Spark Microgrants

To catalyze change, Spark employs and trains local university graduates through an in-country facilitator fellowship program. Facilitators reach out to infrastructure-poor villages and engage them in a five-month planning process, leading them through a structured series of weekly meetings. Community members build consensus on a communal goal, identify a project to realize the goal, develop a project implementation strategy, budget and democratically elect a leadership committee. After each community develops their own project proposal, the Spark leadership team liaises with sector-specific experts to provide project-specific feedback to each community. Community members integrate this expert feedback and finalize their proposal, which includes community contributions towards costs that ensures community ownership. Spark then awards a one-time microgrant of up to $10,000 for project implementation, providing six months of management support and two years of follow-up support. Communities have launched projects including vocational training schools, pit latrines, bridges, health centers, social enterprises and more.