Signature Initiative
Ownership Works
In 2022, the Ares Foundation committed $1 million over five years to Ownership Works to help unlock access to wealth for low- and moderate-income households and people of color through employee ownership programs.
Ownership Works believes that employees who help create the value in a company have the right to share in that wealth because doing so is, simply put, good business. With this in mind, Ownership Works aims to create at least $20 billion of wealth for workers and, concurrently, hundreds of thousands of new employee-owners over the next six years.5
The nonprofit’s transformative, hands-on model provides companies with guidance on how to further cultivate employee engagement and an ownership culture. Moreover, Ownership Works helps build workers’ personal finance skills through coaching and education.
Ownership Works’ results include:
Companies with board-approved shared ownership plans
Employees impacted by shared ownership
Actual wealth shared to date
Impact for low- and moderate-income workers
For more information, see Ownership Works’ inaugural impact report. 6,7
Ownership Works in Action
Signature Initiative
ALT Finance Corporation
The Ares Foundation’s 10-year, $30 million commitment to ALT Finance Corporation seeks to diversify the alternative investment management industry by readying Historically Black College & University ("HBCU”) undergraduate students for careers in the sector.
With just 7% of all professionals in careers like private equity, venture capital and hedge fund investment identifying as either Black or Hispanic, Ares launched the nonprofit and its core program, AltFinance, with Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Capital Management in 2021 to expand access to career opportunities.
The AltFinance Fellowship offers students at select HBCUs opportunities to participate in mentoring and coaching in partnership with Management Leadership for Tomorrow. The Fellowship also provides workshops and training, scholarships, and support for summer internships and full-time job placement following graduation. In addition, students enrolled at any of the 107 HBCUs in the U.S. can leverage a best-in-class virtual institute developed in partnership with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to teach key concepts about the industry.
The first class of AltFinance Fellows graduated in 2023, with all 14 accepting full-time jobs in alternative investment management, consulting or investment banking across the industries.
According to ALT Finance Corporation’s 2023 impact report, results to date include:
AltFinance Fellows have been mentored through the program
of Fellows interned or committed to full-time roles in alternatives or at an investment bank.
total scholarship and institutional grants committed to support student education
Meet the 2023 AltFinance Graduates
5. No assurance that the Ownership Works program generates this value for company employees. This value is not representative of value creation related to Ares portfolio companies or the total value creation across the program. 6. This information provided is representative of the total Ownership Works program and is not representative of the wealth creation related to Ares portfolio companies. 7. Ares expects to contribute up to $30 million over 10 years. The actual amount contributed may be less than this amount.
