Tito’s Vodka Gives Its Employees the Power to Choose Charities

Tito’s Handmade Vodka

As companies weigh the best ways to distribute philanthropic gifts, some are streamlining their giving to focus on a single cause or two. Wells Fargo announced this month that it is putting $1 billion into efforts to promote affordable housing.

But not all companies are going in that direction. At least one company is handing decisions about all charitable giving to employees.

Bert “Tito” Beveridge founded Tito’s Handmade Vodka in Austin, Tex., 22 years ago and made donations to charities there from the business’s earliest days. But as the company has gone global and its annual revenue has grown to $2.5 billion, he has transformed the company’s giving approach.

Though it won’t divulge its total annual giving, Tito’s Vodka earmarks more than 1 percent of its annual revenue to charities worldwide. For direction, it looks to its 250 employees, each of whom is given what the company calls “a joy budget” to support organizations. Most of the recipient groups are near the employees’ workplace.

“We give well into the millions each year,” says Amy Lukken, Tito’s director of philanthropy. (The company calls her its “chief joyologist.”) “Instead of doing things from the top down, we support the thousands of charities our employees select.” Managers donate as well, giving to organizations such as the Red Cross, she says.

Photo courtesy of Manny Pandya Photography

A Tripled Giving Budget

The company also directs its charity to groups in locations where it holds meetings or events. Whenever 30 or more employees are working together away from the company’s offices, they spend half of their time on a community project.

“It’s really important for us to give back,” says Lukken.

Not long after he founded the company, Beveridge decided to cap the company’s marketing budget and triple its annual charitable giving. Part of the reason was the marketing value that charitable giving adds to the company’s products.

“It absolutely enhances our brand,” says Lukken. “Tito will make the call as to how much money is available for charity in a given year, and then we’ll figure out how much each employee gets in his or her joy budget.”

Five of the company’s 250 employees work in its philanthropy office, checking that they’re legitimate and that they fit the company’s campaign, which it calls “Love Tito’s.”

Because employees generally live in the communities where they work, small grassroots organizations are often the beneficiaries.

“We maintain relationships with a lot of organizations that we call the B Team, or the Farm Team — charities that can use a little help getting to that next level,” says Lukken.

Videos Over Cash

In its latest campaign, the company is publicizing organizations that have struggled to grow, Lukken notes. The company asked several charities whether they would prefer grants or professionally produced videos that tell their stories to a wider audience online.

The spirits company has bankrolled three such video productions this year.

One of the charities — One Good Turn, a health organization that offers health education and inexpensive medical exams and treatment in several developing nations — found the approach helpful.

One Good Turn has no regular sources of funding and finances each project based on its current income. The videos lend the group some hope that it will be able to run more sustainably.

“Tito’s has been so psychologically supportive of me,” says Ann Messer, the organization’s founder. “I’d love to have corporate support. I’ve just recently learned about the concept of corporate social responsibility, and the work of One Good Turn could definitely meet that need for many companies.”