A few weeks ago, we had an excellent conversation on Twitter about whether or not a business that seeks to benefit from charity is actually charitable. Here's the conversation below:

@L_staff asks a great question: if you are benefitting from something you give, is it still charity? Isn't charity supposed to be something you do from the bottom of your heart?

I believe that if you do receive something in return for helping, it can still be charity, but I need to defend my position. I completely understand the perspective that if you are giving away something and expecting something for yourself in return, it does not seem like act of charity at all.

First, Merriam-Webster defines charity as: 

• the act of giving money, food, or other kinds of help to people who are poor, sick, etc.; also : something (such as money or food) that is given to people who are poor, sick, etc.
• an organization that helps people who are poor, sick, etc.
• the organizations that help people in need

According to these definitions, the key part of charity is "the act of giving" and "helping." Nothing regarding returns is mentioned here.

I believe there is a part missing in this definition and that this missing piece is the part that @L_staff believes what truly defines charity. We will get to that in a few paragraphs though.

Last week, we were lucky enough to talk about "The business benefits of working with charity"on Craft Brewing Business.

This week, we have even more craft beer and community analysis! Around the US, craft breweries are coming up with very creative ideas to help charities. Some of our favorites are Stone Brewing's comic book labels and Full Sail Brewing's Brewers series.

You can read the article here on PorchDrinking.com: http://www.porchdrinking.com/10-creative-ways-craft-beer-is-giving-back/