In 1974, Bangladesh faced one of the worst famines in recorded human history. Resulting in part from floods, food shortages, and the aftermath of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, the nine-month crisis officially caused the deaths of 27,000 people, though unofficial estimates were as high as 1.5 million.
After witnessing the famine’s widespread devastation, Bangladeshi banker and economist Muhammad Yunus realized that making small loans—sometimes only a few dollars—to those whom he called “the poorest of the poor” often resulted in their unexpected ability to escape the cycle of poverty, whether caused by natural or economic factors. This idea of microlending, eschewed by traditional banks due to fear of default, led Yunus to establish a project providing credit to the country’s poorest workers. In 1983, he formally established Grameen Bank, using microlending as its foundational ethos.
Over the next few decades, the concept proved enormously successful. Grameen eventually lent money to 9 million borrowers in Bangladesh alone—97% of whom were women—with a 97.38% repayment rate as of September 2022. Since 2016, the Grameen Foundation has helped over 16 million people achieve financial success and poverty reduction across the globe.
When Grameen Bank and Yunus were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, Yunus said in his speech: “Peace should be understood in a human way—in a broad social, political and economic way. Peace is threatened by unjust economic, social and political order, absence of democracy, environmental degradation and absence of human rights … For building stable peace we must find ways to provide opportunities for people to live decent lives.”
To live decent lives: a simple desire that remains out of reach for so many, thanks to the aforementioned threats, and then some. Yunus understood that if access to capital remained a privilege for a select few, economic inequality would snowball. Those who had been historically excluded would find the already meager windows of opportunity even harder to access. But despite the moral necessity of proactively addressing this inequity of access, it’s still difficult to convince those holding the pursestrings to take risks on those who need it most.
That’s the way it remains in many industries, from banking to beer. However, a small but growing number of grassroots initiatives aimed at those who have been systemically marginalized by the industry have begun to take root within beverage alcohol. By harnessing the microfunding ethos and applying it to disenfranchised, but enterprising, participants, initiatives like Women of the Bevolution have reshaped the microloan concept and evolved it into a direct financing model.
In 2019, Ash Eliot founded Women of the Bevolution with the intent to empower women and non-binary beverage professionals to connect, share resources and opportunities, and eventually to provide financial assistance and mentorship through collaborations and grants, including the Women of the Bevolution Grant for BIPOC Female & Non-Binary Creators in Brewing, which launched in March 2022.
“Since Women of the Bevolution started, the goal has been to provide resources and amplify women and non-binary creators in the beverage space,” says Eliot. “[The] grant program was developed as a way to provide a path for underrepresented brewing professionals to expand their digital footprint and have access to tools to help them accomplish that.”
She explains that while monetary support and amplification efforts are crucial aspects to uplift those who have been held back, that networking element remains paramount. “The mentorship, guidance, and connections are what I really want to be a primary focus as we move forward and grow the program,” she says.
Many of these grassroots programs are aimed at alleviating the upfront costs of certification programs—like Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) or Cicerone exams—which are often seen as necessary to establishing professional credibility.
Women of the Vine & Spirits has awarded nearly $600,000 in scholarships since 2017, helping women pay for things like the Wine & Spirit Education Trust exams, which start at $300 and balloon up to $2,600 for advanced diplomas. In 2020, Eugenia Brown established the Road to 50, which eventually expanded to 100, to offset the costs of taking the Cicerone Certified Beer Server exam. In September 2022, the University of California, Davis announced the launch of its 2022 UC Davis Tapping Potential Fund campaign, which is “a crowdfunded, diversity-focused scholarship program to support full-ride scholarships to the prestigious UC Davis Online Master Brewers Certificate Program and other online brewing courses.” The Pink Boots Society also offers a variety of scholarships for educational opportunities, from sending recipients to various Siebel Institute of Technology courses to brewing and malting science classes through the Master Brewers Association of Americas.
These programs specifically aim to increase educational opportunities, but tend to stop after providing much-needed upfront funds. Other programs add to that financial framework, including the Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling, which Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver launched in 2020 to both fund scholarships as well as provide personalized mentorship to ensure “technical education and career advancement for Black, Indigenous, and people of color in the brewing and distilling industries,” with the hope of creating “a more just, equitable, and dynamic future.” In a similar vein, Beer Kulture became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2020, and began offering scholarships, mentorship and job opportunities, and more to “increase diversity, inclusion and equity through humanitarian assistance, educational programs and compassionate community services,” according to its mission statement.
Ten years ago, very few initiatives existed to specifically empower women, LGBTQ+ people, or BIPOC folks in beer through financial support. Informal online communities and local meetups kept underrepresented people in craft beer connected with one another, but primarily focused on word-of-mouth opportunities or simple communion (which, of course, remains a crucial aspect of the overall craft beer experience). Today, these needs are finally starting to be addressed.
