This year has been an exciting time for women and girls. Malala Yousafzai was the youngest person to ever receive the Nobel Peace Prize, 13 year-old Mo’ne Davis was the first girl to pitch a shutout in the Little League World Series, celebrities who young people  admire – like Emma Watson, Lena Dunham, and Joseph Gorden Levitt – have changed conversations about feminist values, and the United States has more women in Congress than ever before.

But there is still so much work to be done, and our generation plays a critical role. We understand that aggregating our time and resources can help women and girls in powerful ways – whether it's by donating $60 for a safe delivery kit for a pregnant woman in Nigeria, building a website for our grantee in Pakistan that trains young women about their rights, or connecting our grantee in the Far Rockaways to more resources for growth.
 
On behalf of all of Spark and our grantees, thank you for sharing your time, support, and hearts with us this year. The strength of this community is only as strong as each of you.

We look forward to seeing you at our San Francisco and New York City Holiday Parties on Tuesday, December 9 and toasting you and your commitment to improving the lives of women and girls in our own communities and around the world.

Also, on #GivingTuesday next week, we hope you consider Spark on this special day to help others through philanthropy.

Please feel free to reach out to me at any time at jackie@sparksf.org.  As Spark soon celebrates our ten-year anniversary, we’ll also be sharing several ways that you can participate meaningfully in our strategic planning process as we envision together what Spark will become in the next ten years.
 

With Gratitude,

Jackie Rotman
Executive Director, Spark