Honnold Foundation

He's also turned his mind and money to bigger questions.

In 2012, he set up the Honnold Foundation, devoting a third of his salary to help provide clean electricity to communities around the world.

In 2026, the foundation announced its largest round of grants.

I'm Akshat Rathi, celebrating 200, yes, 200 episodes of Zero, and this week, climbing high above the empty sky.

[laughs] You know, you're kind of like, there's not a lot of public support for any of this stuff going on.

And so you'd like to think that it won't go too far.

You founded the Honnold Foundation in 2012, and you donate a third of your annual income to, uh, the foundation.

It started with a climb in Chad in Africa.

Because, you know, he's one of my best friends and one of my main climbing partners for a big chunk of my life.

And when he started doing Honnold Foundation stuff, I just thought it was so cool, you know.

I was just thinking about the dirt bag stuff, but I was also thinking about, you know, like, how can I give back like Honnold did? But then also, like, let's do it more in a climbing core way.

You know, Honnold's... giving like, I mean, tens of millions of dollars at this point to solar projects all around the world, which is amazing.