The Chouinards then donated the other 98 percent of Patagonia, its common shares, to a newly established nonprofit organization called the Holdfast Collective, which will now be the recipient of all the company’s profits and use the funds to combat climate change. Because the Holdfast Collective is a 501(c)(4), which allows it to make unlimited political contributions, the family received no tax benefit for its donation.
“There was a meaningful cost to them doing it, but it was a cost they were willing to bear to ensure that this company stays true to their principles,” said Dan Mosley, a partner at BDT & Co., a merchant bank that works with ultrawealthy individuals including Warren Buffett, and who helped Patagonia design the new structure. “And they didn’t get a charitable deduction for it. There is no tax benefit here whatsoever.”
Barre Seid, a Republican donor, is the only other example in recent memory of a wealthy business owner who gave away his company for philanthropic and political causes. But Mr. Seid took a different approach in giving 100 percent of his electronics company to a nonprofit organization, reaping an enormous personal tax windfall as he made a $1.6 billion gift to fund conservative causes, including efforts to stop action on climate change.
Prescribed burns. With climate change parching land and increasing wildfire hazards in some areas, scientists are beginning to use cutting-edge technology to make low-intensity burns used to rid forests of the small trees and other matter that can fuel wildfires safer and more effective.
The beaver as an ally. As global warming intensifies droughts, floods and wildfires, a growing number of scientists and other “beaver believers” view the creatures as furry weapons of climate resilience that can help store precious water and rejuvenate land ravaged by climate change.
Melting ice. In a more drastic forecast than earlier assessments, a new study found that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet could eventually raise global sea levels by at least 10 inches. The study reached the conclusion in part because it used a different measure to gauge ice loss that takes into account the warming that has already occurred.
Forever chemicals. Scientists have found a cheap, effective way to destroy so-called forever chemicals, a group of compounds that pose a global threat to human health. The Environmental Protection Agency said it will designate the two most commonly detected chemicals, which have been linked to cancer and have been found in everything from drinking water to furniture, as hazardous substances.
By giving away the bulk of their assets during their lifetime, the Chouinards — Yvon, his wife Malinda, and their two children, Fletcher and Claire, who are both in their 40s — have established themselves as among the most charitable families in the country.
Patagonia, which Mr. Chouinard founded in 1973, became a company that reflected his own idealistic priorities, as well as those of his wife. The company was an early adopter of everything from organic cotton to on-site child care, and famously discouraged consumers from buying its products, with an advertisement on Black Friday in The New York Times that read, “Don’t Buy This Jacket.”
The company has given away 1 percent of its sales for decades, mostly to grass roots environmental activists. And in recent years, the company has become more politically active, going so far as to sue the Trump administration in a bid to protect the Bears Ears National Monument.
Yet as Patagonia’s sales soared, Mr. Chouinard’s own net worth continued to climb, creating an uncomfortable conundrum for an outsider who abhors excessive wealth.
“I was in Forbes magazine listed as a billionaire, which really, really pissed me off,” he said. “I don’t have $1 billion in the bank. I don’t drive Lexuses.”
The Forbes ranking, and then the Covid-19 pandemic, helped set in motion a process that would unfold over the past two years, and ultimately lead to the Chouinards giving away the company.
In mid-2020, Mr. Chouinard began telling his closest advisers, including Ryan Gellert, the company’s chief executive, that if they couldn’t find a good alternative, he was prepared to sell the company.
