Our vision

Founded in 2012 by Christian de Boisredon, Sparknews is a social enterprise that identifies, shares, and amplifies positive solutions to the important problems of our time. Through its activities, Sparknews aims to achieve two objectives: firstly, to increase the visibility of positive initiatives and give them the opportunity to be replicated and scale up, and secondly, to inspire the maximum number of readers to take action and support an inclusive and sustainable world.

What is Impact Journalism Day Universities?

Impact Journalism Day Universities (IJD-U) is a replication of Sparknews’ international solutions journalism events—Impact Journalism Day and Solutions&Co. These events bring together an alliance of 80 international newspapers to report on innovative solutions to problems. By writing and sharing high quality, objective, and critical, articles about people making a difference, these newspapers expose their readers to stories that can inspire positive change.

Now, In April of 2017, top student newspapers, from across the US, UK, and Asia, will bring international attention to young people addressing problems on their campus, in their communities, and around the world. By writing high quality, in depth articles, about projects by their students, the alliance of newspapers will collectively open the eyes of their generation to positive action they can take right now.

Journalism That Encourages Action

Beyond the normal daily flow of current stories that are often negative and instantaneous, the stories featured in Impact Journalism Day are precise and clearly framed reports on solutions to problems that threaten society. In an attempt to bring attention to these issues and all the while propose concrete solutions, the IJD editorial operation is a catalyst for change for editors, journalists, and readers.

Collaborative Journalism: Write Two Articles, Receive 60

The mission is collaborative: each newspaper writes on two initiatives from their university and then all the articles are shared amongst the alliance so every newspapers has access to all 60 stories.

Who We Are

Louis Slade is a fourth year undergraduate at New York University studying Politics, Rights, Development, and Social Entrepreneurship. After five months working with Sparknews on the 4th edition of Impact Journalism Day, he decided he wanted to inspire his generation to create positive change. Knowing there were plenty of students taking on their own social and environmental initiatives, and hundreds of talented student journalists writing for student newspapers, he decided to bring Impact Journalism Day and solutions journalism to colleges and universities around the world.

  • Louis Slade-Caffarel

    Louis joined Sparknews in March 2016. After working as a member of the content team for five months, identifying innovative projects from around the world, and writing articles for the Huffington Post and axa.com, he decided to launch his own initiative in the United States. The project, Impact Journalism Day Universities, will bring together student newspapers from across the country to highlight innovative students having a positive impact. Louis has previous experience working with NGOs in Cambodia and India, and a renewable energy company in Paris. Louis has studied development, sustainability, and social enterprise at New York University campuses in New York, Paris, and Florence, and Sciences Po, Paris.
    @LouisSlade @LCaffarel

  • Christian de Boisredon

    Christian de Boisredon, (French) social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow, is the founder of Sparknews. Former strategy and change management consultant for BearingPoint (ex Arthur-Andersen), Christian founded Sparknews in 2012 with the conviction that sharing solutions to inspire people can scale change. In a previous experience he initiated “Le Libé des solutions”, the first solution-based editorial operation, which was a huge success. He regularly speaks at conferences either on Change Management, Leadership, or the Innovation Mindset. He is also co-author of the best seller “Hope Around the World” (ed. Pocket 2004), the story of the first world tour to meet social entrepreneurs.
    @ChristiandeBoisredon @CdeBoisredon

  • Sandra de Bailliencourt

    Sandra joined Sparknews in August 2015 as a managing director. Sandra has developed different kinds of entreprises for the last 15 years : in sports business (Head of Partnership for the French Team of the America’s Cup), event (managing director of an agency in south of France), digital (founder of Novedia Agency, free-lance manager for many digital businesses as Educlever in EdTech, Webedia in media, Skoda France). Inspired by the innovative format and the social engagment of Sparknews, Sandra is strengthening actual activity and building, with the team, new offers to increase again the impact of social innovation.
    @SandraDeBailliencourt @sdebaill

  • Emma Stokking

    Emma Stokking joined Sparknews in January 2016 to structure the sourcing activity, highlighting social innovations and boosting their impact. A zero-waste and triple-bottom-line enthusiast, Emma really enjoys working for high potential organizations that keep a startup spirit. Prior to joining Sparknews she developped the consulting activities of the social incubator EDM Entrepreneurs in the Philippines. Previous roles include fellow at Start Up!, a New Delhi-based social incubator and consulting firm, project coordinator at the Paris-based Agence Nouvelle des Solidarités Actives (ANSA) and research assistant for Demos, a think tank based in NYC. Emma holds a Masters in Management from ESSEC Business School, where she completed the social entrepreneurship major.
    @EmmaStokking @UnpackagedEmma

  • Camille Loiseau

    Camille joined Sparknews almost a year ago in Business development. She holds a master in International management and has completed internships in the Netherlands and in Australia where she first got to know the concept of social entreprise. She also had the chance to travel in South India for a relatively long period of time. Camille now coordinates media partnerships on Solutions&Co.
    @CamilleLoiseau @CamilleRLoiseau

  • Audrey Jacquet

    Audrey Jacquet has joined Sparknews as Media Network Manager at the beginning of 2017. She has experience in both journalism and communication, having worked as a news producer for several news broadcasters, including the BBC for 6 years, and as a communication officer for an international platform promoting innovation in Education (the World Innovation Summit for Education). She relishes discussions about the media and its fast changing landscape.
    @AudreyJacquet

  • Aubance Lamour

    Aubance joined Sparknews in January 2016, to work as a Communications Officer. Passionate about the development of a new, more sustainable economy that has a positive impact, she wants to promote social and managerial innovation. She has previous experience in a management-consulting agency and she worked as a volunteer in a charity in Santiago, Chile during her academic exchange.
    @AubanceLamour @AubanceLamour

  • Clémentine Sassolas

    Clémentine Sassolas (French) joined Sparknews in its early stages, developing the business in close relationship with Christian and contributing to his vision. She is now in charge of launching new projects such as Solutions&Co in collaboration with economic media and she coordinates Sparknews’ business development. She graduated from ESSEC Business School where she majored in Social Entrepreneurship and Urban Economics. Her previous experience led her to work in London, to study social innovation in India, and to be involved in development projects in El Salvador and Cambodia.
    @ClémentineSassolas @clemsasso

  • Agathe Duffour

    Agathe joined Sparknews in 2016 to coordinate the Impact Journalism Day as a whole. Agathe graduated from Paris Dauphine University where she holds a degree in Economics and Management. Before joining Sparknews, she wished to experiment different kinds of organizations as a project manager: in a NGO in Argentina, in a communication and consulting CSR agency, and for SUEZ, working on innovation issues. She is now in charge of the relationship with corporate partners, of the coordination and development of the Impact Journalism Day.
    @AgatheDuffour @agatheduff
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