The Toolkit is an 8-stage learning journey, bringing together our learnings on the questions companies tend to grapple with when thinking about a transition to steward ownership. Some people move through it in a few weeks, others over several months.
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3 learning journeys · Free & open access · Self-paced
Learning Journeys on Steward Ownership
Courses and workbooks designed to deepen your understanding of steward ownership and its many facets – whether you're just getting started or already deep into the topic.
Choose a learning journey
Learning Journey #1
Steward Ownership 101
For everyone curious, exploring, or already working with steward ownership. Discover the core principles, legal implementations, and real-world examples behind steward-owned businesses.
Learning Journey #2
Steward Ownership Aligned Financing
Useful for anyone interested in the topic, for instance for founders who want to learn how other companies approached aligned capital, and for investors looking to understand which instruments are compatible with the model.
Workbook
Toolkit on steward ownership
How does a transition to steward ownership look like in practice? This is the guiding question for this interactive toolkit. It provides you with step by step knowledge on steward ownership in companies. This tool bundles much of our nonprofit research and knowledge into a comprehensive and free learning tool. (This workbook will soon be updated and included here as a new learning journey.)
Open workbookEmail series to start learning
You don't feel like checking out a whole course and are looking for an easy start to learn? Our email series might be for you. Sign up below and get one resource once a week: We'll give you a quick summary and tell you why the resource matters.
No 1
Succession
No 2
Mission & independence
No 3
Aligned financing
No 4
Coherent ownership model
Who are these courses for?
Entrepreneurs & Founders
Learn how steward ownership works and how and why companies around the world transitioned to this concept.
Investors & Funders
Learn about the different facets of steward ownership, how companies transitioned to the model and what this can mean for the investment side.
Practitioners & Curious Minds
You're a legal expert, business consultant, researcher or scientist – or simply curious? Learn how steward ownership works and discover how it can help shape an economy that serves people and planet.
FAQs
Yes, all reading experiences, learning journeys and toolkits are fully free and openly accessible. We, the Purpose Foundation, collect our research around steward ownership in interactive tools to help you learn about this concept.
That depends on how you engage with the material. Steward Ownership 101 is structured like a book – sharing our learnings across 7 chapters you can read at your own pace, come back to, and share with colleagues. Most people spread it over several days rather than reading it in one go.
The Aligned Financing journey shares our learnings on financing structures, organised around the kinds of decisions companies typically face. Some chapters invite you to pause and reflect on how these learnings might apply to your own situation, if at all. That process can take weeks, and that's intentional.
If you're new to steward ownership, begin with Steward Ownership 101: it covers the foundational principles and real-world examples. If you want to learn how companies around the world have transitioned to steward ownership and which questions they typically face , have a look at the toolkit. For deeper learning on financing in steward-owned companies, read the Steward Ownership Aligned Financing Guide.
Yes, steward ownership can be implemented using existing legal structures in most jurisdictions. In our course you learn about different models, such as foundations, trusts, or share classes, that are commonly used to encode steward ownership principles in a legally binding way.