Capital

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FairShares V3.0 defines forms of wealth (six types of capital): natural, human, social, intellectual, manufactured and financial. Wealth is generated by stewarding nature to enhance human skills and capabilities, building relationships between people, enabling them to generate and share ideas that stimulate goods to meet human, societal and environmental needs. By recognising and rewarding these six capitals, a more ethically grounded concept of wealth guides our human endeavours to create, distribute and reinvest forms of capital to meet a wide variety of needs.


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FairShares articles define share types that recognise, empower and enable the rewarding of people who contribute these capitals. A quick summary on when shares in a FairShares Company and FairShares Co-operative are issued and cancelled is provided in these two documents:

Company Share Types

Co-operative Share Types



There are four types of share:

  • Founder Shares are held by people who establish the concept behind, and initial purposes of, the company. Founder Shares are intended to protect the organisation against “mission drift” without giving founders the power to determine strategic plans and/or the operational policies of the company. As the founders (or any other shareholder group) can convert ordinary resolutions into special resolutions, any can veto changes that would violate their original intentions for the business. In the case of ordinary resolutions, Founder Shareholders vote (if applicable) using their Labour, User and/or Investor shares. Founder shareholders elect two or three directors once a member threshold has been reached (dependent on which variant is adopted).
  • Labour Shares, by default are held by producers, workers and employees who make a qualifying contribution. This may include “employees” and “workers” (as defined in EU Employment Law), self-employed contractors and suppliers (whether sole traders or corporate “legal persons”) and directors. Holders gain the right to attend, speak, propose and vote on resolutions at the company's General Meetings. Upon reaching a member threshold, Labour Shareholders can elect (and remove) two directors. The mechanism for allocating Labour Shares is decided in General Meeting by members and may – by way of examples - be based on: a one-person one vote; pro-rata based on annual hours worked; pro-rata based on annual salary; based on the number of years employed; or any other fair and equitable mechanism agreed in General Meeting. The rules define how much of the company's surplus is distributed to Labour Shareholders. This is shared in proportion to the number of Labour Shares held by each member.
  • User Shares, by default are held by customers and service users who continually and repeatedly use the company’s products and services (mostly easily evidenced by entering into an agreement or renewing a subscription). This may include service users (indirect) or customers (direct). Holders gain the right to attend, speak, propose and vote on resolutions at the company's General Meetings. Upon reaching a member threshold, User Shareholders can elect (and remove) two or three directors. The mechanism for allocating User Shares is decided in General Meeting by members and may – by way of examples - be based on: a one-person one vote; pro-rata based on value of a trading relationship; based on the length of time a user has used the services of the organisation; or any other fair and equitable mechanism agreed in General Meeting. The rules define how much of the company's surplus is distributed to User Shareholders. This is shared in proportion to the number of User Shares held by each member.
  • Investor Shares can be held by any individual or group individually and collectively. Holders gain the right to attend, speak, propose and vote on General Meeting resolutions. After reaching a member threshold, Investor Shareholders can elect (and remove) two or three directors. The issue of these shares ensures that financial gains created by members, and the risks assumed by those who contribute financial capital, are given recognition but cannot dominate decision-making. The articles define what percentage of the company's surplus is distributed as a dividend to Investor Shareholders or credited in the form of additional Investor Shares to create co-operative capital. In a FairShares Company dividends are distributed in proportion to the number of Investor Shares held by each member.

The company is owned by its Investor Shareholders (any residual assets are distributed to them upon winding up, after reimbursing public and charitable bodies for financial support they have provided).

Discussion: Who creates the surplus?



See Also

Natural Capital

Human Capital

Social Capital

Intellectual Capital

Manufactured Capital

Financial Capital



Return to the FairShares Articles of Association.