photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Malissa Martin, the president and CEO of SparkWheel, hopes the $250,000 grant her organization earned from FIFA's Global Citizen Education Fund will help expand its footprint.

After a Lawrence-based nonprofit received a $250,000 grant from the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, its leader said the donation will make a big difference to the students it supports.

The nonprofit, SparkWheel, announced it was one of the 27 organizations worldwide that received support from FIFA’s fund, which aims to expand access to quality education and sport for children.

Malissa Martin, the president and CEO of SparkWheel, said although the nonprofit serves more than 30,000 students across Kansas and Missouri, its “backbone” is in Lawrence. Martin said that SparkWheel was previously known as the Communities In Schools of Kansas, but it ended up leaving the network in 2023 and changed its name.

Much of the work done by SparkWheel comes through placing full-time workers known as student support coordinators in its partner schools, who then work to address barriers to learning, like food insecurity, mental health needs, transportation and academic support.

Martin said if there are kids in a classroom who are “in pain or are hungry, they can’t sit there and learn.” The coordinators work to take care of students’ immediate needs to ensure they can find success in the classroom.

The $250,000 in grant funding will mostly support the nonprofit’s work in Kansas City, Martin said, where it hopes to expand its footprint to new K-12 schools. Martin also said the nonprofit helps run 37 separate food pantries in Kansas City in partnership with Harvesters, so the grant will also help support those efforts.

Martin said the extra funding will also boost its fundraising efforts to support programs across its service area. The fact it was one of 27 organizations worldwide to receive the funds from an internationally known organization like FIFA lends credibility to its work.

“(Being) one of 27 organizations globally (to receive funding), that helps raise our stature with other funding that we seek,” Martin said.

That increased stature also sends a signal that the nonprofit “does the work,” according to Martin. As part of the grant application, FIFA’s people went through a “deep dive” of SparkWheel’s model and deemed it worthy of getting an award. Martin said receiving the award “says something to other funders,” and she believes it can create more funding opportunities moving forward.

“This will bring great future effects for the organization,” Martin said.