Why we support GOSH Charity: Microsoft UK
24 May 2024, 9:41 a.m.
Since partnering with GOSH Charity in June 2023, the Microsoft UK Solutions team has raised almost £100,000 for the children, families and staff at GOSH. General Manager Tosca Colangeli shares what the partnership means to her team, the positive impact it has had – and why she’d encourage others to get involved.
'An obvious choice’
"We wanted to choose a charity that our 600-strong team could relate to and rally around. GOSH Charity was an obvious choice given the amazing work it does to support children and young people. It’s also a charity close to some of our team’s hearts, having had their own families supported by GOSH. We knew the whole team would want to do all they could to support.
"We started supporting in June 2023 and set ourselves a fundraising target of £100,000 for the year. I’m proud to say that with just a few weeks to go, we’re very close to achieving it.
"We’ve run our own events, including a festive walk from our offices in Paddington to GOSH to give gifts to the children and their families. We also held a quiz night with our team and our key partner organisations, and we're currently planning a sports day to close out our fundraising efforts for the year. Plus, we’ve taken part in GOSH Charity fundraising drives, such as the TCS London Marathon, the charity Snow Ball and the Grand Prix."
Amazing engagement
"The engagement we’ve seen from our team has been amazing. We're very privileged to get three volunteering days to use every year, and Microsoft also provides a direct financial contribution to the charity for any time our team spends volunteering outside of work. This has really spurred everyone on.
"When we run a fundraising event, we use it as an opportunity for cross-team networking and collaboration, which has been immensely valuable. Not only has the team come together and raised huge amounts of money for GOSH Charity, but they have met people they wouldn’t typically work alongside, stepped outside of their usual remits to organise large-scale events, developed their own skills and abilities, and driven a huge amount of camaraderie across our team."
A sense of purpose
"The partnership we have with GOSH Charity brings me a huge amount of pride. I'm proud of the way it brings our team together and the impact we can have for such a vital cause. I'm proud that we dedicated our 2024 charitable efforts towards GOSH – it gave us all a real sense of purpose.
"If you have a desire to bring your team together, create opportunities for cross-team collaboration, and want to rally around an important cause that has incredible impact on young people and their families, then it really is an obvious partnership.
"I’d like to say a massive thank you to the GOSH Charity team for the wonderful partnership and support we've seen. Everyone has been a pleasure to work with and have supported everything we've done."
Tosca, General Manager Solutions, Microsoft UK
Support GOSH Charity
If your company would like to help support GOSH Charity, please contact companies@gosh.org.