Our Mission

Generating $20 billion for workers by 2030.

Ownership Works is well on the way to achieving our 2030 goal of generating $20 billion in wealth for workers outside of the C-suite and creating hundreds of thousands of new employee-owners.

To meet this target, we are fueling a movement and providing hands-on guidance to help businesses implement broad-based employee ownership programs that provide every employee with the opportunity to become an owner who shares in the value they help create.

Our Impact

Since our founding, we've made significant progress.

147

Companies with shared ownership

$1.2 Billion

Wealth paid out to ~40K employees outside the C-suite via shared ownership program liquidity events to date

>$8 Billion

Projected future payouts to ~223K workers outside the C-suite via shared ownership programs still underway 1

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  1. This figure reflects projected wealth from equity allocated to workers outside the C-suite. It includes only a subset of the companies with shared ownership programs, as O.W. is still collecting projected wealth data from all our partners. Given the variability in equity value and workforce headcounts over time, projected average wealth per employee should not be inferred.

Demographic Overview

Helping all workers build wealth at work.

Broad-based employee ownership programs help all workers build wealth at work.

Among the companies with shared ownership programs, we have celebrated 29 liquidity events (exits, dividends, and interim payments), resulting in $1.2 billion in payouts to 39,843 workers outside the C-suite. To understand how shared ownership specifically helps those historically excluded from wealth-building opportunities, Ownership Works collects demographic data on payouts where possible. We aim to collect as much data as possible, but accessibility is sometimes limited due to company privacy policies and country-level restrictions. As a result, while our demographic impact figures provide valuable insight, they are conservative estimates that understate the breadth of our impact to date.

71% of employee-owners were low- and moderate-income 2

We have income-level data for 16 out of the 29 liquidity events to date. Out of this data set, 71% of employee-owners were low- and moderate-income workers, who received $491 million of wealth shared from this subset of liquidity events.

36% of employee-owners were people of color 3

We have racial demographic data for 12 out of the 29 liquidity events to date. Out of this data set, 36% of employee-owners were workers of color, who received $248 million of the wealth shared from this subset of liquidity events.

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  1. Ownership Works defines low- to moderate-income (LMI) workers as individuals earning ≤ 250% of the national median individual (NMI) income, or $116,562.50 in the United States. Ownership Works uses this definition instead of the federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) definition of LMI for two reasons: (1) based on research on the true cost of living for American families, we have determined that 250% of the NMI more accurately captures the breadth of families who struggle to cover household expenses and save, and (2) we receive anonymized individual income data without Personally Identifiable Information (PII), such as home addresses, making it impossible to apply household level income thresholds used by the CRA.
  2. The term “workers of color” refers to employees who identify as Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native, two or more races, or Other. Because some foreign jurisdictions prohibit the collection of employee demographic data, O.W. only collects this data within the United States.

Impact Report

2024 Impact Report

We are excited to share our 2024 Impact Report, showcasing our meaningful progress to date and celebrating the people driving the shared ownership movement to increase prosperity for all.

The Movement Builders

The shared ownership movement is powered by people and partnerships. Explore the significant impact we’ve made together since Ownership Works’ founding.

Download the Report
2024 Impact Report Cover

Download our inaugural 2023 Impact Report.

Contribute

We need your support.

We’re expanding our consortium of partners. To learn more about the role your firm can play, visit our Partners page.

As a nonprofit, we are supported by charitable contributions. If you are ready to support our work with a donation, please visit our Support page.

Join the Movement
Whether you are an executive, a shareholder, a legislator, an hourly employee, a Board member or a member of the public, the shared ownership movement needs your voice.