The Price of Doing Good

The Daily Pour, Issue No. 1 | October 17, 2026 There's an interesting dichotomy that appears when running a small business while trying to do some good in the world. You need to make money (not necessarily to get rich). But you need enough to keep the doors open, pay your people, cover the bills, and maybe, one-day, have some left over. We're still working on that last part. Our baristas get paid well. That's important to us.. As for the rest of the money, it has a talent for disappearing back into the business. There is always another expense. Another repair. Another piece of equipment. Something that needs replacing, upgrading, inspecting, licensing, or fixing. Things you never imagined would cost money until you owned a café. And yet, here we are, giving things away. Two missions in one space Abi's Books & Brews is a for-profit business. We sell drinks, food, stickers and books. We have employees, expenses, and an obligation to operate responsibly. Separately, we operate The Milena Chapter, our nonprofit organization, through which we're working on community projects intended to help people who need a hand. We also host and support charitable efforts run by others. The café has become a gathering place for conversations about homelessness, community resources, volunteer efforts, and ways to make Richmond a little better. I love that, but there's a practical problem. When eight people occupy tables for three hours, that's eight seats unavailable to other customers. When we host a free event, someone has to prepare the space, serve the guests, clean up, and keep the café running around it. And when we're giving away coffee, providing space, or contributing our time, we're doing so with resources from a business that is still trying to find its financial footing. None of these things are free simply because we choose not to charge for them. What does generosity actually cost? What does it give back? Adam Smith, whose name is synonymous with free markets, sort of scolds us with: "No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable." Andrew Carnegie, after accumulating a fortune that would be staggering even today, famously concluded, "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced." These are interesting perspectives on wealth and responsibility, though there's a rather substantial difference between giving away a billion dollars and giving away a cup of coffee when you're wondering what the next equipment repair will cost. A refrigerator, a raffle, and a bigger idea. Through The Milena Chapter, we're working to improve our community refrigerator. It started with a simple premise: people with extra food can share it, and people who need food can take it. We're building an enclosure to protect it from the elements and make it more useful. We want room for dry food and hygiene products, accessible USB charging, and coffee available to people who might not otherwise be able to afford it. To help pay for that, we're holding our Rewind for a Reason raffle. There are two prizes, each with a retro boombox, cassette tapes, and a $100 gift card to Abi's Books & Brews. The drawing is Sunday, November 1, at 6 PM. You don't need to be present to win. Details: https://milenachapter.org/raffle-fridge-enclosure (The irony isn't lost on me) We're asking people to help us raise money to build something designed to give things away, while the business helping make all of this happen is still trying to become profitable itself. Is there always a conflict? I'm beginning to think there is a conflict, but perhaps not the one people assume. A business needs paying customers. A nonprofit needs resources. Both need people willing to support them. The challenge comes when we expect a small business to provide community services without acknowledging that somebody, somewhere, is paying for them. If Abi's becomes nothing more than a business concerned with maximizing revenue per seat, then we've lost something important about why we wanted to open it in the first place. We didn't set out simply to sell coffee. We wanted to build a place where people could meet, read, talk, and feel connected to their community. The charitable work isn't some marketing strategy we've added to the business. It's part of what matters to us. But doing good doesn't exempt us from doing the math. I don't have a tidy answer to any of this. What I do know is that we're going to keep trying to build a successful café, keep supporting The Milena Chapter, and keep finding ways to help other people do good work. We'll make mistakes. We'll sometimes give away more than we should. We'll sometimes have to charge for things we'd rather provide free. I hope we find that balance between commerce and community. In the meantime, when you buy a coffee or a book at Abi's, you're supporting a small business trying to make its way. When you contribute to one of our nonprofit projects, you're helping us do something beyond the café itself. I think both matter. Keith