Exactly where your donation goes.
Sparkden is built on trust, so we publish our plan. Here's what we're raising, what we'll spend it on, and how it ladders up to bringing free programming education and real project hosting to 20,000+ students by the end of 2027.
It's a big goal — an honest one. Hitting $65,000 this year is what puts Sparkden on track to reach hundreds of thousands of students in the years that follow. Every dollar compounds: infrastructure we fund now serves every student who arrives later.
Help us get thereHow donated funds are used
A target allocation. It flexes with student need — but SparkCloud hosting is always our largest investment.
SparkCloud hosting & infrastructure
40%Our single biggest cost. Keeping every student's project online — compute, databases, storage, bandwidth, custom domains and SSL — on SparkCloud. This is the "resource that normally costs money" we exist to make free.
Mentorship, AMAs & 1:1 support
15%Recruiting and supporting mentors, running AMAs with working engineers and founders, and staffing dedicated people who actually help students who are stuck on their code.
Laptops for students without access
12%Devices for underprivileged students who simply don't have a computer. Talent is everywhere; access isn't — this closes that gap directly.
Hackathon sponsorships
10%One of our core goals is bridging the divide between coding alone and coding together. We sponsor and run hackathons so students build as teams, learn collaboration, and ship faster than they ever could solo.
Outreach, flyers & promo
9%Getting the word out — flyers, stickers, printed and digital campaigns — so students who've never heard of Sparkden find out this exists, especially in underserved communities.
Achievement hardware & rewards
6%Meaningful hardware — dev boards, kits and gear — awarded to students who hit major milestones, to reward and fuel the builders going furthest.
Regional & earmarked outreach
5%For sponsors who can only fund specific regions, this is where your restricted gift goes: targeted outreach and a dedicated support team working in your specified area.
Operations & compliance
3%The unavoidable minimum — payment processing, nonprofit compliance, and the tools that keep us accountable and audit-ready. We keep this deliberately lean.
SparkCloud is the engine.
The reason a student can go from an idea to something live on the internet — with a real domain, a real database, and real compute behind it — is SparkCloud, our free cloud platform. Hosting is recurring and it's our largest cost, because a project that gets taken offline the day a free trial ends isn't real. Keeping SparkCloud running and free is the single most important thing your donation funds.
Explore SparkCloudHow we support students
Money buys infrastructure — but people make it matter. This is the structure we're building.
Mentors who've been there
A growing network of mentors who guide students through their first real projects — not lectures, real help.
Regular AMAs
Live sessions with engineers, founders and creators so students learn how real software actually gets built and shipped.
Dedicated student support
Real people whose job is to unblock students stuck on programming — fast, patient, and free.
Team-based building
Hackathons and group projects that turn solo coders into collaborators — because the best builders don't build alone.
Region-restricted or earmarked gifts
Some sponsors and grantmakers can only fund specific regions or specific programs — we get it, and we honor it. If your gift is restricted to a region, those funds go directly to getting the word out in that area and to a dedicated support team working with students there. Want your grant tied to a particular program (laptops, hackathons, a specific city)? Tell us and we'll track and report against it.
Fund the roadmap.
Give once, give monthly, or sponsor a line item directly. We're glad to share a detailed budget and progress on request.
The Spark Forward Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit · EIN 42-2930302 · Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.