In a new article for Nonprofit Quarterly, Transform Finance’s own Julie Menter and Alison Lingane of Ownership Capital Lab spotlight a critical opportunity to unlock broad-based wealth-building and address structural inequality at scale, via employee ownership.
As business owners near retirement, there's a window to transition these companies into worker-owned firms. But this “silver tsunami” is not just a demographic trend—it’s an urgent call to action. Instead of shutting down, getting acquired, or selling to a private equity firm, employee ownership offers a pathway to stay locally rooted, protect jobs, and ensure workers benefit from the value they help create.
Capturing this opportunity requires more than good intentions. The article underscores the critical role that emerging employee ownership funds, ecosystem builders, and policy advocates are playing to accelerate these transitions. These actors are filling essential gaps: offering financing, building the pipeline of eligible businesses, and ensuring that conversions prioritize long-term, worker-centered outcomes.
If we want to see a future where businesses create shared prosperity, now is the time to invest in the infrastructure that makes employee ownership possible.
