FreeWorld takes top honor at third Truist Foundation Inspire Awards

Truist Foundation awards more than half a million dollars in grants to scale innovative solutions to challenges experienced by often-overlooked segments of adult workforce

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Truist Foundation proudly announced FreeWorld as the first-place grant recipient of the 2025 Truist Foundation Inspire Awards. Through the Inspire Awards, Truist Foundation leverages philanthropic capital to accelerate solutions to address barriers to building career pathways to economic mobility. This year's challenge sought nonprofit solutions that help adults who are in the middle or late stages of their careers access reskilling, upskilling, and career navigation support.

This year's first-place grant recipient, FreeWorld, was awarded a $250,000 grant to support a tech-enabled solution that reskills and places formerly incarcerated citizens into the trucking industry. FreeWorld also took home the $75,000 Audience Favorite grant, voted by the livestream and in-person attendees.

"At FreeWorld, our vision is to ensure that every person returning from incarceration has the opportunity to not only secure a meaningful, living-wage job, but to also achieve financial independence," said Jason Wang, founder and CEO of FreeWorld. "With Truist Foundation's support, we're positioned to strengthen an industry that relies on skilled people, while creating pathways to economic mobility for thousands of returning citizens."

Truist Foundation is in its third year collaborating with Solve, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to run this capacity-building program for nonprofit organizations, culminating in a pitch-style event in front of a live audience. All with creative approaches, the six finalists' workforce solutions included:

• Connecting learners to social services to overcome nonacademic barriers,
• Equipping veterans to enter the high-demand electrical trade industry,
• Offering call-center training for older adults,
• Reskilling returning citizens for trucking careers,
• Training workers in sustainable material reuse, and
• Helping tradespeople become career and technical education teachers.

"Hearing from each of these visionary nonprofits was both inspiring and a good reminder of the power of philanthropy to help alleviate real-life challenges facing both workers and employers," said Lynette Bell, Truist head of Philanthropy and president of Truist Foundation. "As a funder, we believe that investing in scalable, community-led models designed to solve specific challenges has the potential to unlock significant opportunity for adult workers."

In second place, Encore Employment Enterprises Inc. received a $150,000 grant to advance Seniors R The Answer, a call-center training program tailored for older adults seeking employment, supported by wraparound services.

Each of the remaining four runners-up received $25,000 grants to help implement their solutions.

Leading up to the Inspire Awards event, all finalists participated in a six-month wraparound support and development program to help refine their solutions. This valuable program provides the finalists with a comprehensive needs assessment to help each organization create a clear plan for resources and support needed to accelerate impact. Additionally, the program offered finalists access to a network of cross-industry partners and mentors as well as learning and development modules aimed at supporting business modeling and scaling. Each finalist also received an invitation to participate in the annual flagship Solve at MIT event in May.

The Inspire Awards ceremony was held on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, at the Carolina Theater in Charlotte. The event was emceed by Co-Anchor, "Good Morning America" & President, Rock'n Robin Productions, Robin Roberts, and the pre-show ceremony was hosted by Emmy Award-winning Journalist, Author and Global Speaker Molly Grantham.

Truist Financial Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Rogers and Truist Business Administration Executive Amy Collins joined Bell and Roberts to announce the grant recipients to conclude the show.

To learn more about all six finalists and how Truist Foundation supports workforce development, visit TruistFoundation.org/InspireAwards.

About Truist Foundation

Truist Foundation is committed to Truist Financial Corporation's (NYSE: TFC) purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities. The Foundation, an endowed private foundation established in 2020 whose operating budget is independent of Truist Financial Corporation, makes strategic investments in a wide variety of nonprofit organizations centered around two focus areas: building career pathways to economic mobility and strengthening small businesses to ensure all communities have an equal opportunity to thrive. Embodying these focus areas are the Foundation's leading initiatives – the Inspire Awards and Where It Starts. Learn more at TruistFoundation.org.

SOURCE Truist Foundation