Whiskey As a Tool
“Unless your kid's fundraiser is selling whiskey, I'm not interested.” - Anonymous
Introduction:
Instead of a place that reeks of cigarette smoke where you can get cheap beer (quality and price), what if the VFW was known as a high class establishment where you could find fine whiskey and smoke cigars?
Would the younger generation of veteran find that more appealing? I think so and, so far, my experience is proving this theory correct.
Prior to the pandemic my Post raised as much as $10,000 an event by hosting a private whiskey tasting. We held our first post-COVID tasting a few months ago and brought in around $2500. The nice thing about the last tasting was that it was also a barrel pick with the Fighting 69th Irish Whiskey.
Fighting 69th Whiskey
Fundraising Ideas
I began working with Warriors & Whiskey and Veterans Whiskey Club prior to becoming State Commander. In fact, their Denver brand ambassador connected me with several Colorado distilleries that contributed greatly to the success of hospitality room I put on with the Arizona Commander, Bill "Jumper" Schaeffler, at the Phoenix Convention. The in-kind donations provided nearly all of the alcohol consumed in the suite last year, and the military branch specific spirits from 1350 Distillery helped raise over $2000 for the Colorado Service Office.
The success of the Convention raffle lead to the idea to introduce local distilleries to the Colorado Posts, in an effort to have the Posts with canteens to carry these local whiskies. In return, the distilleries would make donations to our service office. In fact, VWC presented the concept during our March Council of Administration weekend.
However, National beat me to the punch and before I could get the Colorado program off the ground when they launched their Return the Favor campaign. But have no fear, I am still working on an arrangement with the Veterans Whiskey Club to make the VFW the next recipient of their Giving Back program. The goal is to find out in which states they sell their Brass & Anchor whiskey, then take a portion of each sale and make a donation to that Department's Service Office.
In the meantime, there are plenty of other ways to use whiskey to fundraise.
Tastings and Barrel Picks
Shortly after St Patrick's Day, Post 1 picked a barrel of Fighting 69th Irish whiskey at a tasting event held at the Post. By cross promoting the event to our members and the local Veterans Whiskey Club over 60 guests attended. In addition to picking everyone's favorite sample, the Post raised $2500, and we signed up at least 3 new VFW members. In other words, whiskey helped bring veterans we didn't already know through our doors, giving us the opportunity for them to get to know, like, and trust us.
Since the event, the selected whiskey has been bottled and is ready for delivery and sale. Not only in our Post, but several Posts around Colorado have ordered cases from the barrel that we selected. As an added bonus, Fighting 69th provided custom labels for each Post making the bottles more appealing to their members. Each Post can decide if they want to mark the bottles up or add them to their inventory to be used in specialty drinks, all of which are marked up to provide additional fundraising opportunities.
Of course, Posts can hold their own tasting events, or partner with a local distillery to pick a barrel on site and let the distillery sell the bottles on the Post's behalf. That's what District 5 did to raise money for the newest Post in their District, Post 12227, which I Instituted last year.
Recruiting
In addition to recruiting new members to my Post at an event, Warriors & Whiskey posted a recruiting reel to their various social media platforms asking THEIR eligible members to join the VFW. Their founders understand, as a fellow membership organization built on camaraderie, that our target audiences overlap and instead of being competitive or territorial that collaboration helps us both grow.
Besides gaining new VFW members at our tasting I know several Post members joined the Veterans Whiskey Club (which is free, BTW). Either way, by using whiskey to change the impression of a typical VFW Post we can organically attract new potential members.
