Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii is donating to Maui wildfire relief efforts.
Following a devastating wildfire this month that killed at least 115 people in Maui, Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii CEO Scott Snyder said he felt “helpless.”
“I woke up that Wednesday morning and had received a text from one of my team at 5:30 that said, ‘Are you aware that there are wildfires in Maui that are approaching Lahaina?” Snyder said. Lahaina is a town in Maui with a recorded population of 12,702 people. “Within hours, it’s on TV and we’re reaching out to people that are close to us: farmers, coffee processing plants, franchisees, roasters—and not being able to get ahold of anyone because all the communication was down.”
The fire is considered the worst in the United States in more than 100 years. According to The New York Times, more than 1,000 people remain missing. The fire’s cause has yet to be determined, but experts say it’s possible a power line fell and started the fire Aug. 8.
“That feeling of helplessness and horror for the entire team here, obviously it’s nothing really compared to what people there were experiencing,” Snyder said. Bad Ass Coffee is based in Denver.
So, Snyder and the team wanted to do what they can to help support relief efforts. The franchise announced plans to donate 100 percent of sales from its Maui coffees to Maui United Way, the Red Cross and Hawaii Community Foundation. In just three days, Bad Ass raised $38,000 for disaster relief efforts.
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii CEO Scott Snyder
Bad Ass has since exhausted its supply of Maui coffees, so now it created the “Our Love for Maui” campaign, which includes a mug and stickers. “We started doing preorders for that as a way, because we only have so much Maui coffee, and so we view this as being an immediate attempt to raise funds,” Snyder said.
At the point of sale in stores, customers are given the option to round up their order totals, with the difference donated to the Hawaii Community Foundation.
Individual franchisees have held their own fundraisers, too. One operator in California had a Hawaiian artist perform to collect and match donations and a Las Vegas franchisee partnered with a tiki bar to host a fundraiser.
As of Aug. 21, Bad Ass raised more than $50,000 for Maui relief.
“Our commitment to our ohana, our extended family was to support,” Snyder said. “It’s an amazing thing to see the immediate reaction from people is, how can I help? We’re asking the same question too.”
Bad Ass Coffee was founded in 1989 in Hawaii. The brand has two locations in Maui, one of which is in Lahaina.
Related: Bad Ass Coffee Continues Florida Expansion With 20-Unit Deal
The investment required to open a Bad Ass store ranges from $454,200 to $920,500. Average net sales in 2021 were $717,125, with an overall range of $258,221 to $1.5 million. In 2022, the brand opened six stores for a total of 26 stores open nationwide.
Other relief efforts from franchisors
L&L Hawaiian Barbecue—a franchise with 220 locations throughout Hawaii, the U.S. mainland and Japan—is donating $1 from every online or mobile order taken through the end of August, up to $10,000, according to a press release from the brand. Funds will be donated to the Hawaiian Red Cross.
Raising Cane’s donated 15 percent of its profits earned on Aug. 17 to Ka Hale A Ke Ola Homeless Resource Center, a Lahaina shelter that’s helping those displaced by the fire. The franchisor raised $141,000 for the cause, according to the brand’s social media page.
A handful of CycleBar studios in California did group rides for charity to support Maui relief efforts.
Mo’Bettahs, a Hawaiian cuisine franchise, is donating 100 percent of sales from its signature Teri Sauce bottles to the Hawaii Community Foundation.