How to Be Charitable as a Coffee Shop this Holiday Season

The holiday season is the perfect time to introduce some charitable giving in your coffee shop. You can do this by donating some of your profits to local nonprofits. If you don't have the room in your budget to donate, give your customers the opportunity to do so! Here's how you can do that:

1. The Giving (Christmas) Tree

Be one of a kind coffee shop to fund charitable program in your town. Giving trees is a time-honored tradition of the holiday season. Contact your local homeless shelter or children's hospital. They'll give you a list of children who need Christmas (or holiday) presents. You can make small paper ornaments with the ages of the children and gift ideas for them. People can take these ornaments home to buy those presents. Once they've bought the presents, they can give them to you to give to the children. 

2. The Drink Board

This is a fun way to let your customers pay it forward. Give them the option to buy drinks for the Drink Board. When they buy extra drinks, put a little note on the board, and anyone can grab it and get a free drink!

3. Canned Food Donations

Food banks always need non-perishable food, especially during the holiday season! Label a box for food donations and place it somewhere prominent in your coffee shop. Every week or so, make sure to drop off what you've collected at your local food bank or homeless shelter.

4. The Shelter Board

Especially in the wintertime, animal shelters struggle to keep the heat on and take care of all their animals. Ask your local animal shelter for pictures and descriptions of all their available pets. Print them out and post them in your coffee shop. This gives your local animal shelter extra publicity.

5. Pay-What-You-Can Day

A lot of people can't afford simple things like a cup of coffee. This is a great way to bring more people to your coffee shop that might not be able to afford it otherwise. A pay-what-you-can day is the perfect way to show your customers you care.

The holiday season is the perfect time to give back. Your customers will love the opportunity to bring more brightness to someone's life. What do you do to make your coffee shop brighter for the holidays? Take a picture and tag us on Instagram! We love hearing from you.