About the Spark Fund
What is the Spark Fund?
The Spark Fund is an innovative, participatory fund that provides youth-led and youth-focused groups with financial support and capacity development, enabling them to experiment, collaborate, and learn using digital technologies. The fund invests in youth-led and youth-focused groups tackling injustice and inequality, driving transformational change, and building a more inclusive post-pandemic world.
Who created the Spark Fund?
Global Fund for Children (GFC) and the Avast Foundation established the Spark Fund based on their shared commitment to empowering the next generation to promote human rights in the digital age. Additional partners Shared Nation and Catch22 are providing research support and technology development during the initial phases.
How does the Spark Fund decide who gets funding?
The Spark Fund puts key decisions in the hands of youth. Through a participatory grantmaking process, regional youth panels design and shape funds that support youth led and youth focused change in their region. The panels then make funding decisions using an innovative technology platform developed with Shared Nation. The Spark Fund pilot consists of four regional panels in 2021/2022:
- Eastern Europe and South Caucasus – Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine
- South Asia – Bangladesh, India and Pakistan
- Southern Africa – Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe
- Americas – Colombia, Mexico and Peru
Photo credit: Homies Unidos youth pass out food at a Community Response Initiative event. © Homies Unidos, Inc.
