Our organization connects university parents, alumni, and outside donors, to students who are on financial aid but who still cannot afford basic educational tools like laptops and textbooks. We seek to make these students' lives easier by providing them with the basic necessities for a successful education.

In early 2018, one of Kavita's professor disclosed a story about one of her students who was on a full financial aid scholarship, but could not afford a laptop. This student was forced to go to the library every single day to do their schoolwork, restricted by library hours and policies. Upon doing more research, Kavita learned that a majority of the students on full financial aid scholarships were still unable to afford basic educational aids like laptops, textbooks, and graduate school test prep courses. Kavita believed that if she could raise awareness about this inequality, Vanderbilt parents, alumni, and outside donors would be more than willing to help cover the costs for these students. She decided to create Milaana as a forum for students to tell their inspiring story and donors to donate to help eliminate these financial barriers.

We’re always on the lookout for individuals like you wanting to get involved. Visit our How To Get Involved section to find out ways to donate, apply to be a recipient, or become a part of our board.

We have a responsibility to our community and our donors and work hard to ensure long-term sustainability of the organization. We are a non-profit program that is under the sponsorship of the 501(c)(3) organization, Institute for Education, Research, and Scholarships (IFERS). We will use 100% of your money to buy the item the student needs. We will then ship it to our trust advisor at the university, who will connect with the student for pickup.

Our organization takes our privacy policy seriously and takes steps to protect and ensure the safety of our supporters. We do not sell or otherwise disclose information about our volunteers or supporters outside of our immediate organization. This policy has no exceptions. We do not sell or exchange your information with any other organizations, public, private or nonprofit.