Over $2 million in impact and counting.
The FINNEGANS Story
Drink Like You Care
Jacquie Berglund, FINNEGANS CEO and Rambunctious Social Entrepreneur, tells the story of FINNEGANS and the $2 million of community impact we have created since the first sip of our heavenly Irish Amber beer.
In 1999, Jacquie Berglund and Twin Cities pub owner Kieran Folliard teamed up to co-create the original FINNEGANS Irish Amber recipe with the James Page Brewing Company. But after learning about Paul Newman’s ground-breaking “give-back” business model powering his line of Newman’s Own products, Jacquie realized that simply brewing amazing beer wasn’t enough.
In 2000, equally inspired by Billy Shore, founder of Share Our Strength, the leading organization working to end childhood hunger in America, Jacquie brewed up a plan to serve critical issues in the Twin Cities community. She purchased the recipe outright for $1.00, and the world’s first beer company dedicated to donating its profits to charity was born.
For our first ten years as FINNEGANS and the FINNEGANS Community Fund, we dedicated ourselves to helping end the cycle of poverty. However, in 2011 we decided to focus more on hunger alleviation, working with a network of food bank partners and local food shelves in the upper Midwest communities we serve.
In 2018, FINNEGANS Brew Co. was born, with the opening of a production brewery and taproom in the Elliot Park neighborhood of Minneapolis. Starting with our original flagship Irish Amber beer, FINNEGANS has produced more than 100 delicious and tasty beers that can be sampled in the taproom or at bars, restaurants and liquor stores across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Most importantly, FINNEGANS serves as the anchor for FINNEGANS House, a one-of-a-kind four-story home to businesses dedicated to social impact and bringing people together over a cause.
Our success has only served to deepen our commitment to our communities, and has allowed us to extend our hunger alleviation efforts hyper-locally to every area we serve. When you enjoy a cold FINNEGANS brew, you are literally supporting the food shelves around you, whether in Minneapolis, Duluth, St. Cloud, Fargo, or Sioux Falls. Our hunger alleviation efforts, combined with past support to end the cycle of poverty, has created a total overall impact of over $2 million and counting.
