While most entrepreneurs view the holidays as a time to reset, relax, and recharge, it’s also a great time to identify ways to give back to clients, employees, and the community. Whether you want to show employees that you appreciate them or give back on a national scale, it’s essential that your company aligns its culture, mission, and goals to help others during the holiday season.
Here are some interesting and impactful ways companies found to give back this holiday season:
Creative Client and Partner Gifts
Findr Group, a group of advertising and marketing firms, assembled a dozen candies from the various nations represented within Findr Group. These candies are arranged in their own custom-designed boxes, reflecting Findr’s creative approach to each treat. Co-founder Luba Tolkachyov explained, “Taken individually, each piece can provide a moment of deeper understanding into the time and place it represents. As a whole, we hope to provide clients and partners with a taste of the diversity that comprises Findr Group.”
Gifts for Those in Need
Sock 101, a custom professional sock company, has decided to “Sock It Forward” this year with Kansas City, Mo.’s City Union Mission. Since 1924, City Union Mission has provided warm beds, nutritious food, and a safe place for thousands of poverty-stricken and homeless men, women, and children. For every two pairs of socks purchased online from November 1, 2013, through December 20, 2013, Sock 101 donated a pair of socks to City Union Mission to warm feet this holiday season. Sock 101 donated over 450 pairs of socks to City Union Mission this holiday season.
This year, GraduationSource, an online retailer for graduation and academic supplies, picked educational institutions that aren’t in a financial position to celebrate their graduations and supplied them with graduation supplies, including caps and gowns. Kevin McGann, GraduationSource’s Chief of Staff, says, “Being able to provide these necessary supplies to students who could not otherwise afford them supports our mission of celebrating educational achievements, in addition to being able to give back to the community.”
Gifts That Support the Troops
Veterans United Home Loans and its employee-driven Foundation helped spread some holiday cheer by sending care packages to the KAF Mortuary Unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Partnering with the USO, the packages included holiday candy, mugs, personalized thank-you notes, and hygiene products. Along with the packages, Veterans United sent a small tree with ornaments so the unit could celebrate the holiday at their base.
The Gift of Knowledge
The CEO of All Access Group, Kelli Richards, decided she would release five short insider lessons with CEOs and industry leaders to help her network and business community grow their businesses, free of charge. Though it may not be a physical gift or donation, as an entrepreneur, you can’t underestimate the power of free insight from people who’ve been there before you.
getAbstract, which provides abstracts of business books, works with companies to provide subscriptions for partners, clients, and friends to enable them to consume business knowledge, TED talks, or financial reports in summarized versions.
EliteSEM is giving away Gary Vaynerchuk’s bestselling new book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World.” The book shares advice on how to connect and beat the competition with a social media marketing blueprint, making it appropriate for the advertisers EliteSEM serves.
What does your company do to give back during the holidays? How do your gifts reflect your company’s values?
Ryan O’Connell is the Vice President at Influence & Co., a company that helps experts build their businesses through thought leadership and content marketing by producing high-quality content for reputable publications. You can reach out to Ryan on Twitter @Oconnellryan or on Google+.
