We may often joke that we are solving the world’s problems over a drink with friends, but 28-year-old Melbourne entrepreneur Simon Griffiths is hoping to provide bar-goers with just that opportunity with the upcoming launch of Shebeen.

The ‘philanthropic bar’ is set to stock beer and wine from the developing world, and the profits from the sale of each drink will support a development project in the drink’s country of origin. Ordering a beer from Vietnam could provide hospitality training for Hanoi’s homeless youth, while enjoying a red vino from South Africa could help support victims of abuse.

Where did the idea come from?

The concept was originally proposed by my friend, and now Shebeen co-founder, Zanna McComish, at an Australia Day picnic in 2007. Zanna had just returned from a volunteer role in Tanzania, and I was just about to launch ripple.org (a website that uses a click-to-give and search-to-give model to donate internet advertising revenue to development aid organisations) before moving to South Africa to undertake a volunteer role myself.

Zanna knew my interest in the developing world, and beer, and mooted: “Wouldn't it be great if we could create one of those beach bars in Africa where you sit on broken chairs and crates drinking a local beer - but do it here in Melbourne, and use the profits to run our own projects overseas?” That's how it all began.

We sat on the idea for about a year before bringing on board Vernon Chalker (Melbourne bar impresario/owner of Gin Palace, Madame Brussels and Collins Quarter) and Llawela Forrest (Founder of Run Forrest, a boutique food and wine marketing/communications firm) to help realise the concept. Since then, the idea has grown a lot, received a lot of amazing support, undergone numerous proof of concept tests, and is finally about to become a reality!

You ditched corporate life for philanthropy. Why?

I don't think life is about having a job that pays well. It’s about doing something you love, and then figuring out how you can earn a decent living at the same time. For some people that’s easy; they love the career they studied at university. So they graduate, become engineers, investment bankers, lawyers, doctors etc, that they’ve been studying to become and they’re done. They’ve found their passion and get paid well to follow it.

For me (and I think most people) it wasn’t that simple. I studied engineering and commerce and worked as an engineer and then investment banker before realising I was truly passionate about the skills I had learnt at university – problem solving, innovative thinking and working with markets – but didn't enjoying applying them in a corporate setting. As a result, the decision to carve my own career path came almost naturally, although it was still tough to turn down a job with McKinsey & Company!

Are you still in need of funding to get the bar off the ground?

We are about 80 per cent of the way towards the AU$250,000 target, and are hoping to close off the Foundation Investment round in the next couple of months. 

Although investors will not receive any financial return, we think of them as investors as opposed to donors. This is because we see ourselves as a business, not a charity, and we’re giving investors the opportunity to create a return, but it’s purely a social return.

Our financial modelling shows that the AU$250,000 start-up fund will result in AU$500,000 to AU$800,000 of donations to our development partners in the first three years, representing a 2-3.2 times donation return on investment.

Don’t people want to forget life’s troubles when they go for a drink with friends?

We like to joke that Shebeen is the only place you can go for a drink and feel good the next day! The power of Shebeen is its ability to stop someone in their tracks and challenge the way they’ve looked at business, charity, or both. People stop and think, ‘Alcohol and charity? What?’ which is what we want them to do. The next step is getting them to think, “If you can do this with alcohol, what else can you do it with?”

The other side of my motivation for Shebeen is that the corporate world taught me I needed to work with products and markets that I am truly passionate about. I'm big on both beer and the developing world, and I've drunk a lot of beer in the developing world. I guess combining the two didn't seem out of the ordinary, and when I talked about the concept with friends I could literally see it blowing their mind. You know you’re onto something good when that happens.

Why did you think it was important to find a new way to address philanthropy?

I’ve spent a lot of time in the developing world, yet have never really seen poverty improving. I looked at poverty statistics and realised that at current rates of spending, fundamental things like adult literacy and global sanitation would not be achieved until around 2085 and 2080 respectively. I was pretty shocked when I realised that I won’t be alive to see that occur!

Digging deeper I found lots of development organisations doing great work, but almost all of them were significantly restricted due to under-funding. Then I discovered the average Australian donates just 0.33 per cent of their income. If we’re going to solve big social issues like poverty, that figure needs to be more like five or 10 per cent. To make that happen we need a philanthropy revolution. That’s what Shebeen is about: creating a global movement to change how society engages with philanthropy.

What are you ultimately hoping Shebeen will achieve?

