Yvon Chouinard Gives Ventura-Based Patagonia Away

Founder of Clothing and Apparel Company Donates $3 Billion to Environmental Causes

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard (above) and his family have given away ownership of the Ventura-based company he founded nearly 50 years ago to a trust and nonprofit organization focused on fighting climate change. | Credit: Campbell Brewer

In the latest, perhaps last, and certainly most shocking decision amid a career of tradition-bucking moves, Yvon Chouinard is donating his ownership of Patagonia to fund environmental causes.

Yvon Chouinard models a full rack of hand-made gear at Tahquitz Rock | Credit: Aurora Photos

The decision to move his family’s estimated $3 billion in ownership value to the Patagonia Holding Trust and the Holdfast Collective was announced by the company to employees and in the New York Times today. The company itself will remain a for-profit entity, but each year’s dividends — estimated at $100 million annually — will further empower efforts to save the planet from climate change.

“If we have any hope of a thriving planet 50 years from now, it demands all of us doing all we can with the resources we have,” said Chouinard in a statement. “As the business leader I never wanted to be, I am doing my part. Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth, we are using the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source. We’re making Earth our only shareholder. I am dead serious about saving this planet.”