Crowdfunder progress
In March 2025 Ethical Consumer began publishing information on our vision of a world without corporate power, and why we think this is important. This is on a new section of our website, with feature articles, news stories, and profiles of similar campaigning organisations.
We think that, with 36 years of research and campaigning expertise in this area, now would be a great time for us to increase our contribution to the wider debate and campaigns around corporate power, in addition to our work on ethical shopping guides.
What we would like to do is to use our practical, solutions-focused approach to journalism to promote a vision where:
- most enterprises are co-ops or social enterprises
- public and community ownership are thriving
- other stakeholders sit alongside shareholders on corporate boards everywhere
This work will also involve:
- challenging the legitimacy of damaging business models
- challenging the corporate-sponsored growth paradigm
- challenging runaway monopoly power and growing corporate legal rights
We hope that this crowdfunder will help us build capacity over the next two years to do this in a sustainable way.
Our plans for the next two years
We have a five stage plan to raise up to £50,000 to help expand our work in this area. As of January 2026 (the time or writing) we have already raised enough to fund stages one and two but we are still seeking funds to do more.
Stage 1: Publishing
We plan to continue to produce our bi-monthly Challenging Corporate Power four-page section of news, features and interviews exploring our six core themes in the print magazine and on our website for another 12 months. Case studies to inspire people are part of the plan too.
This is the journalistic foundation of the project and will be how we keep our community engaged and updated with other campaigns, and with our ongoing work in this area.
Stage 2: Collaboration
We also plan to set up regular collaborations with other campaigns, businesses and educational institutions looking to achieve the same goals.
We are keen to learn what our community can do to help others, both around short term campaigns and longer projects. Others may be able to promote the work we are doing too.
We plan to convene quarterly online meetings in the first instance, though we may also attend those convened by others.
Stage 3: Boycotts
We also plan to develop our popular online boycott content and focus our work in this area particularly.
This will involve developing and maintaining our boycott list, our most visited webpage and one with global appeal. It will also include exploring the role of boycotts in countering the rise of fascism and militarism around the world.
Stage 4: Building long term capacity
Our six core themes are big subjects which won’t be fixed in a couple of years. We would like build more permanent capacity, or a ‘unit’ within Ethical Consumer, to focus on these themes.
This is likely to involve creating a project management role, staff training, and further fundraising to support this work beyond 2026.
Stage 5: Publication with chapters
We have a vision for a publication provisionally titled “Challenging Corporate Power – how reimagining the corporation could save the world”. We think that a book with a variety of contributions from experts working in this area could provide an important intellectual foundation for the further dissemination of these ideas.
Ethical Consumer has worked on and managed two such books previously.
Producing simplified versions of our work in this area as educational materials for teachers and businesses is an aspiration too.
