Nearly one in three Australian students, close to 450,000 young people, aren't meeting basic literacy and numeracy benchmarks, and for students in financial hardship, that gap only widens. A monthly gift is what closes it: the shoes, the laptop, the fee that keeps a student enrolled instead of falling behind. Become a monthly donor, and stay beside a student for the whole journey, not just one moment.

Support disadvantaged students in Australia and you’re doing more than giving money. You’re telling a young person that they matter. That their future is worth fighting for, even when circumstances say otherwise.

At A Start in Life, we’ve been walking alongside students facing financial disadvantage since 1923. More than a century of showing up for kids who need someone in their corner. Every donation we receive goes directly to personalised support, the kind that helps a student stay engaged in learning, build real confidence, and start to dream bigger than their circumstances allow.

We’re not a large bureaucracy. We’re a small, focused team, and that means when you make a donation in Australia, your support reaches the students who need it fastest.

  Read our student success stories