Help us out! And support EOX, too
The Ownership Economy Newsletter, Vol. 156
👋 Welcome back, readers. A little help?
For the next 100 days, every new subscriber to The Stakehold will trigger a dollar donation to EOX, the network of state-level employee ownership centers.
You can help by texting five friends something like:
Have you subscribed to The Stakehold’s free weekly newsletter on employee ownership yet? I think you’d like it, and subscribing now helps raise money for EOX, too: https://www.eoxnetwork.org/stakehold
Hi - Have you checked out The Stakehold? They put out a free weekly newsletter on employee ownership that I really enjoy. They are having a subscriber drive and they’ve asked their favorite readers (me) to sign up other beautiful people (you). Check it out! https://www.eoxnetwork.org/stakehold
A little background: From my very first days in the field, Steve Storkan and EOX served as my guide and starter kit. Steve flew to Dallas for our very first panel in 2023, then took a major professional risk by asking me to join the Texas Center for Employee Ownership board in 2024.
Today, thanks to the generosity of Daniel Goldstein and Go ESOP, EOX is supporting us again. For the next 100 days, Go ESOP will donate a dollar to EOX for every new Stakehold subscriber.
How you can help: Copypaste and send the text messages above! And:
Post on Linkedin about why you love the Stakehold, linking to the EOX campaign page: https://www.eoxnetwork.org/stakehold
Email your colleagues who care/are curious about employee ownership or the ownership economy, inviting them to subscribe (email me for draft email copy)
Share the campaign in your org’s newsletter or podcast
Thank you to Go ESOP, our readers, and EOX!
🥃 Top Shelf News
🇺🇸 From the Hill: The Senate HELP Committee approved $78M (!!!) in mandatory spending for the DOL’s Employee Ownership Initiative, expanding the grant program through 2035. For more, see The ESOP Association’s press release
The Committee also advanced Keith Sonderling’s nomination for Secretary of Labor, who has pledged clearer ESOP guidance
And last week a new House bill emerged that would remove limits on contributions and allocations that restrict ESOP growth
The New York Times featured high-end boat manufacturer Grady-White’s Patagonia-inspired, $400 million transition to a purpose trust (paywalled)
Colorado artists can now form a new type of corporation, an A Corp, designed to lock in artists’ ownership of their work (ht Austin Dannhaus)
👉 In This Issue
Events
Upcoming + Jobs + Opportunities + RecapsEmployee Ownership
ESOPs + Worker Cooperatives + Employee Ownership TrustsThe Ownership Economy
+ Community OwnershipAcademic News
New Research
📅 Events + Reflections & Recaps
To see a comprehensive list of events, check out our Events page.
This Week
July 31: Better Portland hosts Hannah Sandmeyer to discuss local business succession /// Repaired Nations Co-op hosts its annual Black Solidarity Cooperative Conference in Oakland
Aug 4: The International Symposium on Employee Ownership in Oxford /// The ESOP Association kicks off its EO Month Virtual Mini Series /// Ada Developers Academy’s fireside chat, The Builder’s Way: Building for People, Not Exits in Seattle
Aug 5: Phase2 hosts the TX/OK Chapter of TEA for an ESOP info session in Oklahoma City /// SGS Economics & Planning’s online Q&A about Community Wealth Building in Australia /// The Texas Center for Employee Ownership’s free virtual training on employee ownership for CPAs and advisors /// US Federation of Worker Co-ops’ Worker Co-op Start-up Webinar
Aug 6: NCEO’s webinar on ESOP diversification
Jobs
Apis and Heritage is hiring a Controller to oversee financial operations
Stronghold Ownership and Purpose Owned are looking for an Alternative Ownership Analyst & Project Manager
Common Trust is looking for a Transaction Advisory Manager to work with small to midsize businesses
PURPOSE is looking for a Co-Steward and Managing Partner to co-found its SO Capital team
Opportunities + Recaps
Project Equity has opened registration for the last few spots at their EO Equals Summit in Chicago
Minnesota Center for Employee Ownership is holding a new cohort for its MNCEO Ambassador Program; apply here
Eric Schmid recaps the Missouri Center for Employee Ownership and WEPOWER’s joint initiative growing EO in St. Louis (ht MOCEO)
The ICA unpacked ILO Convention 193, the first international labor standard covering platform economy workers
Employee Ownership
Peter Lucas urges advisors to be early adopters of employee ownership if they want market share
Loren Feldman argues that just having ownership doesn’t mean employees start thinking like owners
A Connecticut veterinarian chose (direct) employee ownership over private equity when retiring, keeping his practice in the hands of staff
Tom Powdrill shows that postwar conservatives traditionally supported worker ownership as a safeguard against concentrated power
📈 Employee Stock Ownership Plans
Ohio-based ETNA Products Inc. is now employee-owned. Congrats!
