Zingerman’s Perpetual Purpose Trust

In February 2022, Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw, co-founding partners of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, announced they transitioned ownership of the Zingerman’s brand to a perpetual purpose trust. This radical, yet practical move was the result of over a decade of work to best answer this question. How do you preserve the culture of an organization you’ve built?

Most entrepreneurs are driven by purposes beyond “just being a business”. They bring a unique passion, personal philosophy, and integrity to their work. A perpetual purpose trust allows a founder’s original ethos to outlast them. It also secures how financial success is shared across stakeholders.

Much of this work was done with the expertise of Natalie Reitman-White, Principal of Purpose Owned. She guided many conversations with Ari and Paul to ensure the trust would preserve Zingerman’s mission, core values, and way of doing business in perpetuity.

What is your vision for the organization beyond you?

What do you want to endure?

How will the company operate and be governed?

Who (or what) benefits in future financial success?

With more than 50 companies now owned by perpetual purpose trusts, this strategy for succession planning is gaining momentum. This webinar is for owners with these questions in the back of their minds, for owners actively working on a succession plan, and for anyone interested in alternative ownership structures and ensuring that business is used for good.

Join Ari and Natalie for this webinar special on a radical (and revolutionary) approach to business ownership and succession planning.

In this webinar, you will learn:

• Another option for succession planning that ensures a company’s mission, values, and way of doing business are preserved
• Why Zingerman’s chose to adopt the perpetual purpose trust ownership model over others
• The pursuit and implementation of Zingerman’s Perpetual Purpose Trust over the last 10 years
• How to continue learning about alternative ownership structures and/or get going on your own succession plans

Watch the webinar:

About Natalie

Natalie Reitman-White is the principal at Purpose Owned. She has over two decades of experience as an executive in the food sector. She has specialized in sustainable business, trade advocacy, organizational development, and human resources. Natalie is nationally recognized for her work on transformative ownership and investment models. In 2018, she pioneered one of the first-in-the-nation Perpetual Purpose Trust ownership transitions with Organically Grown Company, the largest distributor of organic produce in the US. She is now a sought-after educator and consultant, helping dozens of companies to explore and implement purpose-ownership and regenerative finance solutions. In 2018, she launched Alternative Ownership Advisors, and now is a Principal at Purpose Owned, a consultancy for ownership & leadership succession planning using Purpose Trusts.