How is holi organised?
We are a limited liability company in “steward ownership" (or "with tied capital"; in the German context GmbH - Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung).
What does Steward Ownership mean?
Steward ownership means that the owners of the company have voting and participation rights, but do not share in the profits. This is to ensure that the company primarily serves the realization of the company's purpose and not the profit motive of the shareholders.
Why did we choose this organizational form?
Two aspects of steward ownership in particular inspired us to choose this form:
Control remains within the company: With responsible ownership, control (at least 51% of the voting shares) remains within the company with the people who are directly connected to the vision, mission and operational implementation.
Profits serve the purpose: The profits potentially generated by the company cannot be privatized. Instead, profits serve the purpose of the company and are either reinvested or donated to charity. Investors are at the same time fairly compensated with capped returns/dividends.
Although noted as a goal in the coalition agreement of the current German government, there is unfortunately no dedicated corporate form for this yet. In this respect, we had to create a legal construct that embodies the possibilities and deliberately chosen limitations for us. In the creation of the legal construct, we were closely accompanied by the Purpose Foundation, which has been advocating for this new, common good-oriented form of company form for years, and other companies such as Ecosia, Neue Narrative and Wildplastic have also supported us on the same path towards responsible ownership.