It's been a tough year for many New Zealanders but thanks to a new take on corporate Christmas gifts, six kiwi charities have received an end of year bonus.

Telecom business customers gifted a total of $40,000 to various charities throughout New Zealand through a Telecom Christmas initiative.

Telecom sent Christmas cards to their Medium Enterprise customers and invited them to a website where they could donate $20 to one of six charities. Telecom GM of Business, Victoria Crone says, "We recognise that this year hasn't been easy so instead of sending the standard corporate gift of wine or sweets, we offered our customers the opportunity to give something back to those who find this time of year especially difficult".

Among the charities to receive this Christmas gift with a twist, Telecom business customers chose child cancer support charity, CanTeen to receive the largest donation with a total of $9800.

The following charities received a donation from Telecom and its Medium Enterprise clients this Christmas:

CanTeen - $9800 SPCA - $7480 Surf Lifesaving NZ - $6460 NZ Heart Foundation - $6320 What's Up? - $5040 Royal Forest and Bird Society - $4920

The corporate gifts were part of a number of charitable programmes run by Telecom this Christmas including $30,000 worth of food donated by Telecom staff to food banks around the country as well as collections of recyclable phones and gifts for Starship and Women's Refuge at the Telecom Trees in Auckland and Wellington.