Inside Scoop: Why Emily Chose to Support Clean Energy Solutions

The Adhikari family: Soumya, Emily & Sarina

Emily Adhikari is a resident physician, wife of Soumya (a busy pediatrician), and mother of a young toddler, living in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. She is also an EESI Associate , a group of donors who give $1,000 or more per year for energy and climate solutions – and are thus a special part of the EESI family. Emily made a commitment to donating to a cause she believes in – solutions for our nation’s critical energy, transportation, and climate issues. She wanted to start giving, and solving the problem, as soon as she started earning a salary.

Giving to charity and church on a monthly basis were part of her family’s culture growing up, a tradition she wanted to make her own. Emily and her husband make charitable giving one of their monthly to-do’s, like paying bills. And, monthly giving to EESI is simpler than bill paying!

Since Emily set up her recurring online donation of $100 a few years ago, the donation has been conveniently billed to her credit card. Monthly giving makes becoming an EESI Associate easier on the budget. That’s helpful for Emily since she is quite busy with work and her family. The monthly gifts also help EESI plan better, respond to unexpected opportunities, and reduce administrative costs.

Emily originally found EESI on Charity Navigator, the largest evaluator of charities nationwide, where EESI has received the highest rating of Four Stars four times in a row! She was delighted to find an organization dedicated to informing policymakers on critical energy and environmental issues. She saw that work in D.C. with lawmakers would make the most difference in changing energy consumption and use patterns in the United States.

Emily became concerned about energy, climate, and transportation issues while going to college and then working in Houston. She recognized that big oil dominated the Houston economy. She witnessed the area continuing to widen roads and sprawl further out. Despite the roadwork, traffic continued to worsen. Public transportation beyond downtown was nonexistent or unreliable, she said. As she explained, “I was so tired of sitting in traffic. I lived close enough to bike to work, but there were no bike lanes.” The situation in Dallas/Fort Worth, where she lives now, is similar, but gradually improving with the expansion of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail system.

Emily decided to make monthly gifts to advance EESI’s work because she realized the country needed to make a major change by moving toward efficiency, smart growth, and sustainable transportation systems. She recognizes that local change is important, too. But she believes that for large-scale changes in energy policy to happen, Congress needs to lead the way. When Emily, and others like her, make significant financial commitments to innovative energy and climate solutions, our country can transition to a clean energy economy. Our deepest thanks go out to Emily and Soumya Adhikari for their commitment!

Learn more about how you can donate to EESI