Spark Points

THE SPARK POINT BLOG

Chandra Clark is a self-described “late bloomer” who traveled a winding path into a career in nonprofits. Growing up, Chandra faced a lot of adversity and took on much of the responsibility for caring for her three younger siblings. Without a lot of guidance and support from adults in her life, she struggled to understand…

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While studying at Swarthmore College, Dr. Danielle Moss had her sights set on a career in academia — but upon graduating and in need of a job, her cousin helped secure a role for her in financial services.  Early on, Dr. Moss realized that the financial services world was not for her. Thankfully, she was…

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After growing up in Alaska, founding two businesses there, and then living briefly in Hawaii and Los Angeles, Charity Blanchett had an awakening in New Orleans: “To move to a city where it’s predominantly African-American, I felt like, for the first time in my life, I looked like everybody. When I walked out the front…

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Tige Charity is the Founder and Executive Director of Kids in the Spotlight (KITS), a Los Angeles-based non-profit that provides a platform for young people in foster care to write, cast and star in their own short films, telling their stories their way.  Since its founding in 2009, the organization has worked with more than…

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On Aisha Arrington’s first day at the LTC Ombudsman Program, an organization that advocates for people who live in long term care, she wrote on a piece of paper that her dream was to become the Executive Director and “lead from the front.” She folded the note up and placed it in her desk. Within…

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As part of the Academy of Hope’s advancement team, Mirvlyne is changing the community one learner at a time “I moved for love,” says Mirvlyne Brice. “I was in New York City, working in civil services and, six years ago, I got married and moved to Northern Virginia.  Suddenly, I had to decide what I…

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With an eye on diverse, sustainable grantmaking, Ryan is redefining how funding — and change — happens  “I have certainly had a zigzag of a career,” says Ryan Palmer, Director, Washington, D.C. Community Initiatives at the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Ryan worked in early childhood…

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A lifelong development and fundraising pro, Bathsheba is ensuring nonprofits get the funding and support they deserve A third-generation Washingtonian, Bathsheba Philpott has long worked to support her community. In 1992,, she joined the Alliance for Healthy Homes, an organization focused on environmental health — specifically lead poisoning in low-income housing. “I started in an…

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Battling double pandemics—COVID-19 and the resulting increase in domestic violence—has tested the mettle of this Executive Director and the organization she leads. Since taking the reins of District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH) in 2017—10 years after the ground-breaking organization launched—35-year-old Executive Director Koube Ngaaje has doubled the organization’s capacity to shelter victims of domestic…

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This dynamic young executive has built an unparalleled fundraising program from the ground up  Trying to keep our families and friends safe and healthy while balancing our personal and professional lives—in 2020, this became an almost impossible task for many. Despite these obstacles, though, Joy Bentley Phillips, Chief Advancement Officer at the Academy of Hope…

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