How Community Investing Works
The Ownership Economy Newsletter (Vol. 130)
Welcome Back!
Watching the news out of Davos, we couldn’t help but notice the backpedalling of previous advocates of stakeholder capitalism. It reinforces for us that stakeholder consideration is only durable when stakeholders have ownership: a financial stake and/or decision-making power.
Meanwhile, some fun news: the National Center For Employee Ownership is now the second official sponsor of The Stakehold! We are grateful for their support and yours and look forward to sharing more from the NCEO team in the coming weeks.
🥃 Top Shelf News
The House passed legislation with $2 million in funding for the Department of Labor’s Employee Ownership Initiative, led by Hilary Abell
Anthropic, maker of Claude, updated its constitution—which, as we understand it, is enforced by Anthropic’s long-term benefit trust
The European Parliament adopted a legal framework to make employee ownership easier across its borders
TeamShares is increasing their acquisitions in anticipation of their NASDAQ listing
Legacy Exit’s next Succession Planning Cohort is February 28th; info session today at 2pm MT
Donovan Ervin explores how community investing works and how CDFIs can be harnessed to catalyze growth in high-impact and minority-owned businesses
👉 In This Issue
🏙️ Events
For a full list of upcoming events, see our Events page. And share your conference recaps with us! Coming up:
Jan 23: Legacy Exit’s next Succession Planning Cohort is February 28th; an info session is today at 2pm MT
Jan 24: TPSS Co-Op hosts Jon Steinman at its Shaping Our Second Store event in Tacoma Park, near DC
Jan 24: EoF’s Dutch Hub Launch Event
Jan 27: Ownership Capital Lab’s unveiling of their annual State of the Employee Ownership Fund Marketplace
Jan 27: NCEO’s primer on AI for employee-owned businesses
Jan 27: EOA’s research update from their partnership with UNSW Business School
Jan 28: ICA’s Co-op Women’s Voices conversation on cooperatives and leadership
Jan 28: RMEOC’s webinar on Colorado’s cooperative workforce project
Jan 29: Somos Stewards webinar on how property ownership can support people and the planet
Feb 9: Steward-owned’s refresher on steward ownership’s background and legal framework
Feb 18: Let’s Talk ESOPs event for ESOP HR professionals in Dallas
Employee ownership and the ownership economy
Elspeth J. Murray, Simon Pek and Melissa Hoover offer four reasons employee ownership is necessary for the Canadian economy
Transform Finance published Hiding in Plain Sight, a new report for business leaders navigating “the tension between their personal values and professional expectations”
TF’s Julia Parker is also launching a national survey on community-owned real estate projects
Yifat Aran and Casimiro Nigro argue for a holistic approach to stock option policies in the European Union
EO Sector analyses recent cuts to employee ownership trust tax incentives in the UK
North Carolina Employee Ownership Center expounds on the “Aha!” moment that often leads owners to explore shared ownership
Two opportunities for owners:
Legacy Exit’s Succession Planning Cohort Spring 2026 launches February 28th; info session today at 2pm MT
Applications are open for Shared Prosperity’s Leading for Shared Prosperity cohort
David Ellerman’s second installment on lesser-known advocates of employee ownership highlights British economist and philosopher John Stuart Mill
In ImpactAlpha (paywalled), Roody Senatus covers how capital and long term investments can work to keep housing affordable
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project is hiring a Senior Healthcare Research and Campaign Coordinator (h/t Claire E)
Leslie Wilson’s recent Ted Talk covers how ownership can make work better for everyone:
Employee stock ownership plans
A Texas employee-owner shares how employee ownership impacted his sense of self-worth
PSCA explains what last week’s enforcement changes at EBSA mean for ESOPs
In Forbes, Evan Edwards argues we are entering ‘Generation ESOP’
Worker cooperatives
A group of journalists are reviving Gourmet magazine as a worker cooperative, in line with media outlets like Defector, Hell Gate, and 404 Media (h/t Hudson B)
In Nonprofit Quarterly, Andre Carter explores how agricultural cooperatives could help Alabama fully break free of its “plantation economy”
In LSE Business Review, Gabriel Burdin and Fabio Landini ask why worker co-operatives aren’t more prevalent and provide ways to encourage their creation
A report from Co-operative Housing International, ICA, and the International Legal Research and Analysis Initiative compares cooperative housing laws in 20 countries
Atthowe Fine Arts Services reflects on their recent panel on cooperative ownership of museums space
Purpose trusts and steward ownership
A recent RMEOC webinar shares a new report on the U.S. policy landscape for employee ownership trusts
PURPOSE shares a timeline detailing the history of steward ownership
Peter Koehler announced a new website and newsletter, The Stronghold Report
ICYMI: The Financial Times highlighted The Good Store, John and Hank Green’s “100% for Purpose” business, last December (h/t Issie C)
📚 Academic updates
The Rutgers Institute hosted a webinar this week on employee ownership policy initiatives; you can find briefs on each policy proposal here
Four new books, nerds!
Matthew Maguire and Graham K. Wilson’s Elgar Encyclopedia of Business and Government, including an entry by Simon Pek, Lorin Busaan and
Dr. Hand 🎉
Hanne S. Birkmose and Karsten Engsig Sørensen’s Stakeholder Engagement in European Countries: Company Law Perspectives
Franziska M. Renz and Richard A. Posthuma’s Research Handbook on Psychological Ownership and Management
Pavlos Vlachos’s Stakeholder Capitalism: A Guidebook of Research-Informed Questions and Answers
Joram Scholten, Chris de Nijs, Slinger Jansen, and Sergio España-Cubillo published a book chapter on the democratization of work in the software industry
Carlotta Luisa Kelber published her masters thesis on steward ownership as a pathway for de-growth oriented businesses. Congratulations, Carlotta!
Cecile G. Betit published a case study on ESOP-owned Carris Reels’ corporate governance in Economic Transformations in Population Aging: Unlocking the Silver Economy
Brilliant framing on the Davos backpedaling. The distinction between stakeholder consideration and actual ownership is crucial, especially when finance capital can revoke "stakeholder" status whentimes get tough. Seen this play out in my own work where advisory boards lose influence faster than anyine expected. Real decision-making power and financial stakes create the kind of accountability that rhetoric alone cant deliver.
This is such a useful publication. Keep up the good work.