With the recent launch of TLG’s 2020 eMentor fundraising drive, we thought we’d spotlight some of the amazing fundraising efforts TLG volunteers undertook last year. TLG alumna Sagarika “Sags” Kaushal raised over $1,000 for TLG in 2019 through her workplace volunteer hours donation-matching program at Apple. This is an incredible achievement which not only provides monetary support for TLG’s programs but also showcases the many dedicated volunteer work Sags completed for TLG.

Sags first became involved with TLG in 2016 while completing her Bachelor of Science in Physiology. She participated in the RP at Mullewa District High School and signed up for the next RP soon afterwards. In 2018 she joined the TLG Executive as the Transport and Training Officer for the Logistics Team. In the latter half of 2018 she became the manager of the Logistics team and stayed in the role for a year before finishing her time on the Executive as an Internal Relations Officer in the second half of 2019. Currently, Sags is studying Medicine in Kuala Lumpur.

At the beginning of 2019, Sags decided to take a gap year from her studies and got a job at Apple (as well as managing the TLG Logistics Team in her spare time). Soon after becoming employed, she found out about Apple’s matched giving program for employees undertaking volunteer work. The program allows employees to log their volunteering hours and then Apple donates a certain amount of money per hour to the organisation they volunteer for. Sags said that, at the time, she was working close to full-time hours for Apple as well as volunteering for TLG, so she saw the program as a perfect opportunity to get the most out of her volunteer hours. She also said she knew that a few of her co-workers routinely took time off to go on RPs and thought “it’d be nice for them to be able to give back more from their time on RP.” She submitted an application for TLG to become an Apple recognised charity and, once that was approved, logged all of the hours she volunteered as an exec member. In the end, her total came to $1,155! 

In reflecting on her time with TLG, Sags said “the programs TLG runs are honestly quite amazing to pull off and actually impossible to do without sponsors and fundraising (as well as the tireless Executive team).” The contribution and commitment of volunteers like Sags can’t be understated. Not only do they put in countless hours to make TLG’s programs a reality, they routinely go above and beyond the call of duty by taking the kind of initiative Sags did when she applied for TLG to be an Apple charity. With just $10 being the cost of providing one hour of free one-on-one tutoring or mentoring to a student in a rural area, Sags’ donation comes to the equivalent of over 115 hours of tutoring. This is a truly remarkable effort and we are so excited to see what this year’s fundraising drive brings!

If you too would like to make a difference to students in rural Australia, you can donate or register your interest to fundraise for TLG today!