Our nonprofit
Roots With Wings of Love and Hope
Roots to hold where you come from. Wings to go further than anyone in your family has yet. We help first-generation college students make strides and build a legacy — and we give back to the communities and natural places that raise us.
Why roots and wings
A first-generation student carries two things at once. There are roots — a family, a hometown, a story worth honoring. And there are wings — a future nobody in the family has reached yet, and a weight that comes with being the first.
Roots With Wings was formed to stand in that gap. Our work starts at home, with scholarships that help first-generation students finish what they started. It reaches abroad, through conservation and community development in the places our families come from and care about.
What we do
Three commitments, one idea: what you receive should outlast you.
Scholarships
Awards for first-generation college students who are making strides — the first in their family to go to college, and the one who changes the path for everyone after them.
Conservation
Support for protecting land, water and wildlife in the communities we partner with abroad, so the places that shape a family's story are still there for the next generation.
Community development
Working alongside local leaders abroad on the things a community says it needs most — schools, clean water, skills and small business — rather than what we assume.
Who we help
Students who are the first in their family to attend college, and who are already doing the work — holding down jobs, caring for family, showing up. Scholarship details, amounts and deadlines are announced each cycle.
How we work abroad
We partner rather than direct. Local organizations and community leaders identify the priorities, and we fund and support the work they have already committed to. Conservation projects follow the same rule: the people who live there decide what is worth protecting.
Support a student. Protect a place.
Whether you want to give, volunteer, or apply for a scholarship, reach out and tell us a little about yourself. We will follow up with the current cycle and how funds are used.
Roots With Wings of Love and Hope is a North Carolina nonprofit organization. Roots With Wings is a separate charitable organization from True North; donations support the nonprofit's scholarship, conservation and community development work.