#steward-ownership
Issues, solutions, and case studies for steward-ownership
Found 6 nodes with this tag: 1 issue · 1 solution · 4 case studies
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Issues 1
#00104Mission locks make a company hard to fund with conventional equity
The features that make a mission lock strong — no profitable exit, no outside control, no dividend extraction — also remove the entire return mechanism conventional equity relies on. Locked companies must grow on cash flow, debt, or mission-aligned capital, which strains capital-
Solutions 1
#00100Steward-ownership: lock control with a veto ("golden") share held by an independent purpose entity
Sell a tiny veto share (~1%) to an independent purpose foundation that holds no economic stake but permanently blocks two actions: selling the company for owners' personal gain, and extracting profits as dividends or capital gains. Founders keep full operational control; the lock
Case studies 4
Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc.; acquired by Unilever (2000), spun into The Magnum Ice Cream Company (2025) · 2000–2025 · National
Ben & Jerry's is a counter-example to steward-ownership: a case where mission protection relied on a contract and an independent board rather than an ownership lock. Unilever acquired Ben & Jerry's for $326 million in A…
Parent company (Unilever, later The Magnum Ice Cream Company) · 3 sources
Ventura, California, USA
SuccessPatagonia, Inc. (Yvon Chouinard family) via Patagonia Purpose Trust + Holdfast Collective · since 2022 · Global
On 14 September 2022, the Chouinard family transferred 100% of Patagonia into two new entities, splitting control from economic rights:
Patagonia company profits (annual dividend to Holdfast Collective) · 3 sources
Berlin, Germany
OngoingEcosia GmbH (Christian Kroll & Tim Schumacher), with the Purpose Foundation · since 2018 · Global
Ecosia is a Berlin-based search engine founded in December 2009 that uses advertising profits to fund tree-planting and climate initiatives. In autumn 2018, founders Christian Kroll and Tim Schumacher—concerned about mi…
Search advertising revenue (self-funded; no external investors) · 3 sources
Berlin, Germany
SuccessEcosia GmbH (founder Christian Kroll, with the Purpose Foundation) · since 2018 · Global
In October 2018 Ecosia GmbH (Berlin, founded 2009) adopted steward-ownership via the veto-share ('golden share') model, with the Purpose Foundation as the independent holder of approximately 1% of shares. The founders p…
Self-funded from search advertising revenue (ad-click share via Bing/Microsoft and Google); no external equity investors · 2 sources