Bidding for a Cause: How our Office Charity Auction raised funds for Turkey and Syria and sparked creativity

On the International Day of Charity, we reflect on one of the biggest internal mobilizations of the SALESmanago team in 2023.

This year, on the 6th of February, an earthquake with a magnitude above 7 on the Richter scale hit Southern Turkey and Northern Syria killing more than 50,000 people and wounding hundreds of thousands. It left people without homes and in desperate need of help. This event was tragic and shocking to everyone, but for our company, it also hit close to home. For 3 of our dear colleagues Turkey or Syria is their homeland and one of them lost their relatives in this cataclysm.

To help those in need, we organized goods collection points in the office and set up an official donations account. We knew there were people in the company eager to support the cause, we just needed to draw more attention and create engagement around the topic.?

Amal Takriti and Yusuf Culcu were the touch points between us and those in need - they were close to any information from the front and in constant contact with aid organizations.

‘I was part of volunteers working with the Turkish embassy’, says Yusuf, ‘and one of them mentioned that they were doing a charity auction which was fun and effective.’

‘This was precisely the idea I had while working at a previous company, where I was a part of the culture committee‘ adds Amal. ‘The committee's goal was to foster a more friendly and diverse work environment and they organised a charity auction for Christmas, where the proceeds went to support a family orphanage. This inspired me to create a similar event”.

With Yusuf and Amal as project leaders, we kicked off our first company-wide charity auction that lasted for around 2 weeks and started on the 17th of February.?

How did it work? Each person who wanted to participate could add the item they wanted to auction in an online document prepared for this occasion. Then the items were listed to bid on our internal engagement platform - Connect (powered by Happeo ) - from 1 to 4 items per day. The bidding would start daily from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. on the next day with 10 PLN and every bidder had to give a minimum of 5 PLN more. Each winner would then be contacted to complete the transaction via the Polish charity platform Pomagam.pl.

‘The auction was a hit! I was responsible for posting new items announcements every day and people could not wait to check what was on the bidding agenda. The online charity channel soon became the most popular place on our digital platform’ - says Amal.

The auction sparked tons of creativity among our colleagues. The auctioned items list included: a 3D-printed headphones holder, a handmade bracelet, a meditation course, a ride in Subaru BRZ, a stroll with our colleague’s adorable corgi, a homemade cheesecake, personalized body mists, a drone video, a Mexican cuisine workshop and a painting created by Amal herself.

Yusuf treated bidders with traditional lahmacun, but what actually broke the bank was our CTO Piotr Uryga offering to assist the winner in their office work for the whole day. In total, around 30 people auctioned their items, time and skills, including our CEO Grzegorz Blazewicz . Our goal was to raise 15000 PLN and even though we realize it is still a drop in the ocean for our friends in Turkey and Syria, we are proud of this achievement. Our donations supported Molham - a charitable organization from Jordan and AFAD - Turkish Earthquake Humanitarian Aid Campaign - in their efforts to meet the urgent needs of citizens of the affected areas.?

‘The auction was more than just a fun event. It was an opportunity to bring people together, showcase hidden talents and support a meaningful cause’ says Amal. ‘The coordination between participants and winners was excellent, with people reaching out to each other after the auction to ‘finalize payments’, share stories and actually spend time together’.

We really enjoyed this journey towards a common goal and we hope to report soon on another great, employee-driven initiative at SALESmanago.