Selfish Philanthropy

I just finished an interview with NYNews 1 shot at Veselka which should come out later tonight. The story is actually nice: I got introduced to Tom and Jason Birchard, the owners of the Ukrainian classic restaurant at 9th and 2nd Av a few weeks ago as they tried our wine at a Ukraine fundraiser we were hosting and they wanted to bring some into their restaurant. I was thrilled, but after a few minutes of talking, it was clear we are not going to sell them wine, we need to bring over one of our barrels of tap wine and raise money for the Ukrainian people. We mutually decided in that intro call that each of us would give 100% of every $10 glass sold to Jose Andre’s World Central Kitchen directed for serving meals in the Ukraine. It’s looking to be a horrible winter for the people there given Putin’s criminal targeting of infrastructure. Anyway, we painted a barrel, rolled it over, and boom we raising some money for an important cause, L’chaim!

We get solicited for product at a rate of about 100x the wine actually produce. We probably also are asked between all our venues to give our space for free for a benefit, auction, gala dinner 2000 nights a year for free.   There are many many worthy causes and sadly, our world is littered with important issues that need our help. We truly could all work as a company trying to give things away and make important dollars for all of these worthy organizations 24/7.  But, we would not last long as a business.  But we do believe in the Hebrew expression of Tikkum Olam, translated to “repair the world”. The world does need a lot of fixing, be it climate change, cancer, school improvement, etc. etc. But we can also look at all of this giving as something than be a little selfish too. Not the good feeling deep inside, but the reasonable marketing outside.

We take our charitable giving seriously; nevertheless, we also recognize that some of this can help exposing our brand and product to new audiences.  It can be more than win/win, it can be win/win/wine. I mean, I’m very proud of the fact we are making money every night at Veselka, while getting some marketing done at the same time. That was not the reason to do it, but it’s a fine byproduct and nothing to be ashamed of. It can, in many creative ways be a great marketing opportunity to reach an attractive and hard to reach demographic by giving away a free dinner package at a private school auction or a fancy cancer research gala dinner..  In fact, in many cases, these opportunities are the only way to get on the radar of an audience we would never reach, if it were not for the charity.  And how much does it really cost us to give a pair of tickets away to a show or a private dinner party if something is really worthy (and those are really popular at live auctions if we throw in a wine 101 program or something).

The most popular request is for us to donate some product to their event and/or auction.  Wine requests are hard to give for free (although the Ukraine is pulling at our heart), but we do have a great non-profit rate to give the organization some quality wine at close to our cost.  We can also private label it within this program which is a nice plus for an organization to do something with. We had a really fun label with the comedian Lewis Black, who was helping raise money for the 52nd Street Project. Not only did they auction off “A wine making dinner with Lewis Black”, which went to two high bidders for $10k each, but the organization paid cost for a barrel which we “made” at the dinner with a blending session and the 300 “Black Wine” bottles were signed by Lewis and then sold to raise even more for them. All in about 40k raised for this great non-profit, fun, and yes, it brought us lots of attention which was wonderful.  

We have poured wine at golf events, sponsored receptions in private homes, and even the Mayor’s mansion.  There are important foodie events raising money we want to be at and some very strategic organizations we want to associate with. In fact, there is almost no nonprofit request we say no to giving them a little something. Just give us a tiny bit of exposure and we are good. Is it selfish, perhaps a little. Does this help the world move forward in a better way, you betch ya…..