Giving Compass' Take:

• Maine Beer Company, SweetWater brewery, Dogfish Head and 10 Barrel are all charitable breweries doing their best to make lasting change by organizing charity events, donating funds, and supporting other local businesses. 

• How can more of the food and beverage industry focus on more CSR initiatives similar to these breweries? 

• Read about the new era of corporate social responsibility. 

Brothers Daniel and David Kleban started Maine Beer Company armed with a charitable ethos and decisive motto: “Do What’s Right.” The statement appears on Maine Beer packaging, signage, and apparel to this day.

“At Maine Beer Company, we try to do things correctly,” Anne Marisic, marketing coordinator at MBC, says. “Whether that’s within the company, in the community, and with the environment.”

MBC is one of several breweries whose philanthropic efforts specifically target their communities to renew their resources. They support water conservation efforts to offset the considerable ecological footprint of brewing, raise funds for artistic and philanthropic causes important to their hometowns, and partner with nonprofits to put their money where it matters most.

“You can’t have good beer without clean water,” Tucker Berta Sarkisian of SweetWater Brewery in Atlanta, says. According to Sarkisian, the brewery has netted “well over a $1 million” for its clean water initiatives. Atlanta’s main water source is the Chattahoochee River, and the site holds particular meaning for outdoorsman and Sweetwater founder Freddy Bensch, who fishes and paddles there.

Dogfish Head in Milton, Del., has its own strongly worded mantra: “Think Globally, Act Locally.” The company lives by these words, and is on pace to contribute more than $1 million by 2019 to the Delaware chapter of the Nature Conservancy, the biggest beneficiary of the annual Dogfish Dash road race.

In Bend, Ore., 10 Barrel felt a sense of civic duty long before it was acquired by AB-InBev. The brewery has hosted a Charity of the Month program since opening its first Bend pub in 2010; the program is now at its brewpubs in Portland, Boise, Denver, and San Diego. The monthly initiative is open to local charities through an online application, but it’s mostly driven by what 10 Barrel team members are passionate about.

Read the full article about charitable breweries by Matt Osgood at VinePair