Beau"s All Natural Beer, a local small brewery in the Ottawa region has launched a very interesting business model innovation - home delivery of beer. They have taken it one step further and have teamed up with a local program for homeless youth, Operation Come Home, to act as the delivery mechanism for the new channel. In return, the organization will charge a delivery fee, for which they will issue a charitable donation receipt for tax purposes.

Operation Come Home was already working with Beau's, collecting and returning Beau's beer bottles, as a fund raiser for their programs. Beau's has a very strong and loyal following in the Ottawa region, but often receive complaints about the 1 hour drive out to the brewery being difficult.

The BYBO (Buy Your Beer Online) service is very simple to use. Customers shop for a variety of Beau's beer and merchandise through the Beau's website. Checkout and payment is done online via PayPal, and the order is confirmed by email. The orders are delivered to the customers home within 72 hours based on delivery routes established by Operation Come Home (day of delivery confirmation done by phone). The 'delivery fee' is $15, collected by Operation Come Home, and the customer receives a tax receipt for a charitable donation for a portion of the delivery fee. The service will also collect empties to be returned to the brewer.

"Now you can buy your beer from Beau's, and at the same time create jobs for homeless youth," says Elspeth McKay, Executive Director of Operation Come Home.

Here's the canvas of the innovation: