Low Risk, More Reps
“Ownership is not a category of high risk, exotic investments. They are just things that we have not yet built the muscle around as an industry moving capital tools.” – Brian Boland, Delta Fund
The opinion above, voiced by Brian Boland of Delta Fund, was met with head nodding consensus across his peers. When asked about the sticking points preventing more capital and investors from moving off the fence and onto the field, the sentiment could be summarized as hesitation being more closely tied to the inertia of the status quo than to actual risk. Said more bluntly, the cost of continuing to accept what is versus what could be, despite the very real risk of the erosion of the fundamentals of the American dream, is simply… more familiar. And that in itself should be a wake up call for philanthropy, investors and beyond. Boland went on to say,
“We need more courage. Just a sliver. These investments (like employee ownership) work and they’ve been proven to work for decades. There’s an entire department at Rutgers University who’s been researching this since 1970. It is so studied and so understood that these risks are not real and we should just be bold about moving capital in that direction.”
Building on the debunking of assumptions, Sorenson offered that in addition to being low-risk, Ownership Investing is not a narrow asset class. “This year we released an RFP on the Ownership Economy. We wanted to fund partners who were thinking about creating wealth for low-wealth families and balance sheets. We received hundreds of applications, really different, innovative things, across different models and different sectors for passive wealth building.”
Bipartisan Support, Real Opportunity
“The idea of Ownership is very bipartisan. When you look at how divisive things are in Washington today, this is one area of consensus. The idea of Ownership is very bipartisan” remarked Soreson, just a week away from the 2024 presidential election.
“There are at least two policy initiatives that are making their way through Congress. One that focuses on ESOP employee ownership in a way that would help to de-risk risk investors’ money that they invest into funds that create vehicles for employee ownership. And another that would essentially use the model of the federal Thrift savings program for those gig workers and others that don’t have access to the 401k, managed 401k to be able to start building wealth.”
Echoing Sorenson, Boland added, “In Washington State two years ago, we passed an employee ownership bill that passed unanimously. What else passes unanimously in the United States today? We as a nation, we understand this concept and so it’s a real opportunity. We need more of it.”
While this bipartisan support is indeed a point of hope in our political climate, it also underscores the reality that across the United States, across middle and lower income individuals and across political divides, more Americans are experiencing less access to wealth, to savings, and to the peace of mind that comes with financial resilience.
With an orientation to both optimism and reality, Ramdoss added, “It’s important for us to remind ourselves that ownership was the first extractive nature of the capital system that we built. If we think about ownership as a construct, we basically took land and put borders around it and said we own it. We created a construct around communities and families that they didn’t fully appreciate and understand, and built an entire capitalist system on the basis of it. And now people are sitting there thinking, how do we navigate this?”
Strong Case For Support
The task of changing minds can be monumental. However, a towering asset of the Ownership Investing movement is that the fundamental concept of ‘ownership’ is a quintessential American ideal. It is in our DNA as a country, which is clear not only in the bipartisan support seen on the state and federal level, but in our cultural vernacular around “The American Dream” and its ties to homeownership.
Sorenson underscored that this alignment around the “case for ownership” is an asset to the movement not to be taken for granted. “The great thing about ownership investing is that there’s no controversy about this. People already see this as really an important thing. Quite often that [alignment] is a big part of the battle. And here, that part is already won.”
While this shared belief in ownership is a significant advantage, the inertia of the status quo remains a formidable challenge. The traditional investment landscape, deeply entrenched in its ways, can resist change. To truly accelerate the growth of Ownership Investing, continued engagement, evangelism, and pressure are necessary. By fostering a vibrant community of owners and advocates, we can build momentum that brings others along and beyond the obstacles of change.
Emerging Formation + Coordination
The sense of a community coming into formation, moving from independent actors to a coordinated effort, was a source of joy on both the stage and throughout the room at SOCAP.
“I believe that there’s actually a beautiful emergence happening here,” reflected Ramdoss. “We didn’t start this work in a coordinator manner. We were not ‘ownership investors’ when we started this. That was not a term. We each independently started doing our own things, because it made sense and we cared about it deeply. At Gary, we believe Ownership Investing will play a critical role in briding the racial wealth gap. And so these small interactions – where we shared our individual investments in the Ownership Economy – started to form larger systemic outcomes. And these were uncoordinated actions that today are becoming coordinated, just like how you see emergent systems emerging.”
This concept of emergence occurs when individual entities come together to form something new and greater than the sum of its parts. Movements are born of critical connectors rather than critical mass, where small actions and connections can create new ecosystems, behaviors and possibilities.
“The abundance of this opportunity is that we shift this conversation away from striving and towards thriving and have communities and families and people who are on a trajectory that hits for generations to come. And that’s our calling and our moment in time and our opportunity,” Boland added in his final comment of the conversation.
The Future of Ownership Investing
The seeds of a new economic paradigm are being sown, with last weeks’ SOCAP being just the most recent convening of a growing movement of impact. The case for this approach is compelling: it’s low-risk, widely supported, and has the potential to revolutionize how we think about wealth and opportunity. As Ramdoss emphasized, “Wealth really matters when you think about parents waking up in the morning, and knowing there is a safety net to catch them, to catch their children, if and when something goes wrong.” By investing in ownership, we’re not just investing in financial returns; we’re investing in the future of families, of communities and of our country.
Stay Engaged: The Ownership Investing movement continues in New York City, December 4th, at The Ownership Economy Summit. This is a fantastic forum for ownership curious and ownership convicted investors to lean into this movement.
Learn more about Gary Community Ventures’ Ownership Investing work here.
