The Roa Foundation supports local and international charities in their efforts to better the world.
Our donations are non-denominational, and generally focus on the following topics: childhood development, health & wellness, animals and disaster relief.
A percentage of our revenue and investment holdings each year are earmarked to partnered organizations. We also have require partners and employees to dedicate a certain number of hours per year to service.
Some of our valued partners:
The Anti-Cruelty Society, Chicago
Imerman Angels, USA
The Red Cross, USA
ACLU, Illinois
Pixie Project, Portland
Future Founders, Chicago
Chicago Technical Academy, Chicago
Avanse Org, USA
A Better Chicago, Chicago
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The John Roa Entrepreneur Scholarship on behalf of Western Michigan University.
This scholarship was created to give financial assistance to one student per year who shows outsized entrepreneurial potential, but may not qualify for other traditional scholarships with high GPA requirements (as was the case with John Roa).
From Mr. Roa's letter:
I was a really, really bad student. At least in the traditional sense. I struggled to learn in the standard academic format and from middle school through my college degrees, I barely squeaked through. In fact, I think my graduating GPA was about as close to a 2.0 as you can get.
In retrospect however, I gained a wide range of skills and lessons from college that aided in my entrepreneurial success—from networking and sales to math and finance. My parents' influence and support kept me in school. Although, when I graduated, I still had a stack of student loans that loomed over me.
The goal of this scholarship is to find a couple students a year that are entrepreneurially minded, but may be struggling in the traditional academic sense and therefore unable to qualify for any traditional scholarships. Rather than dropping out, I want to aide them in finishing their pursuits.
This scholarship will have no GPA requirements and will require a student to prove their entrepreneurial prowess through relevant tasks like a TED-style pitch or business plan, rather than long form essays or meetings with boards.
Education is critical, and this is hopefully the first of many ways I want to do my part in creating a better future for the next generation.