More firms opting for charitable Christmas

Instead of gifting clients a bottle of wine for Christmas, a gift unlikely to stay on the shelves past the festive season, a number of corporates are opting to put the money towards something more meaningful.

One Auckland chief executive, Chris Cunniffe, found clients were often unable to accept gifts, or simply ended up with numerous bottles of wine.

"They get five or six bottles of wine, it's not memorable or life-changing and it's gone by the end of summer."

Cunniffe, chief executive of Tax Management NZ, said the company had decided to embrace the charitable Christmas spirit and instead of wine would gift $10,000 towards something that could make a difference.

He said it was a trend a lot of professional service firms had been moving toward to replace the traditional Christmas gifts.

Chief executive of Kidney Kids New Zealand, Keith Mackenzie, said this corporate giving at Christmas was something he'd seen more of in the last three years.

"We are very appreciative of it and corporates and their staff agree that giving a bottle of wine doesn't really mean much to them, but the value of that bottle means a lot to Kidney Kids."

Kidney Kids was one of the three charities Tax Management NZ staff voted to support this Christmas, alongside the Starship Foundation and Kids Can.

Each charity would get $2000 and the remaining $4000 is divvied out according to the ratio of client votes.

Last year these charities were the Women's Refuge, Mental Health Foundation and the Breakfast Club.

Cunniffe said the clients seemed to appreciate the donation on their behalf more than a Christmas gift.

"We got more spontaneous emails from clients [about our charitable giving] than people who'd say thanks for the bottle of wine," he said. "They'd say things like we don't need a bottle of wine, I'm delighted to know that my money is going to those who need it."

Tax Management NZ chief operating officer Mara Fisher had a personal connection with one of the chosen charities, Kidney Kids, since her son Tarik was born.

She said a treatment injury had caused his kidneys to go into failure. She was given the choice of letting him die - still inside her - or having him early, so he could die in her arms.

Fisher chose to have him early - at just 31 weeks gestation, weighing only 1.7kg.

She said the doctors didn't expect Tarik to see the week out.

"Even after a week doctors told me he's going to die and I should just take him home, but I couldn't bear the [idea] of taking him home just to die."

It was around this time a support person from Kidney Kids came and offered support. She's found its regular input invaluable even as Tarik defied all odds to make it till he was big enough for dialysis at 1 year old, and an eventual kidney transplant at age 2.

Fisher said the year Tarik spent on dialysis was the toughest, with her boy spending 12 hours a night hooked up to a machine, a treatment that also left him unable to eat solids and made him frequently nauseous to the point he vomited five or six times a day.

She said the support people from Kidney Kids New Zealand went beyond coping with the medical aspects of his condition and into the "human side".

"They were good for those social connections, there were always events for him to join, so even when he had a tube on his face, he never felt he was the only one."