Grantee Spotlight: Futures Ignite

The New York City public school system has an average of one high school guidance counselor for every 333 students, making it nearly impossible for our city’s youth to receive the college and postsecondary guidance they need and deserve.

SparkYouth Grantee, Futures Ignite, is on a mission to change that, and they’re succeeding. The schools they partner with now have one college guidance counselor for every 46 students, and 100% of the students they support are accepted to college thanks to their whole school model which provides college and career guidance, leadership development, work-based learning, and alumni support.

“Futures Ignite believes in the limitless possibility in every single one of our young people, and we know the more leadership opportunities, career connections, and enrichment they receive, the better set up they are to dream big and achieve their postsecondary goals.”

-molly delano, Executive Director, Futures Ignite

Since becoming a SparkYouth Grantee in 2022, Futures Ignite has achieved some big dreams of their own, doubling the number of young people they serve and scaling their staff size to match. And that’s where SparkYouth comes in…

We know that when organizations grow quickly to meet the needs of young people, investing in staff is key to maintaining a strong organizational foundation.

While Futures Ignite has been busy guiding and advocating for youth, SparkYouth has been investing in Futures Ignite’s team, providing personalized staff development and capacity-building - such as whole-team management training, peer mentoring, and fundraising support - to propel the organization forward.

“We wouldn’t be here without SparkYouth. Futures Ignite supercharges opportunities for our students in high school and beyond, and SparkYouth supercharged us to grow from where we were when we started as a grantee to where we are today.”

-molly delano, Executive Director, Futures Ignite

Check out this inspiring video with Futures Ignite’s newest school partner, and learn more about how SparkYouth is supercharging the impact of all our remarkable grantees at sparkyouthnyc.org/current-grantees!