Jacquie Berglund is a rambunctious social entrepreneur who’s not afraid to take risks. She was born with a lot of energy, and you can feel it when you talk to her, even if it is over Zoom. She is the kind of person who jumps in feet first and wants to get it done now. If she had a tagline, it would be let’s go! Jacquie is committed to leaving the world better than she found it. She has always believed that in the richest country in the world, it is a crime that there are so many people who can’t meet their basic needs. So she is doing something about that.

In 2000, Jacquie founded Finnegans beer, and began giving away the profits to alleviate poverty. Ten years later, they fine-tuned their giving to focus on addressing food insecurity by turning beer into fresh, mostly locally-grown organic produce. If you ask her, Jacquie can tell you how many pounds of food have been donated each year as a result of Finnegan’s giving program.  

Drive To Do Good

When Jacquie was very young, her family was the working poor. Her mom was a waitress and her dad worked full time while also going to school. When her dad was a janitor, his employer let him take the leftover sandwiches in the vending machine home to feed his family. Her family was lucky, because they managed to climb out of poverty and live a better life, something that a lot of working poor families struggle to do today. 

Those early life experiences cemented in Jacquie her drive to do good in the world by helping people meet their basic needs. While in college, she read an article about people at the end of their lives wishing they had taken more risks. It was like putting gas in her tank. She cut the article out and hung it on her wall. 

Her Path to Doing Good in the World

After college, Jacquie wanted to work for an international development organization working in developing countries to improve the quality of life. It was a time when it seemed there would be greater interdependence between countries, and she wanted to be a part of the efforts to end global poverty. So she headed off to Paris, France, to get a master’s degree at the American Graduate School with one suitcase, not knowing anyone or how to speak French.

It was in graduate school that Jacquie met one of her most important mentors, Dr. John Lee. They bonded over growing up in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and their shared commitment to making the world a better place. Dr. Lee introduced Jacquie to people, shared articles about international development with her, encouraged and nurtured her commitment to making the world a better place and invited her to Sunday dinners with his family. 

After graduate school, Jacquie got what she thought was her dream job at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). But OECD was not the place for her. It was very bureaucratic and slow moving, there were few if any women in leadership roles, ideas Jacquie had for making improvements were met with, “That is not how we do things here.” On top of that, she was experiencing serious back problems and was dissatisfied with the care she was getting for it. So she decided to quit her job and return to Minnesota to get treatment for her back and figure out the next steps in her professional path. 

Jacquie’s friend, Kieran Folliard, the founder of Red Locks Irish Whiskey and several local pubs and restaurants, offered her a job that provided the health insurance she needed to get her back fixed. She became his director of marketing for three years. In Kieran, Jacquie had not only a friend, but a kindred spirit who was community minded and committed to giving back. Finnegan’s was co-created by Jacquie and Kieran. The name came from the two of them role playing, ordering beer at the bar, shouting out different names until they settled on Finnegans. It was during this time, Jacquie learned about Newman’s Own giving back model and the work of Billy Shore.  She realized she was an entrepreneur and that her path to doing good in the world was to brew beer and use the profits to alleviate poverty.

A lot of people questioned Jacquie about her decision to use the profits from Finnegan’s to fund the good she wanted to do in the world. Some went so far as to tell her she was making a mistake, but that didn’t stop her. Instead, it only made her more determined. The first ten years of Finnegan’s giving, they funded a lot of great programs doing important work to end poverty. But their giving was all over the place and people, including her family, had a hard time understanding what she was doing. 

Connects Different Dots

Jacquie is someone who connects different dots to see if they make something that she can make work. She found the dot she needed to strengthen and clarify Finnegan’s giving program in a brochure from The Food Group, which was succinct and very clear about what they did. Jacquie reached out to them wanting to learn more and ended up starting a pilot program with them, which Finnegan’s is still funding today. That is how Finnegans started addressing food insecurity through their giving program, and Jacquie realized the importance of messaging.

But she wasn’t done doing good. In 2018, she opened Finnegans Brewery in downtown Minneapolis, which is connected to a hotel, includes a taproom, the Brewer’s Den for private events, an event center and, on the very top, the Finnovation Lab “where social entrepreneurs go to learn, work and grow.” 

Back in 2011, when taproom laws in Minnesota changed, Jacquie started thinking about how to evolve her business. Finnegans was the only Minnesota beer without  its own taproom, which is where breweries make their margins and try out new products. Jacquie realized she needed to do something or Finnegan’s would go out of business. She also wanted to figure out a way to support social entrepreneurs like her. So she spent the next few years working with an advisory group to put the dots together to grow Finnegans and make it work. Once that was done, Finnegans Brewery was a reality. It is described as a “home to social businesses making an impact.”

They Will Be Gone

But two years later, the pandemic came, and on March 17, 2020, what should have been one of the busiest days at Finnegans, Jacquie laid off the entire staff including herself. She says it was one of the saddest days of her life. A few months later, Finnegans was within the social unrest that took place after the murder of George Floyd. Jacquie brought back three staff members to keep making beer, but she was furloughed for 18 months. She worked hard to keep Finnegans afloat during that time, and it wasn’t easy.  

Three years later, downtown Minneapolis is not as busy as it used to be with more people working from home. Also, perceptions that it is not a safe place are keeping people away, which Jacquie doesn’t understand, because she lives downtown during the week, walks everywhere and hasn’t had any issues or concerns. She is doing everything she can to help change the current narrative, including serving on the East Town Business Partnership, a group of organizations and businesses working to bring people back downtown. She wants people to remember that a lot of bars and restaurants are still in an economically fragile place and if we don’t support them, they will be gone. 

Jacquie doesn’t mince words when she says things are a lot harder than she expected them to be. On top of working at Finnegans, she is helping to care for her aging parents. But Jacquie is feisty by nature and doesn’t give up.  She surrounds herself with smart people who call her out and “keep her from going off the rails,” and her sister and a group of friends help her keep things in perspective. Also, the Finnovation Lab just selected its sixth cohort of Finnovators, and it is an impressive group. Jacquie continues to do good, while waiting for crowds to return to Finnegan’s to help turn beer into food. Let’s go.

Note to Readers

I first met Jaquie on paper almost ten years ago. I was working at a foundation, and I read her application for a fellowship. I was impressed and she went on to get the fellowship after I left the foundation. Jacquie and I have people in common, and I knew enough about all that she had accomplished to know that she was someone I wanted to profile for Ruthlessly Hopeful. She could not have been more kind when she agreed to the interview.

As I prepared for it, I saw that she attended the American Graduate School in Paris and recalled that is where my Uncle Jack worked. When I asked in an email if she knew him, I got a lovely gift. She shared just how important he and his family were to her, and all that he had done for her. My Uncle Jack passed away from ALS in 2000.

The connection that Jacquie and I discovered reminded us that it is our connectedness to others who believe in us and nurture our belief in ourselves that helps keep us hopeful as we navigate life. And even when they pass on, they are still with us. 

Jacquie is now paying it forward by believing in and helping Finnovators believe in themselves.

Learn More

Visit Finnegans to learn about:

• What they believe in

• Taproom hours and beers on tap

• Events and tours happening

• Their work in the community, including their philanthropy

• Their story, team and partners