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Steward-Ownership. For an economy fit for the 21st century.

We inspire and enable entrepreneurs, business leaders, and investors – by rethinking the nature of corporate ownership. For a purpose-driven economy serving planet, people and society .

steward-ownership

At the center of our work:
Steward-ownership – an alternative to conventional corporate ownership models and shareholder value primacy.

Steward-ownership structurally retools who holds control in companies and what motivates decisions. By disrupting the relationship between power/money and the purpose of business, steward-ownership is a powerful agent for economic change. Learn more here.

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It’s pretty revolutionary what you are doing. And that’s why I’m so excited about steward-ownership.

Rutger Bregman, Author of "Humankind"
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It just doesn’t make sense to produce a great, sustainable product, but then have an exploitative company structure and culture.

Ines Schiller, Founder of Vyld
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Instead of focusing solely on maximising shareholder value, we need to champioan new models for business.

Christian Kroll, Founder and steward-owner of Ecosia
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I am a fan of your idea ... From my point of view, this is a relevant building block in the sense of a social-ecological market economy.

Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection
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Self-ownership can help companies to stay mission driven and independent for the long term.

Juho Makkonen, CEO and Co-founder of Sharetribe
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Purpose provides a new model for the social enterprise sector, which is hungry for alternative ownership structures.

Kate Danaher, Senior Director, Integrated Capital at RSF Social Finance
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Much more experimentation is needed as well as an understanding of historic forms, which showed much more diversity than one would be led to believe from the current dominance of the singular shareholder focused C Corporation.

Albert Wenger, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures
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Purpose brings a rich management philosophy that is post-ideology, weaving together the best from capitalism, cooperatives, startup culture, and democratic organizing.

Alexa Clay, Author 'The Misfit Economy'

What we do

We have coined the term “steward-ownership” in 2016. Ever since, we have built, supported, and maintained the emerging steward-ownership movement by inspiring and enabling actors on their path toward steward-ownership. As a group of organizations, we provide non-profit knowledge & resources, consulting, and investments necessary to make steward-ownership accessible for everyone and realize its potential for an economy fit for the 21st century.

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    Non-Profit

    We research and promote steward-ownership to help spread awareness of alternatives to the shareholder primacy paradigm, we also develop open-source resources to make steward-ownership more accessible.
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    Consulting & Support

    For startups and mature businesses alike: We provide hands-on support to develop legal, financing, and governance solutions that reflect your company’s history, industry, and future.
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    Investments

    Through our investment vehicles, we activate capital for steward-ownership and enable young and mature businesses with patient, purpose-aligned investments.

Key Figures

200 +

Universities

We have introduced steward-ownership at and collaborated with more than 200+ universities worldwide.

300

Companies

We directly worked with 300+ companies on their path to steward-ownership.

250 +

Activated Investment Capital

We have activated an estimated € 250 million for steward-owned companies.

Get Inspired

You haven’t been at one of our big SO:conferences yet? Pull out a pencil and mark your calendar: in June 2025, the SO:25 will take place in Berlin.

Companies we have worked with

Ecosia

02/2021 | Berlin, Mature, Tech

View company profile

Sharetribe

06/2020 | Mature, Tech, Helsinki

View company profile

Purpose & Steward-ownership globally

We’re pioneering steward-ownership.

Since 2016, we inspire and enable actors around the world to enhace steward-ownership and bring it to their region. Today, we work with and support several non-profit organizations that drive steward-ownership independently, but in partnership with us.

About us

 

Stay Connected, Stay Updated!

Subscribe to the PURPOSE newsletter and receive regular updates, inspiration and stories about and around steward-ownership.

Sign up for our newsletter

Write us an email