Economic pragmatism v. moral necessity
The Ownership Newsletter • Vol. 119
Welcome Back! One Big Thing
Today is the last day to submit academic and speaker presentation ideas to the 2026 Purpose Trust Ownership Conference. Come have breakfast tacos with us 🌮
PTON also released its shiny new Knowledge Hub on purpose trust ownership, including updates to our databases on purpose trust-owned companies and service providers with expertise in purpose trusts
In This Issue
🥃 Top Shelf News
The White House has eliminated the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund
Mark Pinsky shares how to advocate for CDFIs and support our community development finance colleagues; Erika Haskins highlights what we would be losing
The employee-owned Gazette of Eastern Iowa published annual report on the state of the employee ownership movement (including a quote from our own Dr. Hand!)
A new paper from NCEO founder Corey Rosen assesses the risks involved for each actor in an ESOP
Rosen also reports on Mark Cuban’s new support for employee ownership as a moral and economic necessity
Peter Koehler announced ShareForward, a new way for companies to do profit sharing
🏙️ Events + Opportunities
Here are events in next two weeks + events we just learned about this week. If you’re attending, please report back!
October 17-18: The 2025 Union Co-op Symposium in Cincinnati, OH
October 20-21: NCEO’s Is An ESOP Right For You? in Baltimore
October 21: Project Equity and Main Street Launch’s free webinar on options for selling a business
October 21: The North Carolina Center for Employee Ownership’s discussion with John Abrams in Asheville, NC
October 21: NCEO and KSM’s webinar on the tax and accounting structuring of ESOPs
October 23: The 3rd Annual Employee Ownership Conference in Ankeny, Iowa
October 23: CU Boulder’s MedLab hosts author John Abrams to discuss his latest book
October 27-29: Social Capital Markets’ SOCAP25 in San Francisco
October 28: The Georgia Center for Employee Ownership’s Employee Ownership Month celebration
October 29: The Illinois Center for Employee Ownership’s Employee Ownership Month celebration
🆕 | October 30: TX/OK Chapter of the ESOP Association’s accelerator course for new employee owners
🆕 | November 6: Project Equity’s Demystifying Employee Ownership Trusts webinar (h/t Michelle P.)
🆕 | November 6: B Lab’s webinar on how employee ownership can help companies and stakeholders achieve their purpose
🆕 | November 12: Mission Investors Exchange’s Investing in Local Resilience through Community-Owned Real Estate webinar
For a full list of upcoming ownership economy events, see our Events page.
🔍 Analysis + Opinion
On employee ownership writ large
North Dakota’s Lt. Governor Tammy Miller shared a post celebrating and advocating for employee ownership
Athens, GA Mayor Girtz also proclaimed October Employee Ownership Month in Athen-Clarke county
On employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)
Shannon Litton writes how employee ownership can aid in Tennessee’s retirement crisis
The Skoll Foundation created a graphic detailing the oncoming Silver Tsunami, highlighting ESOP-focused investment fund Apis & Heritage
On worker cooperatives
The U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives was honored with the 2025 Co-op Innovation Award from Momentus Capital. Congratulations!
Leaders in the worker cooperative field participated in grassroots advocacy and met with Congressional leaders
On purpose trusts and steward ownership
To reiterate: Today is the last day to submit academic and speaker presentation ideas to the 2026 Purpose Trust Ownership Conference. Come have breakfast tacos with us 🌮
Steward-owned of Belgium shared reflections from the Steward Ownership (SO25) conference
Simon Berkler shared his highlights, and Jens Van Lathem had two key takeaways
Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert sat down with Fortune Magazine to discuss mission-driven leadership and the company’s perpetual purpose trust structure
Trimtab, an “unapologetically impact-first” financial institution uses a perpetual purpose trust to further their goals. The ImpactAlpha interview:
On the ownership economy
University of Glasgow Lecturer Franziska Paul shares on her new course “Democratising the Economy” (h/t Saurabh L)
Michael Shuman outlines how community capital and innovative policy could be used to solve the nation’s housing crisis
Isis P. argues now, more than ever, is the time to rethink how we approach community wealth building
ImpactAlpha shares the story of an East Harlem housing complex that provides not only affordable housing, but an entire community
CommonWealth’s research on the investing activities of lower and middle income Americans was featured in the Wall Street Journal
Philadelphia hosted its first City Council hearing on AI and its role within the city
📚 Academic Updates
Arnault Violet advocates for democratizing ownership and seeing the company as a social institution in France
In her masters thesis, Tufts student Emily Li discusses how to increase municipal support for worker cooperative conversions. Congrats Emily!
Check out the Skoll Centre at the University of Oxford’s newly published case study on World Education Services, now a major ownership economy investor
⏰ In Case You Missed It
Project Syndicate highlights the unique bipartisan support backing the employee ownership movement
A new initiative in Detroit aims to help first-time homebuyers through shared appreciation mortgages