits.

Thinking outside the box.

My partner Amanda recently started working on a campaign to launch a round of funding for Elio Motors. When she told me they were building a three-wheeled vehicle, I perked up. I used to own a Piaggio mp3 and I loved that silly-looking thing. But then she told me it also got 84 mpg, was American-made, and only cost $6,800.

My first thought was, “Wait, what? This could be a game changer.”

The mission.

The story basically goes that inventor and car-enthusiast Paul Elio looked around and said, “We can do better than this.” (I’m paraphrasing.)  He set out on a mission “to provide a fun-to-drive, super-economical personal transportation alternative”.

The result is a neat little three-wheeled “car” (I can’t say car, because legally it’s a motorcycle, even those it’s totally a car. They’re working to get it classified as an autocycle). It holds two people (tandem), is made up almost entirely of already-existing technology (high-end tech at that!), and is on track to make good on all of Paul’s promises: American made, 84 mpg, and a $6,800 price tag.

The vision.

Elio Motors sells it as a commuter vehicle. If you have an SUV and some cash to throw around, get an Elio to drive back and forth to work. If you’re a student, get an Elio as a budget-friendly way to get around campus. For car folks, it’s a fun toy that gets attention from other people on the road.

But when I heard about the Elio, my vision was different.

First, there’s the environment. Elio Motors website says, “When we hit our sales targets, America could save almost 5 billion gallons of fuel per year, and CO2 emissions by about 90 billion pounds.”

Elio is more environmentally friendly than a cow fart90 billion pounds of CO2 emissions is a lot. Take a look at this mind-numbingly boring traffic count document put out by the California government. There are millions of cars on the road each and every day just in the state of California. A good portion of those are only holding one or two people. Imagine the impact on the environment if they all drove an Elio. If I were any good at math, I’m sure I’d be sharing very impressive figures with you. (What I can tell you is that an Elio is more environmentally friendly than a cow fart.)

Next, there’s the poverty issue. When you are poor or working class, all sorts of things get in the way of upward mobility. The system is set up for you to fail. One of those things, especially in Los Angeles, is transportation. I do know a few people who live here and use public transportation exclusively, but it’s not easy for them. (I actually had a friend move to New York and when I asked her why she said, “Because I’m tired of taking the bus.” True story.) But these people aren’t even poor. They are poor in the way that most middle-class white kids who moved here to become a star are poor. They aren’t homeless and they have 3 square meals a day. They are budget-conscious in a ‘circle around a restaurant to look for parking instead of paying $10 for the valet’ kind of way .

But when you are poor enough to actually worry about having a roof over your head and feeding yourself and your family, or making it to your next paycheck, transportation is a big deal. You might make more money working in Santa Monica, but good luck affording an apartment there. (There’s actually this really cool game called Spent that makes these issues real that you should totally check out). Riding the bus will always be cheaper than owning a vehicle (whether it’s $6,800 or not), but time is money as well. When you use public transportation, you are restricted by their schedules and routes. I once wanted to take the bus to a bar 4 miles up the street (literally up the street, no turns or anything), and the routes available to me went all over the westside and would have taken an hour and a half. I opted to take a cab (because I am only “try not to use a valet” poor). Imagine if I couldn’t afford a car or a cab and I worked at that bar up the street. My options are to go on a pretty serious bike ride (let’s hope I never have any health issues!) or to make a 3-hour, 8 mile commute every day. I’d probably have issues picking up extra shifts at a moment’s notice and couldn’t work at all if the bus wasn’t running. And if my bus is late a few times, I could get fired.

And then there’s emergencies and longer trips. There are always ways to get where you need to go, but they are never easy and sometimes not safe (have you ever taken a Greyhound? Yikes.).

$6,800 is still a lot of money for a lot of people, but it’s way more affordable than the cheapest car currently on the market—a Nissan Versa coming in at $12,800. On top of that, the Versa gets 36 mpg highway, compared to Elio’s 84 (which of course means savings on gas as well).

The problem with these conflicting visions.

When I was done thinking about how great the current Elio could be for society right now, I thought about the future. Currently, Elio is a regular gas-powered autocycle. Paul Elio didn’t do much but make a car wind-shaped and remove a bunch of the stuff you don’t really need. Smart, but not rocket science. Let’s say America gets on board with the Elio. Future Elios could be electric. Other car companies might work harder to make more efficient and affordable cars. This could be the kick in the pants the auto industry needs.

