Every day seems more busy than the last on a Spark Ventures partnership trip. It is always fun to relax at the end of each day to reflect on experiences and get to know other travelers. On this recent trip to Nicaragua, we...
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With only four full-time employees, Spark’s board members play an incredibly important role in expanding our capacity as an organization. That’s one reason we are very excited to have added four new directors in the last year. Let us introduce you to them….Jeff Plaisted has...
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While visiting our partners, Spark trip participants are able to be a part of ongoing programs as well as special activities. At the core of our partner programs is the Las Tias daily meal program. Most of the children come from homes...
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One of the incredibly important activities, included in every Partnership Trip Spark facilitates, is what we call a "Transformation Story." In Nicaragua, this is an opportunity to visit one of the beneficiaries of Las Tías in their home. Their generous families invite our travelers into...
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Day two was a full one as our nine trip participants spent the morning at the young kids center, the afternoon with the adolescents and the evening with the Las Tias team cooking (and eating!) dinner at the home of founder, Corina Alvarez. (Oh and...
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Check out a glimpse of the first full day of our travels in Nicaragua...
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The Zambian Poultry Farm has hit and surpassed quite a few milestones over the past months. After starting with 2,500 chickens, the Poultry Farm scaled production and welcomed 12,000 chicks last December. The farm’s strategic partnership with Zambeef - one of the largest poultry...
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A warm Spark welcome from lookout point at Lake Managua with Momotombo Volcano in the backgroundIt was great to meet all nine of our trip participants at the Managua airport on Monday for Spark’s April Partnership Trip. Despite the recent earthquakes, everyone chose to join...
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At Spark, we measure our impact in the long term success of our partnerships. We want children served by our partners to have access to the resources they need to achieve their potential, and we do this by strengthening and sustaining amazing community programing.To reach...
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The Young Professionals of Spark (YPS), a community of young professionals dedicated to spreading awareness and raising support for Spark Ventures, recently held a delicious event! On Saturday, March 21st, the group got together with friends, family and others interested in international development to discuss Spark's mission...
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I’ve long admired people who know how to communicate their ideas or passions in a short and powerful pitch. I was given that opportunity at Technori, a gathering for the start-up community in Chicago. After two and a half years of hosting their monthly pitch...
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If you are familiar with Spark Ventures, you likely know that our Partnership Trips provide the opportunity for Spark Investors to meet our international partners first-hand. Partnership Trips are an incredible way to join in cultural experiences, form new friendships, bond with the children...
Read MoreTired of battling the cold and hearing words like "polar vortex" on a daily basis? Consider joining us on an upcoming Partnership Trip to Nicaragua. We will be traveling to visit our (tropically located) partner, Las Tías, on April 21-27, 2014.In addition to an escape...
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One of my favorite parts of working at Spark is meeting new people who travel with us internationally. The time we spend together is an intense itinerary of spending time with our local partners, volunteering with our partners' beneficiaries, and getting to know the country...
Read MoreOur Investor Spotlight series focuses in on engaged members of the Spark Ventures community. This month, we sit down with Sue Bernstein who is one of the growing number of Spark supporters to have traveled with us to Nicaragua and Zambia to meet both of...
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Our safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana far exceeded anyone's expectations - including Rich, who has taken this trip countless times before.The animals of all kinds are always impressive and breathtaking, but undoubtedly the highlight for everyone yesterday was catching a whole pride of...
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On our Partnership Trips, we spend the vast majority of our time with the children at Hope Village. Their smiles and laughter and friendship are so very powerful and memorable. But, there's another piece to the Spark story here in Zambia that we are overwhelmingly...
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Teacher Judy got tears in her eyes when she told us the family we were visiting did not even have blankets to sleep under.Transformation stories, like the one our travelers experienced yesterday, have long formed a critical piece of our Partnership Trip itinerary. On these...
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“If I travel with Spark, what will I be doing?” It’s a question that we get often and one of the reasons we created this blog was for the opportunity to share about the activities and adventures we have while visiting our partners in Zambia...
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Our January group of travelers has already made a whole school-worth of new friends here in Zambia. Check out just a few photos from our first two days here:...
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