Beyond the Summit: Building the Greater Washington Employee Ownership Ecosystem
- Jennifer Bryant
What would it take for 30% of businesses in the Greater Washington region to become employee-owned over the next decade?
That was the question posed by Anand Dholakia, Program Director at the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation, during his opening remarks at the 2026 Greater Washington Employee Ownership Summit.
This question is designed to push us beyond incremental thinking and imagine what becomes possible when an entire region works toward a common vision. This number isn’t a formal goal for the initiative, but a North Star that will guide our collective efforts.
From Vision to Action
On Tuesday, June 23, Project Equity, the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation, and key regional partners hosted the Greater Washington Employee Ownership Summit. The event brought together more than 70 leaders from across Washington, DC, Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, and Northern Virginia to explore how we can work together to expand employee ownership across our region.
Possible solutions emerged through roundtable discussions, cross-sector dialogue, and collective brainstorming that helped shape a shared vision for expanding employee ownership. But while the Summit was an important milestone, it was never intended to be the culmination of this work. Instead, we view it as the next step in a longer effort to make the Greater Washington region one of the country’s most coordinated employee ownership ecosystems.
A Year of Building Momentum
The Summit built upon nearly a year of ecosystem development work led by Project Equity and regional partners.
In July 2025, Project Equity convened the Montgomery County Employee Ownership Roundtable, bringing together local stakeholders to explore employee ownership as an economic development strategy. That momentum led to the formation of the Greater Washington Employee Ownership Working Group, a cross-sector network of regional organizations committed to expanding employee ownership throughout the region.
Building a regional employee ownership ecosystem requires organizations with different expertise and perspectives. Today, the working group brings together leaders from philanthropy, government, technical assistance, and capital, including:
- The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation
- Project Equity
- The Coalition
- Impact Silver Spring
- WorkSource Montgomery
- Rochdale Capital
- Greater Washington Center for Employee Ownership
- Identity
- Stratus Business Advisors
- Beloved Community Incubator
- Greater Washington Community Foundation
Over the past year, working group members have helped shape a shared vision around four regional priorities:
- Storytelling and education
- Producing events and convenings
- Building a network and shared identity
- Policy and systems change
The June Summit represented the first opportunity to bring this broader regional vision to life, welcoming new organizations into the conversation and creating space for partners across sectors to imagine what a coordinated regional effort could accomplish together.
A Shared Vision for Greater Washington
The Greater Washington region is uniquely positioned to become one of the country’s leading employee ownership ecosystems.
Our region already benefits from engaged philanthropic partners, experienced technical assistance providers, growing public-sector interest, capital providers, existing employee-owned businesses, and organizations committed to community wealth building.
The opportunity lies in connecting and strengthening these existing efforts through a coordinated regional ecosystem capable of accelerating employee ownership at scale.
The 30% moonshot question pushes us to think beyond incremental progress and instead ask what kinds of relationships, policies, investments, partnerships, and infrastructure would be required to fundamentally change how business ownership happens across our region.
What Comes Next
The next phase of this work focuses on strengthening the Greater Washington Employee Ownership Initiative by continuing to build the regional infrastructure needed for employee ownership to flourish.
In the coming year, the working group will focus on:
- strengthening regional relationships and shared leadership;
- expanding sector-specific education for business owners, policymakers, advisors, and capital providers;
- advancing employee ownership policy across jurisdictions;
- developing shared regional infrastructure, including communications, branding, and resource directories; and
- continuing to convene organizations committed to making employee ownership a more visible and viable pathway for business ownership
We are not creating a new standalone organization. Instead, we are strengthening the connections among existing organizations so that, together, we can expand employee ownership more effectively than any one organization could alone.
Join the Movement
If your organization works in economic development, workforce development, entrepreneurship, community wealth building, philanthropy, capital access, small business support, or public policy, there is a place for you in this work.
The Greater Washington Employee Ownership Working Group is continuing to grow, and we welcome organizations that share our commitment to building a more inclusive and resilient regional economy through employee ownership.
If you’re interested in learning more or exploring how your organization can get involved, I’d love to hear from you. To start the conversation, please schedule a call with me.
Building a regional employee ownership ecosystem will take all of us. The Summit showed what’s possible. Now the real work, and the real opportunity, begins.
