In this year's voting by the Internet users as a part of the Benefactor of the Year competition, Citi Handlowy won in two categories: Employee Volunteering and New Technologies in Civic Involvement. For 20 years, the competition has selected companies representing the highest standards in terms of the social engagement of business.
Yesterday evening, the list of laureates of this year's edition of the "Benefactor of the Year" was announced. Two projects of Citi Handlowy won acclaim in the online voting: the ArtSherlock application in the category of New Technologies in Civic Involvement, and the Employee Volunteering Program at Citi in the Employee Volunteering category.
Sławomir S. Sikora, President of the Management Board, stated when accepting the award on behalf of the bank: The award for employee volunteering is a reward which should be received here with me by more than 3,000 Citi volunteers in Poland, who each year devote their time to work for those in need. I am extremely proud to be presented with the award, especially that we are receiving it one day before the 11th edition of the Citi Global Community Day, which is at our organization an event of employee volunteering. Then, on 10 June, our volunteers will set off on a trip through Poland to help others and change the world for the better. He also emphasized the involvement of the Bank in supporting Polish culture: The rewarded Art Sherlock application combines what is close to our bank - modern technologies and protection of natural heritage. I am proud that thanks to our support we can actively participate in the process of recovery of Polish works of art which have gone missing.
The Employee Volunteering Program at Citi, coordinated by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation has been in operation since 2005. During that time, Citi volunteers, implementing nearly 2 thousand projects, brought help to more than 240 thousand people. Activities under the program are addressed to various age groups, and the volunteers can participate in many different projects. Each year, employees can participate in the grant competition "Wolontariusz na Bank!" (Volunteer to Bank On!), where one can submit one's own original volunteering projects. The organized events include also integration trips combined with social activity, or educational activities (such as conducting lessons at schools). Volunteers can also participate in events organized by the Foundation and partnership institutions (e.g. the "Volunteering in Culture" conference). Each year, a culminating point of volunteering activities is the Citi Global Community Day celebrated in June. Only last year, Citi volunteers got involved in this action 3299 times, implementing 217 projects.
The ArtSherlock application was created in partnership cooperation of the Communi Hereditate Foundation, The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. It uses a database of missing works of art maintained by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (63,000 pieces). So far, the application has been installed on over 7,000 smartphones in over 30 countries all over the world. Its key quality consists in a huge increase in the scale of the search area. Until recently, only an expert was able to identify whether a certain object is one of the missing works of art. At the moment, it can be done by any smartphone owner.
