Every holiday season, the Avanade Australia Corporate Citizenship team runs the Smith Family Toy and Book Appeal. In Australia, one in six children are living in disadvantage, and through initiatives such as these, The Smith Family helps them, and their families unlock better futures for themselves.

The Toy and Book Appeal is always a highlight in our annual event calendar. This campaign always brings everyone together to do their bit and gives children a reason to smile during the holiday season.

It was seven years ago, as Sydney Location Lead, we started this lovely campaign. It’s a cause that I connected with instantly and it soon grew close to the rest of the Avanade Australia team to become an annual tradition.

We usually set a modest target for our team, and I am always humbled by the response which helps us exceed our goal and surpass previous targets year after year. Our objective is to do the best we can, to reach as many kids as possible to make sure no kid misses out on the excitement of gifts under the Christmas tree.

Our campaign has evolved over the past seven years. We started off with collecting toys and books for the kids at each of our office locations and would place them under the office Christmas Tree. On a scheduled date, our location leads would drop the presents off to The Smith Family.

During the pandemic we couldn’t continue with the in-person activities; however we were still able to do something very special. The Smith Family hosted a unique online volunteering activity, where children received a digital gift voucher accompanied with individual digital Christmas messages written by volunteers. Last year, the campaign was able to reach 430 families through the lovely messages from Avanade Australia employees.

On another year, we ran a silent auction where the Avanade Australia Leadership Team came together and volunteered some cool gifts or their time in support of this cause and we raised AU$6K through a fun auction.

One story that always warms my heart is when our HR lead’s daughter baked cookies for a bake sale at school and donated all her proceeds to The Smith Family. It’s experiences like these, through this campaign, that continue to inspire us to do more every year, make a genuine human impact and do what matters.