Sustained Effort, is collaboration beer project to support Social Justice and DEI where the collaboration happens in perpetuity. It’s going to take a Sustained Effort to make real lasting change and the Sustained Effort project is a beer collaboration that never ends. Collectively, different breweries will release collab beers each week year round or until the day real change has been achieved, however individually, breweries only need to brew a one time or annual Sustained Effort collab beer as a part of the larger effort.  Breweries will select a preferred release date for their beer release and if the specific requested release date is already taken, we’ll schedule the next closest date.  The idea is that we’ll have at least one brewery release every week of the year and ultimately many breweries releasing every week.

Another key component of Sustained Effort is Action Steps.  Instead of just brewing the beer and writing a check to an org, the brewery must complete at least one of the provided Action Steps to be eligible to participate.  Action Steps could include things like inviting the partner org to brew day and then have a sit down with them to listen and understand their cause and how the brewery can further support, starting or maintaining a DE&I program, donating 1% of annual proceeds to X org(s), volunteering X amount of hours to support an org, and potentially lower hanging fruit like simply making a pledge to diversity in hiring, to ensure we have a lower barrier of entry to breweries who may be new to understanding and supporting this important work.  Action Steps makes going beyond the “flashbulb handshake” a requirement and to further highlight each breweries efforts, we’ve created badges that are placed on the individual breweries collab label that show the Action Steps taken by each participating brewery.

We’ve seen and participated in so many collabs over the years that support amazing causes and organizations, but after the collab is over and the check is written, the intention and purpose of collab fades for many.  We also see so many checks just being written and little to no interaction with the org.  Personally spending time with the orgs, we consistently receive similar feedback; the money is nice and appreciated, but awareness and getting the word out is most important to us.  Having a collaboration project that never ends that always keeps DEI and Social Justice issues top of mind, requires participants to have real and meaningful engagement with the orgs rather than simply making a donation, and challenges then rewards participants for taking Action Steps giving recognition for the more Action Steps they accomplish will make real, sustainable change in our industry and beyond.