cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/inforeport/p/1268639/ben-jerrys-foundation-says-it-will-shut-down-amid-legal-dispute-with-parent-company
The move puts at risk $600,000 in philanthropic support to Vermont organizations in an ongoing fight over the ice cream company’s social mission.
They never should have sold to Unilever.
To be fair, they had a good run and they played their hand well. They were able to do some pretty progressive stuff, at a large scale, for well over 2 decades.
They probably wouldn’t have had that reach and impact if they stayed independent and tried to scale without a big backer.
If I were them in 2000, and someone told me how this would end in 26 years, I’d probably still take the deal. They were able to make a lot of beefy grants with that cash.
Thank you for saying this more succinctly that I could. People get mad the B&J for “selling out” but they didn’t just take the money and run, they negotiated continuing money from Unilever and gave it to what they believed, and most of us here would likely believe, were good causes like supporting labor and LGBT rights.
The final straw seemed to be sending money to pro Palestinian causes, which they have been fighting and suing Unilever/Magnum over for months.
Ben and Jerry took millions away from a megacorp and helped way more people than all of us here likely ever will, and it still isn’t enough for some people.
And this isn’t a shot at the parent of this thread. It is fair to say this wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t sell, but that really ignores the full picture and a lot of earned goodwill on the part of Ben and Jerry.
If some big evil company said, “I’ll give you a quarter century of money to fund bunch of big causes you care about, and you’ll change a lot of lives. But a few years before you die, I’m going to take your ice cream brand.”
I’d take the quarter century of money then try to stand something else up before I kicked the bucket.
Ben and Jerry are legends. Most people that sell out don’t actually use that sale to do something good. They took ice cream and made 25 years of sizable grants with the profits.
Exactly. Any of us could say we’d never sell out, but how many of us end up in that situation to really test it?
They ran a successful business, cashed out, and instead of doing miserly things and vanishing to obscurity they’re funding lefty stuff and shaking up the status quo.
Right from the article:
The foundation’s leaders have pointed to its support of Migrant Justice during a period when the farmworker organization was considering a boycott of Ben & Jerry’s as an example of their commitment to social justice. After immigrant farmworkers raised concerns about working conditions at farms supplying Ben & Jerry’s, the company joined a program that collaborates with farmworkers to strive for fair working conditions.
They were using Unilever’s money to basically fight Unilever to the benefit their former employees! How much more do you want from them? 😄
If the founders of ben and jerrys really believed they could continue to control the company to their ethics after selling to a major corporation they were at the very least dangerously naive. You can’t sell out without expecting your product to then prioritize profits over any ethics.
I thought with the magnum split from Unilever they would be better.
