By Carole Garibaldi Rogers
We are in the midst of Black History Month, a short month overflowing with reminders of the contributions of Black Americans to our country’s history and to our shared present.
SparkNJ, a new nonprofit, focuses its attention on a group of Black women and men who do not usually find themselves–or their work—in the spotlight.
Volunteers help at Table of Hope food giveaway, September 2022. Photo courtesy of the Spring Street CDC
SparkNJ’s mission is to offer grants to small, Black-led nonprofit organizations in northern New Jersey, notably Morris, Passaic, Essex, and Union counties.
The organizations we seek to fund are already fulfilling their mission to improve lives in their communities, but additional resources will allow them to sustain and grow their efforts.
Our name tells our story. We hope that with a Spark grant, small organizations can flame up and ignite change in their worlds. But we, too, are small and trying, in our own way, to ignite change.
In 2022, our inaugural year, we awarded grants to six Black-led nonprofits. We are extremely proud of their work. Two, Spring Street CDC and Empower the Village, are rooted in Morristown.
One organization, New Destiny Family Success Centers, serves in Passaic County; the remaining three, Bethany Baptist Church Food Pantry, F.O.R.T.E. House, and Men of Essex, operate in Essex County.
Three couples–my husband, Leo, and I and Kathy and Vince Teti, all of Morristown, and Lisa and Steve Firkser of Springfield–started SparkNJ with a vision. We believe in trust-based philanthropy.
SparkNJ awards unrestricted funds and trusts the organization and its leadership to use those funds where they are most needed.
Ayo Sanderson Wilson, CEO of Empower The Village at Great Conversations 2022. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
We operate differently from most funding organizations. We do not require an application form. Instead, we rely on a team of diverse nominators, all volunteers who serve for one year. Our nominators must be knowledgeable about nonprofits operating in their communities.
A community, as SparkNJ defines it, can be geographic. For instance, Morristown or Paterson or Newark. Or it could be service-related. For instance, food insecurity, after-school learning, maternal and infant care.
Nominators each bring forward one nominee; we ask that they have a high degree of confidence in the work and integrity of their nominee. A team of selectors, also serving as volunteers and also diverse, evaluates all nominations to ascertain they meet our grant criteria. They then recommend final recipients.
In 2022, we also initiated a mentoring program to assist nominated nonprofits in areas where they identify they need to improve.
Now as we move into our second year, we are seeking donors, nominators, selectors, and mentors to help us in our work. We are committed to creating a diverse, equitable community of our own, dedicated to raising up local, Black-led nonprofits.
Would you like to be a part of SparkNJ? Do you know a Black-led nonprofit with a budget below $750,000 that deserves a SparkNJ grant? Please be in touch with us.
www.sparknj.org
info@sparknj.org
Carole Garibaldi Rogers, along with some stalwart friends, founded Impact 100 Garden State 10 years ago. Since then, Impact 100 Garden State’s members have donated more than $2.8 million to local nonprofits and three other Impact 100 organizations have formed in the state.
Opinions expressed in commentaries are the authors’, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
