I’m thrilled to announce that this year we launched the Avanade Volunteering Impact Awards. The awards shine a light on our amazing people who are going above and beyond to make a human impact at work and in their communities. And to show our appreciation, the winners were awarded a significant donation to make to a charity or nonprofit organization of their choice.  

Volunteering is at the heart of citizenship, and it is deeply ingrained in our purpose to make a genuine human impact. Our volunteers give their time freely to make a positive difference within their communities, and we want to recognize their outstanding contributions.  

Deciding the winners was quite tough. We had some fantastic entries, and the standard was very high. But our people voted and the judges concurred.  

Taking top spot was Kasia Dobrowolska from Poland. Kasia’s good deeds are numerous. She started volunteering 16 years ago when her father went into a vegetative state, and she shared her experience to help others in a similar situation. When her colleague and friend, Gosia (Malgorzata Brzecka), became involved in accident in 2019 that left her with a severe head injury, Kasia took it upon herself to help the family. Kasia also helped organize volunteers for the Wroclaw Hospice for Children, is the co-creator of a local project called Charity Donuts, and through the Dress for Success program, she’s rallied colleagues to support three charity organizations that are helping people return to work.  

Well-deserved indeed! Kasia has chosen to donate her $2,000 prize winnings to the Wroclaw Hospice for Children, which takes care of chronically and terminally ill children. Avanade Poland volunteers have been supporting them for some time, organizing events such as Children's Day or Santa Claus Day and helping with the preparation of gifts. The donation will enable the hospice to continue with the rehabilitation that is required by most of the patients and will greatly increase the comfort of their lives.  

Runner up Pam Manning from Los Angeles is a member of our INSPIRE Black Employee Network. She brings awareness to the Avanade community around social justice causes and issues and facilitates opportunities to empower minority groups. She has also been working with Avanade Citizenship and Microsoft Philanthropies to help African American and Black (AAB) nonprofits accelerate their digital transformation and make a bigger impact in their communities. She is also actively involved in several other community growth activities. Pam has chosen to donate her $1,000 prize money to the Innocence Project of Texas — an organization that provides free investigative and legal services to indigent prisoners serving time for crimes they did not commit, to overturn wrongful convictions and secure freedom for innocent people. Pam is a true inspiration to all of us. 

Second runners up were Daniel Krabbe, Johannes von Scheidt, Ahmed Nadim, Jens Tolkmitt and Walter Zajcev, who came to the rescue of Dialoghaus — an organization that offers experience orientated exhibitions that give people a glimpse into what it feels like to be visually or hearing impaired. When Dialoghaus Hamburg’s IT was attacked, their servers were infected with a Ransomware virus and most of their business-critical files became inaccessible. As a charity with tight budgets, they didn’t have the money to pay the ransom. Within four hours, this team of experts was mobilized. And working late into the night and over weekends, they came up with a fast solution to get Dialoghaus back up and running — enabling them to focus on their important work with deaf and visually impaired people. Amazing work! The team have chosen to donate their $500 prize money to Dialoghaus.  

On behalf of our citizenship team and the entire company, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to our winners. The award appropriately reflects the endless hours they have spent making a genuine human impact. We all feel enormously proud of their achievements!