But it all hinges on people envisioning that future and standing up and saying, “That. I want that. And I’m willing to be patient while you do what it takes to make it a reality.”

As I said before, I spend a lot of time thinking about how things get better. And I know progress takes time. I know that to get to an iPhone 6, enough people had to be on board with the 1980’s brick mobile phone that you had to carry around in a briefcase. phones

Wall-EBut the general public doesn’t work that way anymore. Technology is advancing at such a rapid pace that people are able to get almost anything they want at almost any time. We have been primed to demand convenience and demand it now. And the Elio is not convenient because it’s still in its beginning stages. Currently they have one prototype (although production of P5 and the promise of P6-30 have just been announced). And this game changing company is hoping that enough people see the implications, become early adopters, and are ok with waiting a while for the Elio to become a reality.

The solution.

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that nonprofits can’t change the world on their own. We look inward to solve problems that are best solved by looking outward. Paul Elio changed the “car” by taking some good parts from his fellow automakers and combining that with ideas that currently aren’t used in the industry. Nonprofits need to do the same.

Environmental agencies, organizations that deal with issues of poverty, transportation, and economics, and anyone interested in solving social issues should look at the Elio not as a for-profit entity looking to make a car, but as a partner in making a difference. Those groups should be asking Elio Motors, “What can we do to help?” regardless of Elio’s tax status. Because a win for Elio is a win for them.

There’s been quite a bit of interest in Elio. They have received a lot of funding and reservations for the Elio are adding up (enough to generate $300 million in revenue once the car is produced.) But it takes a lot of capital to start a car company. What Elio needs is me and you.

An interesting new piece of the puzzle.

Most people are familiar with crowdfunding. You post your big idea on a platform like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo and a bunch of people give you small amounts of money in exchange for something small – a t-shirt, a cd, etc. It’s a way for the Average Joe to make big things happen.

What you may not be as familiar with is equity crowdfunding. Where a regular crowdfunding campaign may give the donor perks like t-shirts or lunch with a celebrity, equity crowdfunding gives the donor investor a piece of the company*.

Equity crowdfunding has been around for a while. Since 1996, companies have been able to publicly announce their need for funding and accredited investors have been able to buy in. But starting today, June 19th, unaccredited investors will be able to have a piece of the pie. That piece will most likely be smaller, as the average person doesn’t have thousands of dollars to invest in a dream, but it’s still a piece. And this piece means something big…it means having a voice.

*Kind of. You first have to say “I am interested in investing” and then the company takes that info to the SEC and they figure out a valuation and then the company comes back to you to say, “Your investment of X dollars would be worth X shares in Elio. Do you still want to give us your money?” Or something like that. Here is some legal stuff that you might want to look at.

What you can do next.

I wouldn’t be much of a nonprofit professional if I didn’t give you a call to action. So here it is: invest in Elio.

Maybe you think it looks weird. Maybe you’d prefer if it was electric. Maybe you work from home and don’t need a commuter vehicle. None of that matters. What matters is that Elio is trying to make a difference and they need more funding to move forward.

Your voice (and dollars) might seem small, but there are way more of you than there are billionaires out there. If you get on board, and I get on board, and our neighbors get on board, we could make something really progressive happen. Not only that, we will have a piece of it! As an investor you get to say, “The people deserve an environmentally-friendly, affordable car!” and then also reap the benefits of that progress.

Let’s do this.

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Nonprofit side bar.

I would be remiss if I didn’t take a minute to talk about funding models.

A while back, I wrote a piece about restricted funding that almost exactly mirrors the Elio situation (apparently I’m psychic). In that post, I called for greater partnership between nonprofits and funders. The Elio campaign is my (our) chance to turn the table and be the funder who is interested in promoting innovation and I’m going to be doing some things differently.

Things I will be doing:

  • Investing in Elio
  • Using the resources at my disposal (this blog, social media, word of mouth, connections) to try to help

Things I will not be doing:

  • Sending them a budget detailing how and when they can use my money
  • Getting upset if they hire the best people to work on the Elio and pay them well
  • Expecting everything to go smoothly
  • Expecting a market-ready Elio soon
  • Expecting an Elio ever

While I really hope they succeed in the end, I won’t be upset that I gave them my money if they don’t make it. There’s a lot of value in failure, in empowering people who are trying to make a difference, and in supporting innovation.

So I say again…let’s do this.

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