From Impact Alpha: The widening wealth gap has sparked interest in worker ownership models that can build individual and community wealth. Across the U.S., about 6,000 companies have Employee Stock Ownership Plans, or ESOPs, and another 450 are worker co-ops. But the complexity involved and a lack of capital means those numbers have barely budged […]
From Fifty by Fifty: In a new paper, “Investing in Employee Ownership: Financing Conversions through a Private Equity Model,” Transform Finance proposes a private equity fund model to finance and scale employee ownership conversions in a worker-centric way. Transform Finance is a nonprofit “working towards a world where capital is aligned with social justice values and serves […]
From Locavesting: Now, the Evergreen Cooperatives network is taking matters into its own hands with a new fund that will acquire existing companies from retiring business owners and sell them back to the employees. This conversion strategy is gaining popularity among advocates of worker ownership in the face of a “Silver Tsunami” of retiring baby […]
From the Huffington Post: On Nov. 13, Evergreen launched the Fund for Employee Ownership with the aim of creating 10 new owner-operated businesses in the Cleveland metro area over the next five years with 600 additional owner-operators. With patient capital ― in other words, funding from investors who have no expectation of turning a quick […]
From Fast Company : After monitoring the success of the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland’s poorer communities, the network now wants more businesses to get on board with it. The takeover of the Cleveland Clinic laundry facility was a pilot for a larger program, the Fund for Employee Ownership, that the Evergreen Cooperatives and the Democracy Collaborative, […]
From Crain’s Cleveland: An ambitious new initiative from Evergreen Cooperatives, a network of worker-owned businesses in Cleveland, is getting national attention. Last week, Evergreen announced it has launched the Fund for Employee Ownership, which will acquire businesses and convert them to employee ownership. It aims to buy companies from retiring owners at fair market value to […]
From The Democracy Collaborative: CLEVELAND, OHIO — NOVEMBER 13, 2018 Evergreen Business Services (EBS) today announced the launch of The Fund for Employee Ownership, which will strategically acquire businesses in Northeast Ohio to preserve the quality jobs they provide by converting them to employee ownership. EBS and the Fund are part of the Evergreen Cooperatives, a […]