We make money. There, we said it. For every €6 you contribute, we keep €1. We use this money, the Sumthing fee, to build out our movement and mobilise more people and businesses to support nature. We use it to buy and build the technologies we need to externally validate impact and visualise the results. And we ultimately might even make profit. There, we said it again.
Making profit is not a bad thing. It depends on what you do with it and who is entitled to it. And it should never become a goal in itself.
Every organisation, whether for-profit or non-profit, has to deal with certain costs they need to cover. They need to pay salaries, marketing or customer acquisition fees, and other costs essential to run the organisation.
Therefore, getting 100% of your contribution to nature simply doesn’t exist. The ambition to keep your costs as low as possible does exist however. We think it's crucial to be upfront about where your money goes.
That’s why we are so open about the Sumthing fee. We use 17% of your contribution for overhead. And if there’s anything left under the bottom line, it’s profit.
We all know for-profit and non-profit organisations. And then there's the ones in between, so called social enterprises, which we’re proudly part of.
Although we might make profit, it is never our primary goal. Our mission, however, that is. And to ensure we always stay true to it, we decided to become steward owned. Following the footsteps of Patagonia, Ecosia, Triodos and many more purpose-driven organisations, we adopted a governance structure that puts the planet first.
Well, Steward Ownership is about two principles: self governance and mission driven profits. Let’s take a closer look at these two very eloquent terms.
means that voting rights are held by stewards directly connected to our mission. These rights can't be sold, ensuring that every decision always benefits our mission.
means that founders and investors receive fair compensation, and that we use the rest of our profits to further accelerate our purpose: creating a liveable future for all generations and species to come, us included
The Sumthing Foundation makes decisions, while the Golden Share Foundation holds the veto right to any decision that concerns our steward-ownership structure or purpose.
There are two groups of shareholders that have (capped) economic rights:
At the end of each year, in case of a positive bottom line, the stewards determine what percentage of profits can be allocated to the shareholders. This is maximum 50% and it can never jeopardise Sumthing’s financial health. Once caps have been reached, the Sumthing Foundation receives all economic rights, and invests any remaining profit to further fund our mission outside of Sumthing.
We are very proud to have joined a group of companies pioneering steward ownership, and there's much more to this than what we've said here, so if you're up for it, let's dive deeper!
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