Brewers Association Inc

Overview

Mission

To promote and protect American craft brewers. The Brewers Association is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade group representing America’s 9,500+ breweries. Comprising professional brewing members—along with allied trade professionals, wholesalers, retailers, and other beverage alcohol professionals—it is an organization of brewers, for brewers, by brewers. Core Values and Beliefs. With the purpose of promoting and protecting small and independent breweries in the United States, their craft beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts, a tireless and passionate team of staff work in support of the brewing community. The Brewers Association (BA) staff champions the idea that brewers from small and independent American breweries and homebrewers craft the best beer in the world and have the most diverse beer culture. Additionally, BA staff provides a unified voice against those who wish...

Operating model

Revenue model

Earned-program. 88% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.

Distribution model

Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

• Financial Efficiency: 79
• Transparency & Controls: 55
• Accountability: 100
• Sustainability: 32
• Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Details

• What they do: 7 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
• Where the money goes: 78.9% of revenue deployed · 77.5% of spending went to programs
• Governance: 24 of 24 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
• Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $18.8M in reported program spending
• Leadership: top reported pay $935K · 31 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
• Highest-paid contractors: 4 contractors listed · $762K reported
• Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
• Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
• Filing history: 12 filing years from 2010 to 2024
• Contacts: How to reach this organization
• Money network: 9 filed money-flow records
• Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
• Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
• People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

• High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
• High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
• High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
• Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 51/100.
• High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
• Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.
• Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 52/100.
• High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.