{"id":57248,"date":"2022-02-08T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=57248"},"modified":"2022-02-11T09:34:47","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T14:34:47","slug":"jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"On a 21-Year Mission in Minneapolis to Make ‘Beer That Gives Back’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jacquie Berglund<\/a> always wanted to create change<\/a>, but just could never figure out how<\/em>. And then, one day, over two decades ago, it came to her: Beer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While working as the marketing director for a bar in Minneapolis, Berglund had traveled to Washington, D.C., where she heard a keynote speech by Billy Shore, the founder of antihunger group Share Our Strength<\/a>. He spoke about using for-profit activities as a revenue stream for his charity \u2013 part of a burgeoning new field called social entrepreneurship<\/a>. “And I was in the audience thinking, ‘what a brilliant idea!'” Berglund recalls. “It was like my hair was on fire.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Berglund is the founder of Finnegans, a craft beer brewing company (motto: “Beer That Gives Back”) that has spent much of its 21-year existence operating like Newman’s Own<\/a>, donating 100 percent of its profits to charity. Finnegans began as just one beer \u2013 an Irish amber with a malty finish \u2013 that Berglund made with the help of contract breweries and sold via distributors. In 2018, she was able to open a 4-story headquarters for Finnegans in downtown Minneapolis, complete with its own state-of-the-art brewery, taproom, courtyard and event space.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n \"Sarah\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n

\n \n Amid Pandemic Hunger Crisis, Entrepreneurial Women Work to Combat Food Insecurity\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

Since it began, Finnegans has developed over 100 beers sold throughout the Midwest, generating $2 million for its main cause \u2013 hunger alleviation \u2014 and worked with a network of food bank partners in all of its markets plus local farmers. A more recent creation is a dark Cork-style stout called Dead Irish Poet Caribou Coffee Stout, a collaboration<\/a> with Midwest coffee chain Caribou Coffee. “That’s flying off shelves,” says Berglund. “That’s a great problem to have.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running a pub during a pandemic has not been easy, however. While Finnegans distributes its beer to restaurants and stores, it relies primarily on sales of draft beer at its taproom to fund operations. When Covid-19 first hit, Berglund was forced to temporarily close down and lay off staff on March 17, 2020. It was “the saddest St. Patrick’s Day ever,” she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berglund received funds from the government’s Paycheck Protection Program \u2013 “it saved us,” she says \u2013 but the unpredictability of the virus, combined with social unrest following the killing of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner, led to repeated openings and closures. “It’s just been brutal,” she says. “Brutal, brutal, brutal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past August, working with new investors, Berglund restructured the company, shifting away from the 100 percent donation model for the first time in Finnegans’ history. “If you’re donating 100 percent of your profits but you’re not profitable, you’re not doing anything,” she says. Finnegans now donates a portion of its profits, which Berglund says allows for more growth and, ultimately, more impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also has a new chief operating officer, allowing Berglund to focus on her core strengths of marketing and strategic partnerships rather than overseeing operations. “I’m just so much happier now that we’ve restructured,” she says. “We are very focused on mission.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berglund is now looking forward to what she calls St. Patrick’s Day “season,” which is her busiest time of the year, and new collaborations, including an upcoming vegan wheat beer with popular UK brand Wicked Kitchen. “We have high hopes of hitting 2019 numbers,” she says. “I just call it miraculous.” ◼<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n

Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n
\n \n \"Paty\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n

\n \n An Immigrant Founder Uses Food to Lift Up Her Latino Community\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacquie Berglund has steered Finnegans through the years \u2013 and more recently, the pandemic and social unrest \u2013 to sell craft beers that fight food insecurity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":57306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187,3],"tags":[20512,20511,246,19761],"class_list":["post-57248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-entrepreneur-videos","tag-craft-beer-industry","tag-food-insecurity","tag-mission-based","tag-social-entrepreneurship"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJacquie Berglund, Finnegans: Making Beer That Gives Back<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Social entrepreneur Jacquie Berglund has steered Finnegans through the years to sell craft beers that fight food insecurity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On a 21-Year Mission in Minneapolis to Make 'Beer That Gives Back'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jacquie Berglund has steered Finnegans through the years \u2013 and more recently, the pandemic and social unrest \u2013 to sell craft beers that fight food insecurity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Story Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-08T20:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-11T14:34:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Jacquie.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen DeBaise\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Colleen DeBaise\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jacquie Berglund, Finnegans: Making Beer That Gives Back","description":"Social entrepreneur Jacquie Berglund has steered Finnegans through the years to sell craft beers that fight food insecurity.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On a 21-Year Mission in Minneapolis to Make 'Beer That Gives Back'","og_description":"Jacquie Berglund has steered Finnegans through the years \u2013 and more recently, the pandemic and social unrest \u2013 to sell craft beers that fight food insecurity.","og_url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/","og_site_name":"The Story Exchange","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange","article_published_time":"2022-02-08T20:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-02-11T14:34:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":670,"url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Jacquie.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Colleen DeBaise","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@TheStoryXchange","twitter_site":"@TheStoryXchange","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Colleen DeBaise","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/"},"author":{"name":"Colleen DeBaise","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/person\/37ea4af04b473a35e85983067534a6b6"},"headline":"On a 21-Year Mission in Minneapolis to Make ‘Beer That Gives Back’","datePublished":"2022-02-08T20:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-11T14:34:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/"},"wordCount":558,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Jacquie.png","keywords":["Craft Beer Industry","Food Insecurity","Mission-Based","Social Entrepreneurship"],"articleSection":["Features","Video Profiles of Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/","name":"Jacquie Berglund, Finnegans: Making Beer That Gives Back","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Jacquie.png","datePublished":"2022-02-08T20:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-11T14:34:47+00:00","description":"Social entrepreneur Jacquie Berglund has steered Finnegans through the years to sell craft beers that fight food insecurity.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Jacquie.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Jacquie.png","width":1200,"height":670,"caption":"Jacquie Berglund of Finnegans"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jacquie-berglund-finnegans-beer\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On a 21-Year Mission in Minneapolis to Make ‘Beer That Gives Back’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/","name":"The Story Exchange","description":"Inspiration and information for women entrepreneurs","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization","name":"The Story Exchange","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/24161459\/TSE-logo-web-e1525383604615.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/24161459\/TSE-logo-web-e1525383604615.png","width":500,"height":180,"caption":"The Story Exchange"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange","https:\/\/x.com\/TheStoryXchange","https:\/\/instagram.com\/thestoryexchange\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/the-story-exchange","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/StoryExchange"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/person\/37ea4af04b473a35e85983067534a6b6","name":"Colleen DeBaise","description":"Colleen DeBaise is former small business editor of the Wall Street Journal. Her most recent book is \u201cStart a Successful Business.\u201d She has also written about the rewards and challenges of entrepreneurship for Inc., Entrepreneur and BusinessWeek, among others. She has been interviewed on MSNBC, Fox, CNBC, CBS and NPR. Colleen has a master\u2019s in journalism from Northwestern University. Contact her at colleen@thestoryexchange.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/author\/colleen-debaise-at-the-story-exchange\/"],"url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/author\/colleen-debaise-at-the-story-exchange\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57248"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57351,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57248\/revisions\/57351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}