Why it matters
More than half of privately held U.S. companies with employees have an owner over 55.1 In a 2024 Gallup survey, about a quarter of business owners with employees said they had no plan for passing the business on.2
When no one is ready to take over, a healthy business may close or be sold to a buyer from outside the area, and the jobs and profits often leave with it. The people best placed to carry it on, its longtime managers and employees, often can’t afford to buy it.3
Where we can help
A business changes hands well when the people involved are ready. That preparation is where a family foundation can make the difference:
- Training for experienced managers and employees who want to buy a business.
- Helping owners prepare to sell, from a professional estimate of what the business is worth to legal and financial advice.
- Education for employees becoming owners through an employee stock ownership plan, an employee ownership trust or a cooperative.
- Support for local organizations that already do this work well.
Who we’d like to hear from
- Business owners thinking about what comes next
- Managers and employees who might one day own the business they work in
- Lenders, nonprofits and economic development groups in the region
- Community foundations and other funders
- Researchers who study business succession and employee ownership
Write to us
If we’ve reached out to you, thank you for taking a look. If we haven’t and you’d like to talk, we’d be glad to hear from you.