The Spark Blog

Spark Ventures | community programs, education, nicaragua, partnership trip, report from the field, travel | No comment

Transformation Stories: Allison

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...

27 April

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | community programs, nicaragua, partnership trip, report from the field, spark ventures, travel | No comment

Day 2: Games and Culture

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...

25 April

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | community programs, education, nicaragua, partnership trip, report from the field, social good, spark ventures, travel | 1 Comment

Photos from our First Full Day

Check out a glimpse of the first full day of our travels in Nicaragua...

23 April

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | business development, community programs, news, report from the field, socent, social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, social good, zambia | 1 Comment

The Poultry Farm Hatches New Success

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...

22 April

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | nicaragua, partnership trip, report from the field, spark ventures, travel | No comment

Spark CEO Excited for Newest Partnership Trip

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...

22 April

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | community programs, education, partnership trip, report from the field, spark ventures, travel, zambia | No comment

The Things We Leave Behind

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...

28 March

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | chicago, events, news, organization, spark ventures | No comment

Socializing for Good with the YPS

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...

26 March

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | community programs, education, nicaragua, non-profit, organization, partnership trip, report from the field, spark, spark ventures, travel | No comment

It’s about the little things

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...

12 March

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | chicago, community programs, nicaragua, non-profit, partnership trip, spark, spark ventures, travel | No comment

Escape the Polar Vortex with Spark in Nicaragua!

Tired 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...

24 February

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | nicaragua, partnership trip, report from the field, spark ventures, travel | No comment

Chuck Norris is like Bacon. Universal.

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...

18 February

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | investor spotlight, partnership trip, report from the field, spark ventures, travel, zambia | No comment

Investor Spotlight: Sue Bernstein

Our 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...

12 February

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | partnership trip, spark ventures, travel, zambia | 1 Comment

Lions!

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...

27 January

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | business development, community programs, education, healthcare, nutrition, organization, partnership trip, report from the field, socent, social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, social good, travel, zambia | No comment

Lab Coats and Chickens

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...

26 January

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | community programs, education, partnership trip, report from the field, travel, zambia | No comment

Transformation Stories in Zambia

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...

24 January

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | organization, partnership trip, report from the field, travel, zambia | No comment

What Are You Doing in Zambia?

“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...

23 January

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | community programs, report from the field, travel, zambia | No comment

Making New Friends in Zambia

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:...

21 January

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | business development, organization, report from the field, socent, social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, travel, zambia | No comment

Poultry Farm 2.0

I spent the last three days working with the team here in Zambia responsible for the poultry farm. Spark made the initial financial investment back in 2011 and the Hope Ventures poultry farm was born. Even though I’ve visited the farm every six months since...

20 January

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | community programs, education, organization, partnership trip, report from the field, travel, zambia | No comment

Preventative Maintenance Day at Hope School

When I arrived at Hope Community School mid-afternoon for the second day of computer training with Teacher Lewis and Teacher Angela, I found the students just leaving their classrooms and heading out to the big open yard in front of the school to participate in...

17 January

Share on
FB
Tweet

Spark Ventures | community programs, education, report from the field, travel, zambia | No comment

Be Zam-bitious!

Driving around Ndola today, the radio kept playing the same ad, one for ZamTel (a cell phone service provider around here). I wasn’t so captivated by their offer of discounted talk-time (cell phone minutes for the phones here), but the catch phrase they closed each...

16 January

Share on
FB
Tweet

More to do: