At Emma, we think that doing well as a company also means doing good. And so we try to do our part, chipping in for causes we care about. Here are a few:

Planting five trees for every new customer.

In the spring of 2007, we decided to plant some trees. After all, trees are tall and leafy and quite good at providing shade. And we like them. So we launched a quirky Arbor Day campaign called, quite simply, Vote for Trees. We asked pretty much everyone we know to vote YES for trees, because why wouldn't they, and for each vote — up to 5,000 — we planted a tree.

To continue the leafy good times, we began planting five new trees for every customer who joins us with the help of our tree-planting partner, Plant-It 2020. With more than 400 companies, non-profits and agencies joining us every single month, that’s, well, hold on while we do the math, 20,000 trees a year. That’s a forest, people.

To learn more about Plant-It 2020, go here.

Giving away 25 Emma accounts every year.

Starting in 2004, the annual Emma 25 initiative awards free Emma service to small, deserving non-profits that our customers nominate. From the list of heartfelt nominees, we encourage our customers (and their friends) to vote for their favorites. Then, we select 25 accounts and award each with a free Emma account and service for as long as they find it useful. There are now Emma 25 honorees doing great work all over the world, and we plan to continue adding to their ranks every single year. In fact, this year, we tacked on an *additional* 25 accounts for charitable groups in cities Emma calls home — Nashville, Portland, Denver and Austin.

You can see a list of this year's Emma 25 honorees here.

Helping our agency partners give back, too.

Many marketing, design and consulting firms use the Emma Agency platform to offer stylish email marketing services to their clients (with an interface that features the agency’s own stylish branding). More importantly, we set up every agency with a free account that can be used for whatever deserving charity they choose. We call it our "Good Works" account, and it lets our agency partners share in the spirit of Emma 25 and give a little back themselves. Think of it as Emma 26. Or maybe not. Either way, it’s all good.

Providing loans to small businesses through Kiva.

Kiva connects small business owners and entrepreneurs in developing countries with people interested in lending a helping hand. So each month, a revolving group of Emma staffers peruses the Kiva site and decides how to distribute Emma’s monthly contribution.

But here’s the twist: rather than simply donating the money, we’re lending it to them. The loans tend to be quite small — a shop owner needs $100 for more supplies, say — so a little money really does go a long way. Here’s the other twist: nearly all of the money loaned gets paid back in full. So as the Kiva fund grows each month, we’ll be helping more and more entrepreneurs around the world.

You can check out some of the folks we've helped recently here.

Funding classroom projects through DonorsChoose.org.

The idea behind DonorsChoose.org is simple: Teachers post projects that fall outside of their typical classroom budget, and donors can choose (hence the name) to fund all or a part of it. Emma staffers do that each month, picking a handful of projects around the country. Best of all, the kids write back to say thanks, resulting in lots of adorable cards, notes and pictures. Since we started working with DonorsChoose.org in March 2008, we’ve helped more than 10,000 students in 27 states.

See how you can help DonorsChoose.org here.

Supporting the things our staffers care about.

We also look for ways to support the organizations and events our staffers are involved in, by staffing a toy drive for needy families, and scaring the beheyhey out of kids at a community center’s Halloween carnival, and sponsoring events on the environment, sustainability and the like. As a small — but growing — company of roughly 100 staffers, you can bet this part of our community work will only grow over time.

So there you have it — a few ways Emma gives a little back. If you have any follow-up thoughts on anything you've read here, by all means drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you.