Hello Drink for Pink readers: First things first, get the candles ready because 2020 is our 5th year Anniversary!!!
We started DFP in 2015 as a way to combine our passion for craft beer and help solve a problem that impacts 1 in 8 women in their lifetime, Breast Cancer. We knew we wanted it to be 100% volunteer, transparent, and local to CO. We didn’t know much about the nonprofit space, and we didn’t set a goal for ourselves for how long we wanted to do this. To this day, Drink for Pink is the best idea we’ve ever put to action, spanning relationships and partnerships that we cherish tremendously. More importantly, it has helped us raise over $50K in the fight for Breast Cancer through research.
Below is a recap of 2019, which you can summarize into a year where we expanded our event base, leaned on partnerships we’ve curated over the past 4 years, and got some much needed help in the marketing department. We always wonder what Drink for Pink would look like with actual employees, dedicated to building a charity as large as possible, but there is a romanticism to finding bandwidth and effort outside of our daily work and personal routines.
Highlights…
We did more with less. In the past, we’ve enjoyed a board of volunteers in the double digits. This year we made do with 6. Running a volunteer operation means people come and go, they key is to keep things fun and focused on the task at hand.
We added a Fort Collins team and a Marketing Wizard. We are fortunate to have Megan Wolff and Breaunna Norris as DFP superfans who had a passion for spreading our mission in Northern Colorado. They were pivotal in adding Odell and New Belgium to our event list, through a wonderful partnership with Colorado Brewery Running Series. We also were fortunate to get the marketing efforts of Alix Mozota, who can update a website and schedule Instagram stories with her eyes closed.
Speaking of new breweries. We added Great Divide to our list of participating breweries. We also partook in the South in your Mouth festival that Lone Tree hosted, an event that marked a long term goal of having DFP at Beer Fests!
Rebounding from 2018. We managed to raise $14K in 2018, a number that showed the transition we went through from a leadership perspective. Just like doing more with less, our goal is to keep the organization fun and not put too much pressure on the actual number raised; it is volunteer work after all. 2019 was a much better start, with solid partnerships and smoother planning for our big events like the Cornhole Tournament and Ugly Sweater X-mas Party.
Big Shout Out to Brewery Bootcamp. We are forever indebted to the wonderful team at Brewery Bootcamp, Lindsay and Paul Chavez. Their event singlehandedly outraises the entirety of our other events and somehow they manage to make it bigger and better every year.
New Partners, old friendships. We were honored and delighted to partner with Ella Bliss Beauty Bar and Project Helping. Drink for Pink’s history runs deep with both organizations and it felt like a dream come true to feature them in our lineup of fundraisers. To learn more, click on their links below J
What we’re focusing on…
Momentum. 2019 taught us that if you build it, they will come….and drink J The days of cold calling breweries to partner up seem to be fading, with more requests coming in through our website and social media pages (That’s how Great Divide came to be and we are in chats with 10 Barrel for 2020). We can’t think of a better way to celebrate 5 years together than to expand our reach organically.
Expansion to other States. We are keen on taking DFP to other markets in the same way that we started in CO, by working together with passionate individuals looking for a way to serve their community. The fact that we have barely scratched the surface in CO makes it daunting to go elsewhere, but sometimes the right opportunity presents itself and you have to for it. Stay tuned!
The numbers…
In:
Events – $23,667.49
T-shirts/Direct Donations – $2,890.24
Amazon Smile donations – $47.21
TOTAL – $26,604.94
Out:
Marketing – $2,220.25 (shirts, stickers, and the fabric top for our event tent)
Fees – $163 (government fees including event permits and state registration)
Business expenses – $45.99 (operational costs such as website and bank fees)
TOTAL – $2,429.24*
*We are always looking for Corporate Sponsors to help offset this cost.
Total donation to breast cancer research in 2019:$23,000
Total donations since 2015:$67,678.
Wrap-up
2019 was a year where everyone stepped up to help push the rock forward. We added some big names in the industry which raises our belief that what we are doing is working. We are incredibly grateful to the breweries and partners that helped us raise money for Breast Cancer Research.
Participating Breweries:
Key Partners: