North End’s Good Robot Brewing reinvents its goodwill program

The founders of North End microbrewery Good Robot Brewing are expanding their social outreach programs with the new Goodwill Partnership Program.

Launching July 2, the extensive new fundraising initiative will replace the Robie Street brewery business’s pre-pandemic Goodwill Bot Initiative, which was a weekly live event to raise funds for various local non-profit organizations or charities.

“COVID just rendered public gatherings, such as in our taproom, a question mark for the future,” says co-founder Joshua Counsil, adding the team attempted to adapt the initiative online. “But that didn’t really work very well because the average customer didn’t understand that they were contributing to a non-profit (organization).”

Designed as an in-person fundraiser, the Goodwill Bot Initiative was a popular weekly event before the pandemic shut it down. Raising more than $75,000 spread across more than 50 non-profit organizations, Counsil says that, while it was successful, Good Robot decided to reinvent their fundraising program as a whole.

“The question became should we focus on maybe a few organizations per year that we really curate based on our values and have a higher impact on them,” says Counsil. “That was sort of the fundamental ethos that led the change here.”

As such, the Goodwill Partnership Program will be comprised of four key areas of focus — the first of which is the July 2 launch of Good Robot’s Goodwill Beer.

Teaming up with NOISE Information and Transition Agency, Good Robot has produced a batch of beer with part of the proceeds being donated to the non-profit group who’s mandate is to assist those who were incarcerated back into civilian life, particularly people of Black and Indigenous communities.

“We were working with them to help with some kind of brand awareness piece, we were offering our physical space if they needed it and we said, if we have any opportunities open up, let’s continue this conversation,” says Counsil of how the partnership to create the new Goodwill Beer Watermelon Mango Ale was forged.

“They get 50 cents of every pint sold (and that’s) every pint sold of that batch of beer until it’s all gone,” adds Counsil. “So people can enjoy the beer at their local pub or restaurant (or) they can enjoy it at home.”

The July 2 release of Goodwill Beer will be marked by a celebration at the Good Robot taproom on Robie Street. While Cousil says the event will be low-key in light of COVID-19 restrictions and recent Canada Day controversies, “we’re still going to make sure people know that something special is happening.”

In addition to the Goodwill Beer, Good Robot’s new Goodwill Partnership Program will include other programs that will be aimed to address the immediate needs for community or non-profit organizations.

These will include Good Robot’s Goodwill Gifts, which provide non-profit organizations with Good Robot products for silent auctions or fundraisers and the creation of Goodwill Ambassadors that will be comprised of staff or patrons interested in volunteering with non-profit groups.

A one-time donation for groups in immediate need will also be created. The most recent recipient of Good Robot’s Goodwill Relief Fund will be Change is Brewing’s GoFundMe campaign to Buy Black Birchtown.

“A lot of what we support is reflected in how the world is feeling,” says Counsil of the brewery’s decision to support a BIPOC and 2SLGBTQ retreat and learning centre on the South Shore for Black, Indigenous and people of colour.

“There’s a mutually-beneficial relationship there,” says Counsil, noting that Good Robot thrives only through it’s community involvement. “(And) pubs are more fun with more diversity. A pub is a public house, it should be a place where people feel that they can come and have a drink, have a laugh, talk things through (and) we want everyone to feel like they have that place to go.”

For more information on Good Robot's Goodwill Partnership Program, visit the website.