California Worker Ownership Funders: Launch Convening
A new statewide community for funders working on—or curious about—worker ownership in California. Join us for the virtual launch: meet the community, preview the year, explore what existing data and research show, and help shape the learning agenda.
Community ownership builds agency and control over the places where we live, the businesses where we work, and the wealth those assets generate. It takes many forms, including the ownership of land, housing, commercial real estate, energy, capital, and businesses. Pervasive economic precarity and extreme wealth inequality make every form of community ownership urgent. This group takes a deep dive into one of them: the ownership of a business by the people whose labor creates its value.
Funders come to worker ownership through many doors—job quality, business succession, small business, immigrant entrepreneurship, regional economic mobility, worker power, opening a path for workers structurally excluded from wealth, and more. Wherever you entered, the moves that accelerate this field are beyond what any one funder can do alone. This community is for funders from every region of California who want to learn together, including from one another, and act with a fuller view of the field.
What we will do together
- Get grounded in the landscape. Explore what existing data and research show about worker ownership in California: how many businesses and workers are involved, where they are concentrated, and which sectors are converting. We will also be candid about what the data does not yet tell us. The gaps are part of what the field needs funders to see.
- Meet the community. Hear which doors brought others here, and what each of us is trying to figure out.
- Shape the year. We will preview the 2027 sessions and ask what you most need to learn. What you say will shape the agenda.
Come with a question you cannot yet answer inside your own institution.
Who should attend
Foundation or philanthropic staff at an institution that makes grants or investments in California. Any level of familiarity with worker ownership is welcome, and no existing ownership portfolio is expected—only curiosity and a willingness to move. We encourage multiple representatives, whether you hold budget, shape how it is spent, or bring expertise in impact investing, communications, or policy.
If you work with funders in another capacity, we’d be glad to connect with you outside the funder-only sessions.
What comes next
The launch opens a first year of shared learning running through June 2027. We start with data and research because a shared picture of the landscape is what makes every later conversation possible. From there: an in-person working session on technical assistance and field development in the Bay Area on January 20, 2027 (11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.), followed by sessions on capital and financing (February 17), narrative and awareness building (April 21), and policy and advocacy (May 19). The Funders Network conference in Oakland, March 15–17, takes the place of a March session; we encourage you to attend, including the session on Funder Journeys to Incubating Community Ownership. In June, we will name the coordinated action we’re ready to take and launch what comes next.
You can come to the launch without committing to the year.
Practical details
Convened by Asset Funders Network with support from the California Wellness Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and Sobrato Philanthropies
Questions? Contact Rebeca Rangel, Senior Director, at rebeca@assetfunders.org.
