Roots 2025: 129 Interns, 44,311 Hours, Real Real-World Impact

Roots, a World Endeavors brand within the ITG group, places skilled interns with nonprofits and social enterprises working in wildlife conservation, public health, community development and education. The 2025 figures are set out below, along with what the numbers mean for partner organisations, their work and the communities they serve.

Since 2016, Roots has placed 714 interns in total, contributing a cumulative 302,736 hours of work at grassroots level. Every one of those hours reflects a shared effort with partner organisations and the communities they support.

129 interns placed in 2025 across 55 partner organisations

44,311 hours of skilled work contributed to nonprofits that could not otherwise afford it

31 nationalities in the cohort, bringing genuinely global perspective to local problems

714 total interns placed since 2016

302,736 cumulative hours of grassroots impact, equivalent to 145 full-time employees working for a year

The 2025 cohort was predominantly female at 67.7% and drew from 31 countries, with North America and Europe making up the majority of participants. South Africa, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Malawi were among the most popular in-person destinations.

Remote placements accounted for 30% of all internships in 2025, making them the single most popular placement type. That proportion reflects something meaningful: organisations that lack the budget or physical infrastructure to host an intern in person can now access skilled international support they could not otherwise reach. A Roots partner in Nigeria, for example, hosts a significant number of public health interns entirely remotely, a direct result of travel restrictions that make in-person placements impossible for many students. Without the remote model, that partnership could not exist.

Wildlife conservation was the most popular focus area in 2025, accounting for 20% of placements and 7,039 hours of work. Marketing and communications followed at 13.85% and 4,885 hours, public health at 12.31% and 4,615 hours, and NGO management at 8.46% and 2,885 hours. Across all 20 academic focus areas, interns contributed a combined 42,280 hours of recorded work.

The marketing and communications figure matters because it represents nearly 5,000 hours of support for nonprofits that, in most cases, do not have a dedicated marketing team of their own. For a small conservation or community organisation, that support can help bring their work into view, reach the people who want to fund or champion it, and strengthen programmes that are already making a difference.

The hours an intern contributes to a partner organisation are measurable. What they take back with them is harder to quantify but no less significant.

Internships with nonprofits develop a particular set of outcomes that employers across all sectors increasingly value: confidence, communication, collaboration, initiative, critical thinking, cultural literacy and leadership. In a small, resource-constrained organisation, there is rarely someone to tell you exactly what to do. Interns learn to take initiative, communicate across cultural differences, collaborate with tight-knit teams and lead on projects where the outcomes genuinely matter. That experience transfers directly into the workplace, whatever sector an intern goes on to work in.

New research from Udemy and Indeed, published in January 2026 and drawing on two years of hiring and upskilling data across four major economies, found that communication, critical thinking and leadership consistently rank among the fastest-growing skills in employer job postings. Yet these are precisely the competencies workers are least focused on developing. Employees are investing heavily in technical and AI capabilities while the skills employers most need are being left behind. Nonprofit internships are a particularly effective environment for developing those competencies, one where the teams are small, the work is community-facing and communication, initiative and cultural literacy are a matter of daily necessity, turning these skills from abstract concepts into lived experience.

In 2025, 55 different organisations hosted Roots interns across public health, community development, conservation and education. Partners are carefully matched with interns based on skills, academic focus and organisational need, and several have worked with Roots across multiple years, building a continuity of contribution that a single placement cannot achieve alone.

The impact extends beyond the placement itself. Several partner organisations have gone on to hire Roots interns directly after their placement ended. In one case, an NGO Management intern joined the advisory board of their host organisation. In another, an intern completed a research placement at a conservation project and later returned to conduct PhD research at the same site. this is great evidence of what a well-matched placement can set in motion.

“Having a partnership with Roots and hosting interns at our school has definitely been one of the best changes that we could have possibly made. Not only do the interns provide life, joy, and energy into the school, they also come with so much dedication, creativity, passion, and skills. They have really pushed our organisation in a forward direction.”
— Tammy Raymond, Founder, Partnership Organisation – Zambia

“Roots Interns offers a bridge to that. Their targeted approach and the value add offered by their interns make it possible for our grassroots projects to take meaningful strides towards sustainable development.”
— Holly Kift, Co-owner, Partnership Organisation – Malawi

The average duration of in-person internships has shifted from 10.5 weeks to 8.5 weeks over recent years, with a notable increase in four-week placements. Remote and hybrid internships tend to run longer: 38.5% of remote placements lasted more than 12 weeks, compared to 13% of in-person placements at the same length.

For interns, the flexibility of part-time and remote working means they can commit for longer periods and take on projects that require genuine continuity: market research, fundraising strategy, data analysis and reporting. Four hybrid placements were completed in 2025, and Roots is actively exploring how to grow that number with partner organisations.

Roots’s model is distinct from expedition or volunteer travel, but it is driven by the same underlying conviction: that meaningful international experience should leave both the individual and the place they engage with better off than before.

For an intern, that means leaving with practical experience, professional references and a clearer sense of where their skills can contribute. For the partner organisation, it means a deliverable they could not have produced alone: a redesigned website, a funding application, a monitoring dataset, a communications campaign. For the community the organisation serves, it means a better-resourced organisation continuing its work after the intern has gone home.

“Many interns underestimate the personal impact before they go. Regularly you hear that the experience has opened their eyes and they look at their life back home from a completely different perspective. Dealing with a different culture, seeing the challenges communities face, makes them realise that the things they considered big issues at home are not big issues at all. When I receive that kind of feedback, from either the intern or the supervisor, I get a huge smile on my face. I know I made a positive impact in someone’s life and indirectly contributed to making this world a better place, one intern at a time.”
— Talitha van der Waerden, General Manager, Roots Interns

Roots partners with carefully selected nonprofits and ethical businesses worldwide that make meaningful contributions to community development, conservation initiatives, and sustainable local economies. Each internship is designed to support the host organisation’s ongoing work while providing students with valuable, hands-on learning experiences. Interns become integral members of small teams, contributing to impactful projects and gaining insight into the realities of purpose-driven organisations.

Internship opportunities span a wide range of academic and professional fields, including marketing, business development, NGO management, conservation, education, public health, human rights, and law. Many placements can be tailored to align with a student’s specific skills, academic interests, or research objectives, ensuring a mutually beneficial experience for both the intern and the host organisation.

World Endeavors is an international education provider that delivers immersive internship, volunteer, and customised group programmes designed to transform lives through hands-on global learning. Operating in more than 40 countries, the organisation connects students with meaningful professional and cultural experiences that foster personal growth, cross-cultural understanding, and global citizenship. Placements are tailored to individual academic and career goals, offering practical experience across a wide range of sectors while encouraging participants to engage deeply with their host communities. Through a strong focus on experiential learning, personal support, and ethical international engagement, World Endeavors helps students develop the skills, confidence, and global perspective needed to thrive in an interconnected world.