Kansas microschool leader raises $200K for Christian school scholarships

Dalena Wallace has already done a lot to help microschools – founding one, encouraging others and starting a foundation for churches to support microschools in the Wichita, Kansas, area.

So, when she set out on her latest venture – to raise money for scholarships so more students can attend the schools – the support came fast and furious.

Wallace, a homeschool mom of six and founder of Heartland Education Reformation Organization, or HERO, quickly raised $100,000 from private donations, then found an innovative way to boost those funds.

“We ran four scholarship campaigns throughout the year,” she told The Lion in an interview. “The one that was the most successful was asking churches in the area to offer scholarships that then, through our private donation, we were able to match and double their impact.”

Now her goal is to scale those efforts and give away $200,000 – or more – this year. The scholarships include 20 grants of up to $2,000 for low-income students and matching grants for churches that raise $500 to $5,000 for scholarships, up to a total of 75% of a student’s tuition.

The scholarships are available to attendees of one of 20 HERO member schools, a network that now stretches east to Kansas City and to towns such as Salina and Manhattan.

Church matching makes the difference

“We received an additional $100,000 to do another campaign to ask churches and pastors to come on board with us and offer the matching scholarships,” she said. “We’ve also partnered with Children’s Scholarship Fund, and they have a portion that they will contribute as well. So now our potential funds, depending on how much we raise, will be $230,000.”

Wallace said HERO released a documentary on the microschool movement this summer, which has helped with fundraising. She’s also built relationships with area pastors, informing them about the church’s role in education, including urging them to host microschools.

“The whole idea is to get churches to understand this and to get pastors engaged and to partner them up with schools, to help them realize this is a mission field,” she said. “There was one pastor in particular who started his own scholarship fund at their church specifically to contribute to HERO, and everything that they raise as a congregation they send to HERO so that students can attend one of our schools.

“We just kind of motivated pastors. We just had to help them understand, ‘Oh, yeah, this is a mission field, and we have a line-item budget for missions. Well, let’s apply some of that funding directly to the education.’”

Next month, the organization will choose an education champion “Pastor of the Year” from among three finalists, with the winner receiving a trip to Florida.

Kansas doesn’t have broad school choice, meaning the scholarships are a great boost for many families. Wallace would like to see school choice expand but isn’t “waiting for the government to provide the funds when we have the perfect infrastructure.

“The church is there. It not only has space, it has congregations and members, it has passion. It has alignment and mission, and then the finances – as long as we can help them see, ‘Oh, this is a mission field.’”

When asked if she was surprised at how quickly she was able to raise the funds, Wallace said it’s all about following the Lord.

“It really fell into my lap in a God kind of way,” she said. “God is good. He just provides for what he calls you to do. He brings the provision.

“And at this point now, I have this fire lit under me because I have the provision. I have the ‘hey, here’s the matching funds. Can you raise the 100,000 so you can get access to the matching funds?’ And I’m like, ‘OK, I guess I’m going for it.’

“When the Lord’s at work, you start to gain traction and attention.”