To support the Bartender Welfare & Well-being Fund,Tales of the Cocktail Foundation is participating in Giving Tuesday, a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world. Giving Tuesday is an opportunity  for individuals to participate in sustaining our 2024 grant-giving cycle through financial underwriting.

Donate to support the Bartender Welfare and Well-being Fund

The 2023 Grant Proposal Process opens on December 5, 2023. The first submission is the submission of the Letter of Intent, please refer to this sample LOI. 

Please refer to this F.A.Q.  and check back for more details.

To submit your grant application, click here.

The Grant Proposal Period will close on February 16, 2024.

The grant proposal process is broken down into four phases: 

1. Submitting a Letter of Intent (LOI)
2. Invitation to Interview 
3. Invitation to submit final proposal 
   1. Finalists are selected and invited to TOTC 2023 
   2. Finalists are able to re-submit final proposal 
   3. Committee reviews and selects recipients 
4. Final recipients awarded fall of 2023

For a full breakdown of this process, please refer to the F.A.Q. 

To submit your grant application, click here.

Select applicants will be invited to a phone interview with members of the Philanthropy & Development committee.

After the Philanthropy & Development committee reviews and interviews applicants, a select number of applicants will be invited to submit a final proposal for the TOTCF 2024 grant.

The second annual Grant Finalist Showcase will be held on Thursday, July 25 during Tales of the Cocktail in the Beyond the Bar space. Finalists discuss their Bartender Welfare & Well-Being project with the Tales of the Cocktail guests. Attendees will be able to engage with finalists from 10:00 to 12:30 p.m. and learn more about their initiative to serve the industry. 

More information to come after finalists are selected on June 2, 2024.

After a rigorous proposal process, the committee will deliberate on the final proposals and award the recipient(s) in August 2024. Recipients will update Tales of the Cocktail on their progress, submitting 6-month progress reports through 2025.

A Sip of Paradise Garden 

A Sip of Paradise Garden is a nonprofit bartenders’ community garden that provides horticultural therapy, employment resources, and health and wellness programs for bartenders and the greater hospitality community to recharge their minds, bodies and spirits.

Equal Measures UK

Equal Measures was founded to support marginalized groups and individuals and enrich possibilities for those from Black, Asian, and other minority ethnicities, as well as other marginalized groups, such as queer and genderqueer persons, those who are neurodivergent, or who face systemic barriers to their progression.

Giving Kitchen

Giving Kitchen assists food service workers and bartenders across the United States. They are a food service community meeting crisis with compassion and care. Their mission is to provide emergency assistance to food service workers through financial support and a network of community resources.

Turning Tables 

Turning Tables is a bar training program that reflects the city they serve: New Orleans. Turning Tables advocates for equity in the hospitality industry for exposure in a system of support for the Black and Brown communities of New Orleans. Turning Tables is changing the face of hospitality by cultivating leadership and creating a model for equitable access to career pathways.

Mardi Gras Gives

This grant initiative provided $62,500 in immediate relief funds to New Orleans’ furlough and laid-off bartenders and barbacks affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Eligible bartenders and bar backs were invited to apply for first-come, first-served relief funds. To be eligible for a one-time, $250 grant, bartenders or barbacks must be working in Orleans Parish at a standalone bar or nightclub (not restaurant or hotel) and able to demonstrate loss of employment or furlough status between February 2020 and February 2021. At least 50% of the grant money available will be allocated to eligible applicants who identify as women, members of the BIPOC community and/or applicants over the age of 60.

The Farm Distilled

In partnership with Historic Locust Grove, The FARM DISTILLED project equips underrepresented food and beverage talent; women and people of color, to explore professional development and entrepreneurship in the spirits industry through the exploration of history and trade. In addition, the project aims to advocate for the employment of this talent pool to fulfill projected workforce shortages.

Made in New Orleans Foundation (MiNO)

MiNO’s Equity Program provides practical tools to create unified and equitable workspaces. The program assesses practices that may leave bars and restaurants weak to biases that create barriers for people of color and the business. The eight-month program provides customized solutions to improve business and drive growth for management, staff, and patrons.

