The Spark Grant is an annual $50,000 grant awarded to serve as a fundraising impetus for the creation of a new organization or program designed to promote and support social causes. A different area of interest is targeted each year. The Foundation seeks imaginative proposals and will evaluate on the basis of promise to make a positive impact, to be replicable, and to serve as a spark for long-term change. The Foundation takes a particular interest in ideas that have the potential to grow beyond the local level and become a national influence. The Michael & Laura Brader-Araje Foundation awarded its 2003 Spark Grant to DonorsChoose. DonorsChoose is a nonprofit website where public school teachers and individual donors connect to give students the resources they need to learn. Click here for the complete press release. The Mariposa School for Children with Autism was the first Spark Grant recipient in 2002.