Brewing Benevolence is a series of articles and interviews with breweries that are committed to more than just brewing beer in their communities. In this edition, I talked with Full Sail Brewing Co. in Hood River, Oregon about their employee owned brewery. With the help of Sandra, a Marketing Manager at Full Sail, I was able to get Irene Firmat, the founder and CEO of the brewery to respond to my questions. Read on for Irene’s insight on Full Sail and the Hood River community.

What specific ways is Full Sail engaging its local community?

Our employee ownership has created a powerful set of stakeholders in the Hood River community. Because our employees share equity in the company they have a great sense of roots to the where they live and work. We have a deep sense of responsibility to the beauty of the place and operate our brewery in a careful, sustainable way. We support hundreds of events and charities each year, with a focus on those in our local area. We understand the impact that a business can have in a smaller community and we weigh our decisions with that responsibility in mind, striving to support local businesses, providing jobs with full benefits and supporting our employees who volunteer.

You have an ‘Indie Links’ page on your website with local businesses that you encourage visitors to support. This is a great example of community support. What was the inspiration behind this page and why is it important for you to recognize these businesses?

We are an independent brewery and wanted to celebrate other independent businesses. There is a shared set of values and experience in choosing this path of independence and we have a great deal of empathy for those who do.

Full Sail is an employee owned brewery. For those who don’t necessarily know what all goes into that, can you give some background as to how Full Sail decided to move to employee ownership and what all it entails?

For years, we’d been thinking and talking and dreaming about the idea of becoming an employee-owned company. So many people had put so much work and love and dedication into Full Sail, and we wanted them to share the same pride of ownership we did. But that’s not the whole story. The reason we started Full Sail in the first place was to build a company that was completely different from the ones where we’d previously worked. It wasn’t about business as usual. It was about finding our calling in life — about truly appreciating our natural and  “human” resources, and balancing work, life, family and friends in a way that makes life truly worth living. It was in that spirit that we became an independent, employee-owned company in 1999, divvying up the company between the 47 of us. Of all our accomplishments, this is the one that makes us most proud.

How has employee ownership engaged the people working for Full Sail? What are its affects on employee attitude, work ethic, loyalty, etc?

The company’s willingness to share equity with the employees exemplifies the overall commitment to make Full Sail a place where we feel respected and encouraged to take on responsibility and thrive in our jobs. We as employees have a deep sense how we can affect the success of the company. We know that we are working hard and smart not just for our personal future but our fellow employees as well.

Has Full Sail supported charitable organizations either through monetary or product donations?

We support hundreds of charitable organizations many through product donation. There just seems to be a great synergy between beer and raising money for good causes and we are very happy to be a part of that.

Has Full Sail recognized any benefits from supporting these charities?

Many of the events that we support are with other businesses as well and we find that it strengthens our relationship with those business partners. We also see that our customers recognize our support of causes important to them and that increases their connection with the brand. For our employees it is an element of pride to know that we give back and support our community. While that may be “warm and fuzzy” it is one that strengthens company loyalty and that is very tangible.

How has Full Sail chosen which organizations to support?

We support organizations that will use our support well, in other words organizations that are well run. We are conscious that we are a very small company so we try to be sure to give where we can be the most help and maximize our impact.

Why is it important for Full Sail to support charitable organizations?

As my grandmother used to say, being responsible is doing the right thing when no one is looking.  We do because it’s just the right thing to do.

Thanks again to Sandra and Irene from Full Sail! Make sure you visit their website here.