The Ben & Jerry鈥檚 Foundation says it will shut down at the end of the year after its corporate parent cut off funding and evicted its three staffers Wednesday. The move leaves $600,000 a year in grants to Vermont organizations, and 40 years of the ice cream brand鈥檚 progressive mission, hanging on a judge鈥檚 future ruling.
鈥淭his is the other foot dropping in terms of the way Magnum is trying to destroy the social values of Ben & Jerry鈥檚,鈥� said Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry鈥檚 Homemade, in an interview Wednesday.
The Vermont-based iconic ice cream brand has been in a with its parent company, The Magnum Ice Cream Co. 鈥� an ice-cream spinoff of the larger corporation Unilever 鈥� since November 2024. Ben & Jerry鈥檚 alleges that the corporation overreached its control, and interfering with the brand鈥檚 political views. The question before a judge is whether the corporate parent had the authority to reshape governance and withhold funding from the foundation.
Amid the push-and-pull over governance, Unilever audited the foundation, which is the philanthropic arm of Ben & Jerry鈥檚, in April 2025, finding conflicts of interest and a lack of governance and financial control.
Liz Bankowski, president of the foundation鈥檚 board of trustees, said in an interview that Unilever withheld the philanthropy鈥檚 funding late last year and ordered foundation staff to vacate its corporate o铿僣e in South Burlington by July 15 because of governance issues the audit raised. This led the foundation鈥檚 leaders to the ongoing lawsuit, fought by the ice cream brand鈥檚 independent board, in an effort to retain funding. The lawsuit is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
While the foundation鈥檚 leadership is framing the decision to cease operations as the only option after Unilever withheld funding, an unnamed spokesperson for Magnum wrote in a statement to VTDigger that the shuttering is 鈥渆ntirely down to the Trustees and their decision to ignore the findings of an independent audit and failure to put in place basic good governance; much to our dismay.鈥�
Since the audit, the foundation has adopted a , but 鈥渢he bottom line was that unless we changed our board, they were going to continue to withhold funding,鈥� Bankowski said.
Cohen described the audit as 鈥渁 bunch of trumped-up charges.鈥�
鈥淭he foundation has been independently audited every year,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think that Magnum was searching in vain for some illegal or unethical activities. I think they found none.鈥�
Since Ben & Jerry鈥檚 the ice cream business to Unilever in 2000, the corporation has given $60 million to the foundation. The philanthropic arm has operated for 40 years, supporting the ice cream brand鈥檚 progressive mission by offering financial backing to social justice organizations across the country. The foundation does not have an endowment and is reliant on the funding its parent company gives annually, outlined in its .
A chunk of that funding, $600,000 a year, goes to Vermont organizations such as the immigrant farmworker rights organization Migrant Justice and the LGBTQ+ nonprofit Outright Vermont, according to foundation leaders.
鈥淲e fill a particular niche that not a lot of other funders fill,鈥� said Rebecca Golden, the foundation鈥檚 director of programs, who has worked at the organization for 34 years.
Golden is one of three foundation staffers whose last day in the physical office is Wednesday, following orders from Magnum to vacate. Although Magnum did not directly address its vacate order in its statement to VTDigger, the spokesperson wrote that the foundation鈥檚 leaders recently 鈥渢ook the position that its staff are not Ben & Jerry鈥檚 employees, despite utilising Ben & Jerry鈥檚 offices and systems.鈥�
Golden described the possible shutdown as an 鈥渆normous loss鈥� that will not only affect the organizations that the foundation supports but also Ben & Jerry鈥檚 employees who 鈥渇eel very proud of being a part of the foundation.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a really long year, so there鈥檚 been a lot of emotions 鈥� the whole gamut, as we like to say of the seven stages of grief. But I think at this point we鈥檙e sort of in the acceptance phase,鈥� she said.
The Magnum spokesperson indicated that the work of the foundation will continue even if its leaders decide to cease operations at the end of the year, writing that the company is 鈥渇irmly committed to funding a grant-giving foundation, supported by appropriate governance controls to ensure it is living by its values.鈥�
But Cohen is not confident that Magnum will uphold the values of the Ben & Jerry鈥檚 Foundation in the corporation鈥檚 continued philanthropic efforts.
鈥淲hat are they going to fund? I have no idea. My guess is that they would not be looking to fund entities that are opposed to the status quo,鈥� Cohen said.
The foundation鈥檚 leaders have pointed to its support of Migrant Justice during a period when the farmworker organization was considering a boycott of Ben & Jerry鈥檚 as an example of their commitment to social justice. After immigrant farmworkers raised concerns about working conditions at farms supplying Ben & Jerry鈥檚, the company joined a that collaborates with farmworkers to strive for fair working conditions.
Political activism has been central to the Ben & Jerry鈥檚 brand since its founding. As a part of the ongoing lawsuit, Ben & Jerry鈥檚 alleged in a May filing that Magnum has been undercutting its social justice mission in order to 鈥渃ensor, intimidate and purge鈥� the company鈥檚 independent board, which Cohen said was created to defend its progressive values.
Three of the board鈥檚 members, including one who has been an outspoken critic of Israel, were late last year after the parent corporation introduced a new set of governance practices. In its motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Magnum argues that it retains ultimate authority and the brand鈥檚 social mission must be nonpartisan.
As the lawsuit awaits a decision, Cohen, who is not a part of the suit, has created a campaign to 鈥渇ree Ben & Jerry鈥檚,鈥� amassing around 160,000 signers for its demanding that Magnum sell Ben & Jerry鈥檚 to a 鈥済roup of values-aligned investors.鈥�
鈥淭he very values-led business model that built Ben & Jerry鈥檚 into this amazing, phenomenal brand is the very thing that Magnum is currently destroying,鈥� Cohen said.
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