Drinking in America

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Of all the excuses to belly up to the bar, drinking to raise money for a good cause is our all-time favorite.

In Washington state, there’s DrinkingForACause.org — a direct route to finding a party, bar or bash where your drink dollars help inner city kids, animals, sick children, and more.

Yuppie Friday is “a group of young urban professionals dedicated to supporting San Francisco philanthropy through cocktails.” This is a really good idea, and makes us wish we lived in San Fran so we could hang out with all the sophisticated, good-doer’s of Cali. Is it suspicious that they are all ridiculously good looking?

Entire beer festivals are also funneling money directly to a good cause, like the San Diego Festival of Beer, which was conceived as a fund-raising mechanism for cancer. It’s been going strong since the mid-90s.

More recently, “philanthropubs,” like Cause in Washington, D.C., are sprouting up. After paying its staff and operating expenses, Cause donates the rest of the proceeds to a vetted non-profit. We are seriously considering ditching our day jobs to start a philanthropub. Don’t worry we’ll manage to keep DIA running.

If you’re not near D.C. philanthropubs can be found in Houston, Portland, and Minnetonka, MN. Read all about them in Businessweek, and enjoy the comments from cynics and proponents alike.