Six great ideas for Christmas gifting

Christmas is a time for giving, and it’s a great to select a gift that will make a difference to your community. It’s nice to acknowledge your suppliers and/or business partners and say thank you for another year of great service, but what sort of corporate gifts can you send that avoid the usual clichés of Yule logs and festive hampers?

We think that our six suggestions will set you apart this Christmas as they all send a positive, charitable and community-minded message. Christmas may be a time to ‘drink, eat and be merry’, but it’s also a time to think about our local and global communities. Doing something helpful and worthwhile that also reflects your company’s core values is a great thing to factor into your corporate gift ideas.

1. Make a donation to your chosen local charity – you may well have a selected charity for which you already raise funds as a business. One way to help spread the love is to make a donation to your main charity on behalf of your supplier/partner. This helps to demonstrate your values and raise awareness of the charity’s cause.
2. Buy Christmas dinner for the homeless – many homeless charities will offer food and accommodation for homeless people over the Christmas period. Paying for 20 Christmas dinners on your supplier/partner’s behalf can make a huge difference for those that find themselves without shelter, food or family at this time of year.
3. Choose a practical gift for a global charity – all charities need cash donations, but increasingly there’s a desire to provide specific funding for a practical or life-changing gift. It might mean funding a water pump project, buying a goat for a family or paying for vaccination and inoculations. By funding one of these projects for your supplier/partner, you help them have a meaningful impact on the world stage.
4. Sponsor a sports person or team – sport can be an essential part of the local community, but it’s difficult for amateur sports people to find the funding they need. Sponsoring a local athlete or sports team helps them to train, compete and hit their sporting goals. And by adding your supplier’s/partner’s name and logo to their kit they can also enjoy additional brand recognition.
5. Adopt an animal at your local zoo or animal shelter – homing and caring for animals is an expensive business, so if your supplier/partner has an interest in nature, then adopting an animal on their behalf is one way to make Christmas a little more special. Some organisations will even send regular updates about their adopted animal, keeping your stakeholder in the loop with what’s going on with the animal and the organisation.
6. Donate money to a green charity or organisation – climate change is a huge challenge and something humanity can only overcome through co-operation. Why not donate to a sustainable cause for your supplier/partner and provide funding for a tree-planting project or a recycling initiative? Anything that helps the global community cut its carbon footprint, reduce pollutants and fund regreening and rewilding projects is really positive.

For Ben Case, owner of decimal+, who are accountants in Newmarket, corporate gifting at Christmas can have a really positive effect. ‘In business we all want to deal with people and businesses that we know, like and trust,’ comments Ben. ‘So when it comes to Christmas we encourage our clients to take a different approach rather than sending out a run-of-the-mill hamper or a selection of branded merchandise. We ourselves participate in the Business for Good scheme all year round, and we feel that it’s beneficial both to the recipients of the funds raised through our day-to-day activities and to us as a business.

'When it comes to Christmas gifting, this is a brilliant way to demonstrate your core values as a business and share some festive cheer. Giving donations to charity is also tax deductive in most circumstances, so you’ll be able to deduct these charitable contributions from your profit for the year. It’s worth talking to us about any planned gifts, so we can advise on the tax outcomes.’

Decimal+ are accountants in Newmarket and Cambridge, so why not contact us for advice on Christmas gifting? We’d be happy to help.