Turning Tables 

Turning Tables advocates for diversity, visibility, and inclusivity in the hospitality industry by providing educational tools, platforms for exposure, and a network of support for underserved and underrepresented communities of New Orleans. Our vision is to change the face of hospitality by creating a model for equitable access to career pathways through hands-on training, mentorship, industry exposure, and wrap-around support services. 

The Benevolent

THE BENEVOLENT’s mission is to provide help and support to current and former employees of the drinks industry and their families. As a charity we currently assist over 450 members of the trade with a variety of problems ranging from issues with debt, long-term illness, and support for mental health difficulties through a series of mental health first aid courses across cities within the UK that will be available for bartenders to attend completely free of charge. 

Beyond Bars Akademia

Created in 2017, BEYOND BARS AKADEMIA is a hospitality school rehabilitating women ex-inmates through a holistic approach to reintegration and access to employment in South Africa.

CORE (Children of Restaurant Employees)

Founded in 2004 by beverage industry professionals. Almost twenty years later, CORE continues to dedicate its mission to providing financial relief to food and beverage service employees with children when navigating an injury, family death, natural disaster or other qualifying circumstance.

Liberty’s Kitchen

For nearly 10 years, LIBERTY’S KITCHEN has supported disconnected young people—predominantly black youth—on their journeys towards stability and self-efficacy. Using food and hospitality as a launching pad, we enable young adults to build careers and become agents of change in their communities through advanced beverage exposure and training courses focusing on bar history and basics, technical skills training, bartending career exposure, and mentorship.

Camper English; Cocktail Safe

CocktailSafe.org is a directory of ingredients and techniques, each linking to a page. CocktailSafe provides information about cocktail ingredients and techniques to promote making safer drinks. 

Chad Arnholt

Chad Arnholt produced a documentary following Mezcaleros of southern Jalisco, as encroaching avocado farms change their landscape and deplete groundwater, while the rainy season shrinks by the year. This documentary is an acute example of how global agriculture exacerbates the impact of climate change on local ecosystems and traditional food systems, impacting the beverage industry. 

CORE (Children of Restaurant Employees)

Founded in 2004 by beverage industry professionals. Almost twenty years later, CORE continues to dedicate its mission to providing financial relief to food and beverage service employees with children when navigating an injury, family death, natural disaster or other qualifying circumstance.

Crescent Care

Crescent Care’s mission is to offer comprehensive health and wellness services to the community, to advocate empowerment, to safeguard the rights and dignity of individuals, and to provide for an enlightened public. CrescentCare’s 2019 campaign was aimed to positively impact the health care access and quality of life for those working in the hospitality sector and to provide those individuals with a medical home at CrescentCare. 

Healthy Hospo

Healthy Hospo aims to inspire others and make steps towards a healthier, happier industry. Working with hospitality focused individuals, outlets, brands, and organisations along with renowned experts from the fields of health, nutrition, exercise and beyond, we develop bespoke training and solutions for the specific needs of those who this amazing industry we call hospo.

Laura Green, M.Ed., LPC

Research grant focused on health in the beverage industry: with the purpose to develop some interventions in the workplace to help mitigate the effects of stress, implement them in a true experiment, and measure the outcomes. Laura has gone on to create Healthy Pour.

The Pin Project

The Pin Project is a collective of bartenders and service industry professionals based in the Bay Area looking to create a movement of healing and understanding for those among us caught up in the often dangerous context that comes from working within close proximity of alcohol. 

PRISM

The work is the creative media campaigns to highlight the diverse bar industry. PRISM reflects the different faces of our industry and having those stories told and voices heard. PRISM wants to inspire, motive, support, and encourage. 

86 Waste; No Waste Festival

Through Community Organizing, 86 Waste aims to empower people, bars, spirit brands, festivals to address their own wastefulness. This is done through providing a resource for the creation, implementation, and sharing of proven successful steps toward becoming waste neutral.