Employee Ownership Month is a great time of year. From proclamations by elected officials that raise the profile of employee ownership, to month-long celebrations and events at thousands of ESOPs across America, there’s never been a better time to be part of the EO movement.
Each year, more ESOPs are getting into the spirit of Employee Ownership Month. As I scroll through my social media feeds in October, it seems like every other post is about EOM, with ESOPs continuously finding more creative ways to celebrate, educate, and serve their employee owners and their communities.
While it’s wonderful to see so many of our members lean into Employee Ownership Month as a way to strengthen their cultures and build a sense of togetherness, we also recognize that ESOP leaders are currently facing challenges unlike any they’ve experienced in their careers. Whether it’s economic uncertainty or the rapid pace of change that is affecting all businesses, leaders and companies must continue to evolve in order to succeed.
Since we’re nearing the end of 2025, it’s a good time to reflect on how far we’ve come this year and plan for the future. With that in mind, I’d like to share how our team at The ESOP Association is adapting to anticipate the evolving needs of our membership, to help you meet the moment.
To kick off Employee Ownership Month on October 1st, The ESOP Association launched our newest member benefit, ESOP Rewards, to provide you with deep discounts on travel, entertainment, office and home essentials, and much more. ESOP Rewards is included with your membership and available to companies, employee owners, and professional members. Employees can enjoy discounts on hotels, flights, rental cars, movie tickets, concerts, sporting events and theme parks, and products from companies like Lowe’s, T-Mobile, and GE. Companies have access to the same perks, plus steep discounts on shipping with UPS, computer products from Lenovo, office supplies from Staples and Office Depot, and specialized business services from companies like ADP, Cintas, Trusted Translations, and others. In fact, taking regular advantage of just a few of these deals can more than offset the cost of your ESOP Association membership. I strongly encourage you to sign up and begin using ESOP Rewards, and tell your colleagues about this valuable new benefit.
This October, we are also celebrating major ESOP legislation moving through Congress that will have a big positive impact. The Retire Through Ownership Act would provide regulatory clarity on the process for valuing ESOP transactions that we have sought for decades. By allowing an ESOP fiduciary to rely in good faith on an independent expert who uses long-accepted valuation practices outlined in IRS Ruling 59-60, the legislation will go a long way toward ending harassment and nuisance lawsuits brough by the Department of Labor and the plaintiffs’ bar. The Retire Through Ownership Act unanimously passed the U.S. Senate this month, and since the House version of the bill was passed unanimously in Committee this summer, we expect the House will vote on this important bill after the government shutdown is over. The ESOP Association worked very closely with Congressional leaders and their staffs on both sides of the aisle to get us to this point, and we remain optimistic the legislation will head to the President’s desk sometime this fall.
While 2025 was a big year, we are also planning a very ambitious agenda for 2026. As the training, onboarding, and educational needs of our members are changing, the Association is anticipating and adapting. The first phase of a new approach to ESOP education has already begun, with a significant expansion of our ESOP Employee Accelerator program. This one-day course is designed to instill a solid foundation of business and ESOP knowledge to help employees think and act like owners. By the end of 2025 we will have held 14 Accelerators across all regions of the U.S., and we plan on doubling that number in 2026.
If you’re joining us in Las Vegas for Employee Owned 2025 in November, you’ll see another new pillar of our education strategy: moving beyond traditional lecture formats and leveraging current best practices in adult learning. At EO25 we are offering two half-day workshops that feature a hands-on, participatory approach to help attendees build and retain knowledge to further their ESOP careers. Workshops at EO25 will focus on HR/Communications and ESOP Finance, with more to come at next year’s conference.
And in 2026, The ESOP Association will be launching a brand-new suite of educational products and services including certification programs in various ESOP disciplines as well as onboarding programs for new employee owners designed around the specific needs of our members. This new way of thinking about education is a response to shifting trends in the workforce that require innovative solutions, and we’ll continue to be at the forefront of change to help you achieve your goals.
These are just a few of the ways The ESOP Association is striving to serve you and deliver greater value for your membership. And while we are incredibly proud of how far we’ve come, we’re even more excited for what lies ahead for ESOPs and the employee ownership movement.
Happy Employee Ownership Month, and we look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas in November for EO25.
