The holiday season may be best known for lighting candles, ho hos, and mistletoe, but it’s also the top season for charitable donations. 

The fourth quarter — or Q4 in corporate speak — is the busiest giving season in the U.S., making up a whopping third of annual giving.

Of course, some of this comes out of pure magnanimity. The holiday season pulls at our heart strings and reminds us to appreciate one another, and what we can DO for one another. 

But let’s face it ... there’s also a financial component at play. Ten percent of all charitable donations occur in the last three days of the year, just in time for the tax year cutoff. 

As a small business owner in a small town, I can’t make the same huge financial donations that big businesses make in Q4. Instead, I donate my time and my skills each year to my favorite local charity. I take photos for the Delaware Youth Center, and I sell them to raise money to help the non-profit. 

It’s not big. It’s not flashy. And it is certainly a significant commitment of my time. But it’s one of the best things I get to do as a business owner all year, doing something that I love while also spending time with the people in the community I love to help a charity that I love. 

As more and more local organizations lament the dwindling number of volunteers, I wish more businesses looked at charitable giving this way. 

It’s not just a write-off opportunity. It’s a good way to give your employees a chance to fill their cups while filling a dire need in our communities. 

As we head into 2025, I offer this alternative to the many small business owners in our midst. 

Donate time. 

More specifically, donate your employees’ time. 

Make a point to give every employee a specified amount of paid time off to spend helping out with a charitable endeavor in 2025. 

You could organize one single day where all employees are spending a few hours (or even 8?) cleaning up the Delaware Youth Center in Callicoon, cleaning out kennels and walking adoptable dogs at CARE in Liberty, or serving up meals at the Federation for the Homeless in Monticello. Or you could allow employees to choose their own favorite local charity where they’ll spend a set amount of hours doing the sort of work that charity needs right now, work that’s within their own personal skill sets. 

The amount of money you write off at the end of next year may be the same, but the overall impact on our community and your employees will be tenfold.