TEA, EOF Announce Record-Breaking Fundraising Month During First Annual ESOPATHON

ESOP Association, Employee Ownership Foundation Announce Record-Breaking Fundraising Month During First Annual ESOPATHON

New Tradition Begins as October’s ESOPATHON Initiative Raises Critical Resources to Further the Cause of Employee Ownership

November 12, 2021, Las Vegas, Nevada – The ESOP Association and the Employee Ownership Foundation today announced a record-breaking month of fundraising during October’s Employee Ownership Month. To mark its 30th anniversary, the Foundation created the first annual ESOPATHON, a month-long fundraising initiative held in conjunction with the nationwide celebration of employee ownership in October.

“Thanks to the dedicated efforts of employee owners and employee-owned businesses across the United States, the Employee Ownership Foundation has already raised more critical funds to date in 2021 than in any other calendar year,” said James Bonham, President of the Employee Ownership Foundation and CEO of The ESOP Association. “The competitive spirit and creativity of our ESOPATHON participants has helped us greatly as we continue our mission to expand opportunities for greater employee ownership.”

During ESOPATHON, ESOP community members and their peers created fun, activity-based challenges to raise funds to support new and forward-leaning programming at the Employee Ownership Foundation.

Each of the ESOP Association’s 18 regional chapters were represented during ESOPATHON, with companies and individuals creating their own events, goals and challenges. Major achievements included:

• The most successful corporate participant was Gardeners Supply Company in Burlington, VT.

• The leading individual donor was Folience’s Daniel Goldstein, who ran a special employee ownership edition of The Gazette to raise awareness of Employee Stock Ownership and was able to best all other individuals participating in ESOPATHON.

• The ESOP Association chapter which raised the most dollars was the Iowa Nebraska Chapter with $1.53 raised per employee owner in the chapter.

The ESOP Association thanks all participants for making ESOPATHON a great success, and the Association looks forward to an even larger event in 2022 as it looks to build upon the achievements of 2021.

For the last 30 years, the Employee Ownership Foundation has been the principal financial supporter for essential research at academic institutions regarding employee ownership. Academic findings have laid the foundation to ensure employee ownership is understood by key decisionmakers and can continue to be an option for more Americans. In addition, the Employee Ownership Foundation supports employee owners and their companies through scholarships, fellowships, and special programming such as the Employee Owner Retreat and the University of Pennsylvania/ CEO Leadership Training Program.

About the ESOP Association

The ESOP Association is the largest organization in the world supporting employee-owned companies, the more than 10 million U.S. employees who participate in an ESOP, and the professionals who provide services to them. Headquartered at the International Employee Ownership Center in Washington, DC and operating as a 501(c)6 organization with the affiliated Employee Ownership Foundation, The ESOP Association conducts and funds academic research, provides more than 160 annual conferences and events attended by nearly 15,000 individuals, and advocates on behalf of employee owners and their businesses to federal and state lawmakers.

The Employee Ownership Foundation

Since its founding in 1991, the Employee Ownership Foundation has operated in pursuit of a single overarching goal: to help more individuals become employee owners. The Foundation has raised and donated millions of dollars to collect data used by academics, encourage objective research, and to facilitate dialogue about employee ownership between thought leaders. Going forward, the Foundation will also place a larger emphasis on raising awareness of the employee ownership model among business owners and to fund more applied research that can further improve the market advantage held by well-run employee-owned businesses. Governed by a national 50-person Board of Trustees and an eight-person Executive Committee, the EOF is recognized by the IRS as an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and donations to it are tax deductible.

For Media Inquiries, Contact:

Paul Pflieger, Director of Communications
202-293-2971
ppflieger@esopassociation.org