Women of the Bevolution kept that networking aspect at the forefront while also adding the financial component—a two-part approach Eliot felt was lacking in craft beer. “[I]t’s hard enough for women to have the opportunity and the funding to physically create a product or open a brewery, and it’s even more difficult for women of color,” she says. “I’ve seen a lot of different programs and internships that offer educational opportunities, but what happens when you have that experience, maybe as a homebrewer, or you’ve done the internships or you’ve taken the classes? How do you take that next step to launch a product in-market if you don’t have the funding or the connections or the mentorship? That’s where this program I feel was extremely needed.”
The first recipients of the BIPOC Female & Non-Binary Creators in Brewing grant, which were awarded earlier this year, each received $300; a one-hour marketing and content creation strategy consultation with Eliot; and a one-hour consultation with Advanced Cicerone, National BJCP Beer Judge, and podcast host Jen Blair. The process was audited and supported by additional collaborator Lindsay Malu Kido, founder and editor of Beer Is For Everyone.
$300 isn’t a life-changing amount for most people. But as Grameen Bank proved, even small amounts of money can make a difference, especially when they are strategically given to people who historically have not received opportunities their counterparts have. “A grant of $300 can make a big difference to someone who has an entrepreneurial spirit,” says Blair. She says this is especially true for people who don’t work in beer full-time, but want to launch projects that require start-up cash, like purchasing microphones for a podcast. “It can be really hard to justify capital investment. Even though [$300] is not a huge amount of money, it’s not an insignificant amount, either.”
Kido knows first-hand the benefits of microgrants. “I know that I would not have been able to grow Beer Is For Everyone into what it is now if I didn’t have the financial resources,” they laugh wryly. “The world is run by money, so being able to give these wonderful people a head start is sometimes all they need to get going.” In short, once opportunities start opening and barriers start crumbling, more opportunities often follow.
“I’ve seen a lot of different programs and internships that offer educational opportunities, but what happens when you have that experience, maybe as a homebrewer, or you’ve done the internships or you’ve taken the classes? How do you take that next step to launch a product in-market if you don’t have the funding or the connections or the mentorship? That’s where this program I feel was extremely needed.”
Women of the Bevolution started small: five grantees selected out of a pool of applicants. Determining the initial recipients was a collaborative process, with Eliot, Blair, and Kido individually reviewing each application and then collectively deciding on the final five. Each brought a unique sensibility to the process, they say: Eliot the organizational aptitude and content expertise, Blair the podcast experience and sensory knowledge, and Kido the cultural auditing and editorial proficiency.
“I wanted to find people who wanted to birth something that was bigger than themselves: that was for beer, for all of us, and at the heart of it truly about making change,” explains Kido, describing the selected applicants as determined and creative agents of change. Eliot agrees, adding: “All of the first round of applicants displayed motivation, passion, and enormous talent in the brewing space. Seeing the amount of applicants and the diverse areas of focus within brewing only furthers the need for this type of program.”
Adena Brewington-Brown, April Dove, Jade Gonzalez, Erika Mantilla, and Shayla Washington were the first class of grant recipients for Women of the Bevolution. From Delaware, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and California, respectively, these beer professionals, hobbyists, enthusiasts, content creators, and creatives come from different backgrounds, with different identities, and different goals. But they have one very important thing in common: They’re been shut out of opportunities in craft beer—whether consciously or not—because of who they are.
“There are probably doors that have opened I haven’t even walked through or seen that are open … [after receiving the grant], people know about me. It’s just an immense network of camaraderie and community. Women of the Bevolution really gives you that family and support.”
“We [women and marginalized people] have to fight for our opportunities. We deserve to get opportunities to further explore ourselves and what we want to do,” says Gonzalez, who works in social media for TapRm, a software company that allows alcohol brands and marketplaces to sell directly from their own websites. Her path into beer has been one of experimentation: first interning at Bronx Brewery with the support of Beer Kulture in 2020 before realizing she preferred a creative role over production. It wasn’t until the Women of the Bevolution grant went live that she realized she could pivot her professional goals without financial insecurity. “It was another opportunity—so I took it,” she says, emboldened by her initial success. “Getting the Women of the Bevolution grant gave me the opportunity to push myself in ways I couldn’t before.”
Washington, who runs @momsthatbeer on Instagram, says Women of the Bevolution’s commitment to mentorship provided crucial guidance that helped her make the most of the additional financial boost. “Ash did an amazing job connecting with me,” she says, listing a number of tangible suggestions Eliot prepped for her before investing in creating and launching a shirt line. With Eliot and Blair’s guidance, Washington says she was able to grow her community and connect with other moms in beer in ways that ultimately boosted sales.
