How Ownership Works used a digital springboard to launch a movement

Today, most corporations take a top-down approach to equity allocation, with stock ownership shared exclusively among C-suite executives. In contrast, hourly employees have no or limited ownership access such as stock options. This distribution often leads to less opportunity to build wealth for all employees. For nonprofit Ownership Works and its founder, Peter Stavros, reimagining equity and building wealth for all is a cornerstone to addressing this challenge. 

Stavros, co-head of Americas Private Equity for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (NYSE: KKR), recognized the importance of providing employees an opportunity to build wealth from an early age. His dad, a union road grader, witnessed several strikes and contract disagreements throughout his career. This led Stavros to study employee-owned stock programs and later apply what he learned to establish Ownership Works. 

The EY Design Studio (EYDS) collaborated with Ownership Works, creating a public face for the nonprofit. The goal was to name, brand and design a website for the new organization to help bring its mission to life while building online credibility. 

EYDS has four design studios located in Portland, Philadelphia, New York City and Charlotte. Each specializes in creating dynamic digital experiences for Fortune 500 companies. To support Ownership Works, EYDS assembled a multidisciplinary design team of researchers, content strategists, brand strategists, designers and developers. These professionals worked with Ownership Works to understand their business objectives, formulate strategies and design a human-centered digital experience. 

The final phase of the project was to put it all together. Developers from the EYDS team were involved in every stage of the process, providing technical counsel and transforming the designs into a robust website. Most important, the site was built using a user-friendly content management system allowing the ongoing maintenance of the site to be easily transferred to Ownership Works. 

With a clear brand identity and new user-optimized website, Ownership Works is better equipped to expand their mission, educate stakeholders and continue to build a consortium of business partners.

“The newly launched website is helping spread our mission so we can have more informed and meaningful conversations with investors and companies,” noted Stavros. “In fact, since our launch in April of 2022, hundreds of organizations have expressed an interest in learning about the benefits of shared ownership. And, as more and more companies become a part of this movement, we will continue to take critical steps toward our goal of creating $20b in employee wealth over the next decade.”

While the EY team worked to expedite the launch of the website with a robust design system and content management tool, considerations for business growth and future programming were included during the development of the site.

“When executed correctly, digital platforms can tie creative solutions and change together,” explained Tracy. “I’m excited that the EY Design Studio was able to help provide Ownership Works with the foundation needed to help them elevate their brand and expand their reach.”