Business Retention through Employee Ownership.

Project Equity & Nexus Community Partners hosted the Government Equity Summit with a focus on advancing equity, retaining assets and supporting legacy businesses.

Nexus Community Partners and Project Equity partnered to promote and support small business retention through employee ownership conversions by hosting the Government Equity Summit in San Francisco, California, January 31-February 1, 2019.  

This partnership synergizes and advances the momentum Nexus and Project Equity have created through their respective Community Wealth Building and City Business Retention strategies, and leverages the baby boomer retirement wave to spread broad-based ownership among low-wage workers and cultural communities through the conversion of businesses to employee ownership.

This day and a half Summit assembled 45 attendees including enlightened government officials representing 18 cities and counties, thought leaders and leading voices in public policy, community equity, and philanthropy to explore the game-changing potential for business conversions to employee ownership.

The event was designed to enable economic development officials to connect closely with peers — both in and outside of their geographies.

The goals of the Summit were to both enhance strategies that cities are already utilizing to advance equity and retain assets through employee ownership, as well as to introduce new municipal and regional change makers to these inclusive economic development strategies that build community wealth and resiliency.

Highlighted for reference was the city of Berkeley’s investment in and partnership with Project Equity (recently covered in this SF Chronicle article and announced in this press release).

These dynamic civic leaders left this convening with tangible tools that can be implemented by the public sector to retain valuable assets while advancing equity goals.

Stephanie Hsu, Small & Minority Business Equity Manager for the Baltimore Development Corporation commented after the event:

“Convening members of city agencies and governments across the country, much less around ideas of radical transformation and growth, was an incredible feat. I’m thankful for the opportunity to have been able to sit in and hear from those who have explored various avenues for cooperative ownership & on the ground obstacles and opportunities. A tremendous thank you to Project Equity and Nexus Community Partners for hosting us all.”

Project Equity supports employee ownership conversions as a way to retain local small businesses, stabilize local economies and build community wealth. We leverage the baby boomer retirement wave to spread broad-based ownership among low-wage workers and cultural communities through the conversion of businesses to employee ownership.