For those still in the nascent stage of their professional beer journeys, having experienced and empathetic mentors easily accessible made just as much difference as cash. “The fact that I can call Jen Blair and Ash Eliot, these two big powerhouses in the beer industry, is just amazing,” says Dove, known as @travelinghoptista on Instagram and founder of Tha CommUNITY brew initiative. “There are probably doors that have opened I haven’t even walked through or seen that are open … [after receiving the grant], people know about me. It’s just an immense network of camaraderie and community. Women of the Bevolution really gives you that family and support.”
Brewington-Brown agrees. The financial seed Women of the Bevolution planted got things started, but it’s the long-term nurturing that she’s most grateful for. “It was a wonderful opportunity just to be able to sit down and have a sounding board … The additional follow-up after those initial conversations was helpful, but also shows me those individuals are truly invested in my growth.”
For recipients like Mantilla, there was a third aspect that helped boost them up as well. “It just kind of gave me a glimpse of hope,” she says. “Even though I have a lot of growth left in the industry, I have so much support. Even though sometimes I feel not the best, my journey is very young, and to just have that much support as someone who’s just starting—it’s only been a year or so—it just means a lot to me. It kind of gives me that push, that energy that I need, that I’m capable of doing this.”
Now that the first grant recipients have been awarded, Women of the Bevolution is already looking forward to launching the second round in fall 2022, with some tweaks: namely, using the first group to gather feedback on how to improve. One sentiment echoed by each recipient was the desire for additional networking opportunities—not necessarily with more mentors, but with one another. Some of the winners did meet due to happenstance (Brewington-Brown says she ran into another recipient at Barrel & Flow Fest in Pittsburgh, and Mantilla and Gonzalez have met previously through the greater New York City beer scene) but overall, the lack of formal connection among the group is something that will likely evolve in subsequent rounds of the grant.
“I know that I would not have been able to grow Beer Is For Everyone into what it is now if I didn’t have the financial resources. The world is run by money, so being able to give these wonderful people a head start is sometimes all they need to get going.”
The impact of the grant can also be hard to quantify, which Kido aims to balance when building out future programs. As a PhD candidate studying Indigenous education with a focus on diversity, inclusion, and social equity, they are intimately familiar with the debate of quantitative vs. qualitative knowledge. “I am a believer that we need to have both—we need to be able to have quantitative data in order to have regeneration of this program. A lot of funding comes from the quantitative aspect of data.” However, she adds, “The qualitative progress that people make is much more valuable and longer lasting. I think that in the next round, I would like to see us focus a lot more on milestones in both schools of thought.”
On that quantitative side, Eliot hopes to increase everything the program currently offers: funding, number of mentors and recipients, and networking opportunities. “Every conversation we’ve had with grantees has been inspiring and a reminder of how important this program is and how important it is to expand it. I think by hearing from the grantees directly about their goals, ideas, and the hurdles they’ve encountered in this industry, has really helped us to figure out what needs to happen to further support them and help them accomplish these goals.”
Diversity of funding sources will also remain a crucial aspect of the program’s solubility. “Funding so far has been a majority from merch fundraisers, but the goal is to raise more funding through direct donations and sponsorships as we look to expand the program,” says Eliot, pointing to the pros and cons of establishing a formal nonprofit. With 501(c)(3) status comes certain benefits, but bureaucratic red tape as well. Instead, she’s looking to alternative formats, like mutual aid programs, or collaborations with other like-minded organizations for opportunities. One next step is the Beer Kulture Women of the Bevolution Creator Launchpad Grant, where one grantee will receive $15,000, production time at Pilot Project in Chicago, three months of financial consulting, three months of marketing and PR consulting, and a copy of Beer Kulture’s book “This Ain’t The Beer That You’re Used To.”
Blair stresses that regardless of the reward size, applying for a Women of the Bevolution grant will always remain accessible to everyone. “A lot of applications, you have to write an essay, or have attachments or whatever. That’s enough to have a lot of people opt out of the process. Those kinds of processes weren’t built for historically excluded communities to benefit from,” she says. After going through the process herself, Gonzalez says she hopes more are inspired to apply for themselves. “Take the opportunity and apply, because you never know,” she says, pointing to her own successes through programs like the Bronx Brewery internship and Women of the Bevolution grant. “Don’t feel discouraged because right now we’re misrepresented in the industry. There’s change coming. Together we are stronger.”
Washington agrees, encouraging anyone with even the slightest inclination of applying to do so. And, she adds, if you fall outside the eligibility requirements but wish to make a difference, “look for ways to mentor,” she encourages. “This is important.” Important, Mantilla agrees—as well as overdue. “There’s still a lot more work to do,” says Mantilla. “But the ball is rolling.”
Words by Beth DemmonIllustrations by Colette Holston
