Article: Bourbon for Good Expands
Bourbon for Good Expands
Pappy & Company's Bourbon for Good™ Mission Expands
While our philanthropic initiative, Bourbon for Good™, may have started as a small idea, it has always been such a core element of our mission and vision that we knew we wanted it to grow.
It began with a question, asked in earnest and without much of a plan. Was there a way to convert the demand and passion for our family’s iconic bourbon into support for our community? It was a singular opportunity for us to embrace, but one we weren’t necessarily willing to compromise on. This bud of an idea has since become the cornerstone of our philanthropic Bourbon for Good™ mission and has held unlimited potential for continued growth and expansion.
In its inaugural outing, we held what we called a Bourbon for Good™ Sweepstakes. The idea was quite straightforward. Offering a bottle of our family’s bourbon from our own personal collection, we would donate a portion of the proceeds to a designated non-profit partner. In our earliest iterations, we began with local non-profits in our hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Organizations we had partnered with before, privately, or with whom we had a personal connection. The idea resonated. With our Pappy & Company community, our non-profit partners, and of course, with our ever-present goal of honoring the legacy of our great-grandfather, Pappy Van Winkle, whose legendary generosity, dedication, and philanthropy serve as our constant guidepost.
After a few years of hosting our Bourbon for Good™ Sweepstakes four times a year, we recognized the need for a more organized strategy to sustain the success and growth of our philanthropic efforts. We wanted to streamline the process of selecting our nonprofit partners to maximize the impact of our support, highlight the need for their critical work, and invite a deeper, more involved partnership with each organization.
We decided to create our pillars of philanthropy, modeled in the same way that the very foundation of Pappy & Company has been since the beginning, around Pappy Van Winkle’s 5 Keys to Hospitality. Originating from the five steps crucial to the intricacy of the bourbon-making process itself, they became the basis of his 5 Keys to Hospitality and remain among the most enduring representations of his legacy. A broad term, hospitality encompasses the passion, dedication, craftsmanship, heritage, and promise of quality that Pappy was devoted to, in business and life.
These pillars have become the foundation of our philanthropic philosophy and will provide the structure of our supportive initiatives, allowing us to be strategic with our support and enhance the quality and awareness of our efforts. These pillars represent a true family effort, inclusive of all members of our Van Winkle Family LLC, expanding our reach beyond our Pappy & Company, and as such are a combination of our previous desire to support causes that are personal to us, those inspired by our bourbon heritage, as well as those reflected in the philanthropic legacies of the Van Winkle generations who came before us.
Our Bourbon for Good™ Pillars: Education and Mental Health Services, Environment Sustainability (as related to the bourbon industry), Disease Prevention, Veteran Support (inspired by Julian Van Winkle II’s military service), and Family Led Causes.
Our dedicated focus on our Bourbon for Good™ pillars also created the opportunity to craft individualized branding that truly reflected and enhanced our mission, and to introduce our next logical step in our Bourbon for Good plan: a dedicated Bourbon for Good™ Collection. Carefully crafted and designed to represent the Bourbon for Good mission and share it across a variety of products that reflect our overall mission of sharing Pappy Van Winkle’s heritage while broadening the scope of our Bourbon for Good™ initiative.
Enjoy your Pappy Hour with purpose and proudly display iconic Pappy Van Winkle-inspired style that has something to say.
