GALESBURG, Mich. — Bell's Brewery is focusing on giving back through the company's first official grassroots grant program.
The 'Inspired Giving' platform gives money to communities where its beer is distributed.
The 2022 grant program is focused on water stewardship, improving the health of the natural environment and inspiring others to embrace sustainability practices through water conservation efforts.
"The grant program is explicit to water, but the ‘Inspired Giving’ Program has a much wider portfolio," said Bell's Brewery Environmental Program Director Walker Modic.
Being situated in Michigan among the Great Lakes, Bell's Brewery knows all too well the importance of using water responsibly and effectively.
"We’ve always focused here inside of our walls on using water responsibly and effectively, and that can mean continuous improvement from an engineering design perspective, pre-treating our used water before we send it to the city, but there's only so much we can do in the grand scope of water security inside of these walls," said Modic.
Starting this year, they've committed $1 for every barrel of beer sold to philanthropic activities in the areas they sell products.
"The grant program is only one sort of tentpole across the inspired giving platform. There’s some other channels through which we'll do environmental work, and then we're also doing work directly inside of our community through access to work training and readiness for work, and then also through diversity equity inclusion programs," said Modic.
Bell's has pledged to donate $480,000 toward the 'Inspired Giving' philanthropic work for 2022, and $100,000 for the specific grant cycle focusing on water.
"This program gives us the ability to leverage other's expertise. We’re great at making beer, but there are people who are equally great at protecting our water interests, both in the state of Michigan and beyond, and we want to be able to leverage this opportunity to take advantage of their equally admirable skill sets to accomplish the same kind of water stewardship we practice inside of the brewery, beyond in the spaces where we sell our beer," said Modic.
Bell's is currently seeking applications from nonprofits, programs and those supporting clean water and habitat protection until October 15, 2022. They plan to award grant funding to multiple organizations.
A grant committee made up of Bell’s employees from the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) team and Coworker Grants Committee will review applications for 30 days before awarding funding in amounts ranging between $500 and $5,000, up to $100,000. Click here to apply.