Shebeen isn't about serving drinks, it’s about subtly creating a philanthropy revolution. We know we’re not going to solve the world’s problems alone, so we’re leading by example. We want to show customers that they can make a difference by choosing where they spend their money. We want to show charities and that they can gain access to a new and sustainable source of funds. We want to show society that there are innovative solutions to old problems. By doing these three things, we're hoping Shebeen will be a major catalyst in increasing the proportion of income donated by the average individual (in the developed world) to 10 per cent within 10 years.

Tell us about your beers and the projects they’re assisting …

At present we’ve got beers from Kenya, Ethiopia, Namibia, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Laos, Mexico and Peru. All of our beers have an interesting story, but perhaps the best are those of Tusker and Cusquena.  Here are our blurbs:

George Hurst, a co-founder of Kenya Breweries Ltd, was killed by an elephant during a hunting expedition in 1923. In memory of his death, the much loved beer that he had created was renamed Tusker. Tusker has since become a symbol of Kenya - its slogan Bia Yangu, Nchi Yangu, means My Beer, My Country in Swahili. Not surprisingly, it’s a beautiful lager than goes down well on a hot day. All ingredients are sourced locally from Kenya’s Rift Valley and the final product is distributed all over East Africa. If you’ve been on safari, you’ve drunk a Tusker.

Hailing from the base of the Inca Trail, Cusqeña is a Peruvian favourite. It’s has a light and crisp taste that is typical for Latin American beers, but there’s something very European pilsner about it. That’s because it was founded in 1908 by two German brewers that wanted to create a German style beer fit for the heat of South America. Three years on they produced Cusqeña, which means from Cusco in Spanish. Since then it has been brewed by descendants of the ancient Incas using glacial water sourced 6000m up in the Andes, but adhering to the Reinheitsbegot (Germany’s purity law of 1516).

We can’t talk about our selected projects just yet. I can say that we will be investing in impact-maximising, sustainable and scalable projects and organisations that are focused on enabling individuals to participate in their local economy.

Will there be wine, too?

Definitely. We’re already working with wines from South Africa, and exploring some Chilean options. We’re also thinking about what other imported products we can sell to create a more authentic experience – bar snacks and spirits included.

Your pick of the beer/wine list?

I’m a big beer guy. I really love St George from Ethiopia and Negro Modello from Mexico. In winter I enjoy a couple of Sinha Stouts from Sri Lanka, and in summer I’m partial to a Savannah cider, from South Africa, with a bit of ice. In terms of wines, I love all of the Dombeya range, from Stellenbosch in South Africa.

How do you choose the social projects to support?

This is probably the most important part of our business model – if we’re not selecting projects properly, Shebeen may never have any social impact, or worse still could create negative impact. As a result, we take project selection very seriously.

I spent a lot of time in the US last year where I met people like Paul Pollack (the author of Out of Poverty, who is credited with lifting over 17 million farmers out of poverty), Kevin Starr (head of the Mulago Foundation) and some of the Draiper Richards Foundation staff, amongst others, who were incredibly willing to share their project selection knowledge with us. Mulago and Draiper Richards are some of the most effective impact investors in the world, and are both focused on impact measurement and maximisation.

Based on what I learnt from Paul, Kevin and Draiper Richards, we’re putting together our project selection criteria now. Ultimately, we want our criteria to be publicly available so that everyone can see why we’ve chosen to invest in particular projects (and become more educated for when it comes to making their own philanthropic decisions, outside of Shebeen), but also to encourage more knowledge sharing on best practice project selection in Australia. We've accepted that we’re going to make mistakes, but we're committed to learning from them to refine our model as we go – getting it right in the long term is all about iteration.

Is it proving difficult to track down beers and wines produced in developing countries where assistance is needed?

Every country in the world has a local beer, so the difficult part of sourcing beer is not finding suitable countries of origin, but ensuring each beer a) is of exceptional quality and b) will complement the existing flavours in our menu. The problem we have is that most developing countries have a warm climate all year round.

As a result, they’re brewing beers that taste good for one particular climate, which can make it hard to get a variety of different flavours into our menu – no one wants to drink 10 different beers that all taste the same! After a lot of ‘research’ we think we've got a pretty good mix together now. Selecting wines has been relatively straightforward thanks to the exceptional quality of South Africa and South America’s wine regions. We’ve also had a lot of help from some very talented sommeliers, which takes the pressure off us a little.

How soon will Shebeen open and where?

All I can say is that we’re opening soon(ish) and the location is looking amazing. You’ll have to keep your ear to the ground to find out more!

So then, can all the world’s problems be solved over a beer or wine after all?

You’ll have to come to Shebeen to find out!