Since the founding of the firm, federal agencies have relied on Macfadden for critical support in the areas of international disaster response, development and humanitarian assistance, information technology solutions, financial management systems support and knowledge management and communications.

Rather than hire their own employees directly, federal agencies contract with Macfadden to tap into its pool of human capital. Macfadden employees act as a seamless extension of clients’ business operations and are often fully integrated into the organizations.

President and CEO, David Binns, explained how Macfadden does what it does, “Macfadden’s success is predicated on long-standing relationships with our clients, flexibility and responsiveness to the ever-changing needs of federal agencies for high-quality, cost-efficient professional services, and a commitment to excellent performance to help our clients achieve objectives.”

Macfadden shows that it values its employees by giving the ownership directly to them. In turn, employees feel an increased commitment to the company and its vision and values.

Macfadden’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) was established as a way to transfer the ownership of the company from its founder to the employees. Company founder Jim Macfadden established Macfadden & Associates, Inc. in 1986. After nearly 15 years of growing the business to more than $10 in annual revenue and over 100 employees, Jim was approaching retirement age. He began to explore opportunities to sell the company, and although he had chances to sell to outside buyers, he was interested in creating an ESOP for the employees and maintaining Macfadden as an independent business.

The company’s success in growing the business since the transition to an ESOP structure has resulted in significant appreciation in the value of the stock over the past decade. The employee-owners who have been with the company currently have considerable assets in their personal ESOP accounts.

Winning new business remains a constant challenge to ensure sustained growth in the value of the ESOP. Today, Macfadden is considering a variety of strategies for building future growth for its employee-owners. The ultimate long-term benefit of the ESOP lies in the fact that employee ownership maintains a culture of accountability, personal investment, and participation in both the risks and rewards of the company.

Macfadden employee-owners are deeply involved in supporting the U.S. government’s response to global disasters and stabilization efforts.  From deploying emergency response teams to coordinating information management and overseeing contracts and grants, Macfadden performs a wide range of essential support services.

Juanita Rilling, Director of the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI) and a Macfadden employee-owner, helps coordinate public information related to disaster response. Juanita has been quoted as saying: “Generally after a disaster, people with loving intentions donate things that cannot be used in a disaster response, and in fact may actually be harmful. And they have no idea they’re doing it.” Cash donations buy exactly what people need, exactly when they need it and CIDI works to encourage cash donations to enable relief organizations to purchase supplies locally which ensures that they are appropriate and familiar to survivors, purchased in just the right quantities, and delivered quickly. Those local purchases support the local merchants which strengthens the local economy for the long run.

Rilling is an example of the hundreds of Macfadden employee-owners who are fully integrated into the organizations for which they work. Macfadden is a great model of a company that is doing good for the world and good for its employee-owners.