This year for my birthday, I'm doing something a little different. I'm finally ready to share my heart, my vision, of what I've been building in the background: Rootz & Reach, Inc., my nonprofit organization.

Rootz & Reach's mission is rooted in Black culture, centered on community activation and empowerment. We organize, gather, and activate by creating transformative experiences, resources, and programming that expose communities to new possibilities, nurture personal growth, and expand accessible support for those who have historically had the least access to it.

For my 27th birthday, I'm asking you to give $27 toward Rootz & Reach, Inc. directly. Every dollar donated goes toward our seed funding and the starter resources we need to move this work forward. We value access, but free or low-cost for our community doesn't mean it's free to do; every activation, every youth and family engagement, every community experience takes real funding: space, materials, people, time. This $27 helps us build a solid foundation to do this work, and do it well!

This has been a vision of mine since I was 18, 19 years old, a vision I dreamt up in stacks and stacks of journals from my teens and early twenties, where I wrote down the vision. I carried a burden for community engagement and development with the hope of one day building something that impacted the lives of others: an organization that would create opportunities of exposure and access, that would love and celebrate community. A space that held room for Black people to thrive, not just survive. Where access, opportunity, and resources are matched with the tools to fully use them, and where real, authentic investment in Black community isn't the exception, but the norm.

I'm building something for community, founded on community, so it's only right to start with sharing this with my community. Thank you for being part of the very beginning of this, for believing in a vision before it's fully built, and for helping me start something for community, with community.
With gratitude,
Taylor Nicholson, LMSW
Founder & CEO, Rootz & Reach, Inc.

Stay connected and learn more about Rootz & Reach : https://rootzandreach.wixsite.com/discoverrootzandreac

FAQs:
Timeline:
This campaign runs Sunday, September 27th through Sunday, October 4th.

A Note on Our Status:
Rootz & Reach, Inc. is a state-approved nonprofit corporation in Georgia. Our 501(c)(3) determination is currently pending with the IRS. Once approved, your donation will be tax-deductible retroactive to the date given. In the meantime, a formal donor letter will follow once approval comes through.

🪴$27 for 27🪴

This birthday, I'm inviting you to help our rootz run deep and our reach grow wide.