Ben & Jerry’s Foundation Says It Will Shut Down Amid Legal Dispute With Parent Company

The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation says it will unopen down astatine nan extremity of nan twelvemonth aft its firm genitor trim disconnected backing and evicted its 3 staffers Wednesday. The move leaves $600,000 a twelvemonth successful grants to Vermont organizations, and 40 years of nan crystal pick brand’s progressive mission, hanging connected a judge’s early ruling.

“This is nan different ft dropping successful position of nan measurement Magnum is trying to destruct nan societal values of Ben & Jerry’s,” said Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, successful an question and reply Wednesday.

The Vermont-based iconic crystal pick marque has been successful a ineligible conflict pinch its genitor company, The Magnum Ice Cream Co. — an ice-cream spinoff of nan larger corp Unilever — since November 2024. Ben & Jerry’s alleges that nan corp overreached its control, pushing retired nan CEO and interfering pinch nan brand’s governmental views. The mobility earlier a judge is whether nan firm genitor had nan authority to reshape governance and withhold backing from nan foundation.

Amid nan push-and-pull complete governance, Unilever audited nan foundation, which is nan philanthropic limb of Ben & Jerry’s, successful April 2025, uncovering conflicts of liking and a deficiency of governance and financial control.

Liz Bankowski, president of nan foundation’s committee of trustees, said successful an question and reply that Unilever withheld nan philanthropy’s backing precocious past twelvemonth and ordered instauration unit to vacate its firm office successful South Burlington by July 15 because of governance issues nan audit raised. This led nan foundation’s leaders to subordinate nan ongoing lawsuit, fought by nan crystal pick brand’s independent board, successful an effort to clasp funding. The suit is pending successful nan U.S. District Court for nan Southern District of New York.

While nan foundation’s activity is framing nan determination to cease operations arsenic nan only action aft Unilever withheld funding, an unnamed spokesperson for Magnum wrote successful a connection to VTDigger that nan shuttering is “entirely down to nan Trustees and their determination to disregard nan findings of an independent audit and nonaccomplishment to put successful spot basal bully governance; overmuch to our dismay.”

Since nan audit, nan instauration has adopted a conflict of liking policy, but “the bottommost statement was that unless we changed our board, they were going to proceed to withhold funding,” Bankowski said.

Cohen described nan audit arsenic “a bunch of trumped-up charges.”

“The instauration has been independently audited each year,” he said. “I deliberation that Magnum was searching successful vain for immoderate forbidden aliases unethical activities. I deliberation they recovered none.”

Since Ben & Jerry’s sold nan crystal pick business to Unilever successful 2000, nan corp has fixed $60 cardinal to nan foundation. The philanthropic limb has operated for 40 years, supporting nan crystal pick brand’s progressive ngo by offering financial backing to societal justness organizations crossed nan country. The instauration does not person an endowment and is reliant connected nan backing its genitor institution gives annually, outlined successful its merger contract.

A chunk of that funding, $600,000 a year, goes to Vermont organizations specified arsenic nan migrant farmworker authorities statement Migrant Justice and nan LGBTQ+ nonprofit Outright Vermont, according to instauration leaders.

“We capable a peculiar niche that not a batch of different funders fill,” said Rebecca Golden, nan foundation’s head of programs, who has worked astatine nan statement for 34 years.

Golden is 1 of 3 instauration staffers whose past time successful nan beingness agency is Wednesday, pursuing orders from Magnum to vacate. Although Magnum did not straight reside its vacate bid successful its connection to VTDigger, nan spokesperson wrote that nan foundation’s leaders precocious “took nan position that its unit are not Ben & Jerry’s employees, contempt utilising Ben & Jerry’s offices and systems.”

Golden described nan imaginable shutdown arsenic an “enormous loss” that will not only impact nan organizations that nan instauration supports but besides Ben & Jerry’s labor who “feel very proud of being a portion of nan foundation.”

“It’s been a really agelong year, truthful there’s been a batch of emotions — nan full gamut, arsenic we for illustration to opportunity of nan 7 stages of grief. But I deliberation astatine this constituent we’re benignant of successful nan acceptance phase,” she said.

The Magnum spokesperson indicated that nan activity of nan instauration will proceed moreover if its leaders determine to cease operations astatine nan extremity of nan year, penning that nan institution is “firmly committed to backing a grant-giving foundation, supported by due governance controls to guarantee it is surviving by its values.”

But Cohen is not assured that Magnum will uphold nan values of nan Ben & Jerry’s Foundation successful nan corporation’s continued philanthropic efforts.

“What are they going to fund? I person nary idea. My conjecture is that they would not beryllium looking to money entities that are opposed to nan position quo,” Cohen said.

The foundation’s leaders person pointed to its support of Migrant Justice during a play erstwhile nan farmworker statement was considering a boycott of Ben & Jerry’s arsenic an illustration of their committedness to societal justice. After migrant farmworkers raised concerns astir moving conditions astatine farms supplying Ben & Jerry’s, nan institution joined a programme that collaborates pinch farmworkers to strive for adjacent moving conditions.

Political activism has been cardinal to nan Ben & Jerry’s marque since its founding. As a portion of nan ongoing lawsuit, Ben & Jerry’s alleged successful a May filing that Magnum has been undercutting its societal justness ngo successful bid to “censor, intimidate and purge” nan company’s independent board, which Cohen said was created to take sides its progressive values.

Three of nan board’s members, including 1 who has been an outspoken professional of Israel, were removed precocious past twelvemonth aft nan genitor corp introduced a caller group of governance practices. In its mobility to disregard nan lawsuit, Magnum argues that it retains eventual authority and nan brand’s societal ngo must beryllium nonpartisan.

As nan suit awaits a decision, Cohen, who is not a portion of nan suit, has created a run to “free Ben & Jerry’s,” amassing astir 160,000 signers for its petition demanding that Magnum waste Ben & Jerry’s to a “group of values-aligned investors.”

“The very values-led business exemplary that built Ben & Jerry’s into this amazing, phenomenal marque is nan very point that Magnum is presently destroying,” Cohen said.

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This communicative was primitively published by VTDigger and distributed done a business pinch The Associated Press.