As we are heading into the holiday season, businesses are planning ways to thank clients, vendors, and staff members for a year of work well done, trust appreciated, and great teamwork. We are heading out for our last camping trip of the season, and I’m reminded that not everyone has access to a forest. Some have lost their forests due to many disasters. A vendor had given me the gift of 25 trees planted in our company’s name. What a thoughtful gift. I don’t need more gift baskets of goodies. I will admit to still enjoying good logoed items, but for the price of $2/tree, you can have an impact.  You can choose your trees for others here at the Arbor Day Foundation site.

Simple Math

Until the IRS updates its gift-giving limits, we are stuck with $25 per person.

That’s 12 trees!

If you have a client company with 5 people you interact with regularly…

That’s 60 trees!

What is near and dear to your heart at your company? You could ask your employees what matters to them. Perhaps you’ll end up with a few ideas. Get their buy-in. Who would they like on the gift list from your company? What about a secret-Santa (fill in the cultural reference that fits your company here) type of campaign across the company, across continents? Share the results – tell the stories. Companies forget to market internally. It’s a missed opportunity to increase retention and attract more of the same types of great people.

Consider other ways to tell those you work with how they matter to your business success. This is just one idea. I’m fond of it. I’m a huge fan of forests. It’s mainly why we moved to Oregon – to get to forests within minutes.

(photo is of Lake Marie at Umpqua State Park in Oregon)