NCEO released its (paywalled) 2026 ESOP Recruitment and Retention Survey of 433 ESOP companies on how ownership is used to attract and keep talent; a quick summary is available here
A federal appeals court ruled that ESOP fiduciaries are required to independently evaluate advisors (ht INCEO)
The ESOP Association sent out their monthly report for July
Chuck Mazzanti debunks the myth in construction that heavy surety bonding rules out an ESOP conversion
Lafayette Square released a new report on the role of ESOPs in rural business succession /// Pairs well with chapters (including ours!) from the 2024 book Retaining and Transitioning Businesses in Communities
🎙️ Journey to an ESOP and Beyond discusses the differences between S corp and C corp ESOPs /// 🎙️ ESOP Radio looks at CCI Systems, examining what 40+ years does to an ESOP:
🤝 Worker Cooperatives
Seattle-based restaurant Pidgin Cooperative has now become a worker co-op. Congrats! (ht USFWC)
Spectrum News NY1 interviews Defector, a worker-owned media company (ht Michael Palmieri)
The North Carolina Center for Employee Ownership posted a sheet to help owners understand worker co-ops
Golda Velez launched Workers.vc, an accelerator where startup ownership is earned through contribution rather than capital (ht Golda Velez)
Employee Ownership Trusts
NCEO wants to pack the room at its employee ownership trusts workshop in Phoenix in August. Register here!
🇮🇪 In significant milestone, employee ownership trusts have now been recognized as a formal policy consideration in Ireland
Jason Wiener published a helpfully transparent case study on the details of Music Box Supper Club’s transition to an employee ownership trust in March (ht Issie Corvi)
The Ownership Economy
PURPOSE published a new page with resources on financing steward ownership
The Working Class Insights Forum in September includes a session titled The Ownership Economy: Building Wealth for Workers & Families
Predistribution Initiative published a briefing on economic inequality as a macro-financial risk to markets and diversified portfolios
Steward Market announces its first banking partnership, with Beneficial State Bank
Marc J. Lane argues that the real economic gap in America is between asset owners and wage earners
The International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation says mutual and cooperative insurers make up over 25% of the global insurance market
🎙️ The Daily discusses how Trump Accounts could close the wealth gap /// Healed and Chilled featured Rochdale Capital CEO John Holdsclaw on the ownership economy and his approach to maintaining community engagement
🏘️ Community Ownership
Our friends at The Main Street Journal are asking for support from to keep doing the work; sign up here
Katherine Katcher launched Built to Last, a newsletter on community ownership and the work of the Thriving Communities Fund
Del Valle residents are building a community-owned food co-op to bring fresh groceries to a Southeast Austin food desert
Laguna Beach Community Land Trust acquired 50 artist studios for $9.5M, preserving the creative community in the city
Myrtle Beach passed a $480K land purchase for 16 permanently affordable condos through its new community land trust
Oregon’s Gathering Together Farm searches for mission-aligned successors after 40 years of organic farming (ht Peter Dorman) /// Shelterforce explains how community land trusts could be the solution for farms like this one
📚 Academic News
Columbia Business School published a case study by Antony Bugg-Levine on Apis & Heritage’s worker ownership investment model
Aaron Chipp-Miller published his UC San Diego dissertation arguing that the case for workplace democracy follows directly from the principles that justify political democracy. Congrats!
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