In 2022, outdoor clothing company founder Yvon Chouinard transferred Patagonia to a trust and related nonprofit structure so its profits could fight climate change.
The Chouinard family transferred Patagonia’s voting stock, about 2% of the total, to the Patagonia Purpose Trust. That trust protects the company’s mission and controls key decisions. The remaining 98%—nonvoting stock—went to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit organized to fund environmental work.
This was not a sale or stock-market flotation. Patagonia remains a for-profit company, and money is first used for operations and reinvestment. Profits not reinvested are distributed as dividends to the Holdfast Collective for climate, conservation, biodiversity and related causes.
A common mix-up is saying that every dollar of revenue is donated, or that Patagonia itself became a charity. The more precise description is that excess profits, after reinvestment, support environmental action while the trust preserves the company’s purpose.