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.
It’s pretty revolutionary what you are doing. And that’s why I’m so excited about steward-ownership.
It just doesn’t make sense to produce a great, sustainable product, but then have an exploitative company structure and culture.
Instead of focusing solely on maximising shareholder value, we need to champion new models for business.
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.
Self-ownership can help companies to stay mission driven and independent for the long term.
Purpose provides a new model for the social enterprise sector, which is hungry for alternative ownership structures.
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.
Purpose brings a rich management philosophy that is post-ideology, weaving together the best from capitalism, cooperatives, startup culture, and democratic organizing.
What we do
We 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.
Key Figures
Get Inspired
You haven’t been at one of our big SO:conferences yet? Pull out a pencil and mark your calendar: in October 2025, the SO:25 will take place in Berlin.
Companies we have worked with
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.