Our Foundation

Family Enterprise USA (FEUSA) was launched in 2009 on the premise that many of the discussions surrounding businesses today focus on one of three categories – business size (small or large), a particular industry (e.g. manufacturing, retail, etc.) or the business community as a whole. These discussions fail to recognize the most important sector within the business community – family-owned businesses.

Research shows that family businesses contribute roughly 57% to the total GDP of the United States, as well as 75% of all new job creation. Given its significant contribution to the nation's economy, FEUSA's goal is to make "family business” a clearly-defined brand of its own – onethat owners, employees, and customers understand and comfortably support. Whether a family business operates in rural America, on Main Street or Wall Street, FEUSA will increase the general public's awareness of the difference business-owning families make in their communities, states and the country as a whole.

While each family and each family business is unique, many of the challenges are common. FEUSA provides the forum for business-owning families to come together and discuss their collective issues and successes on a national level.

By creating a common identity within the family business sector, speaking from one voice, and sharing the experiences of owning and operating a family business with similarly situated families, it is FEUSA's intent to harness the collective power of the nation's largest business sector. To that end future decisions and discussions will account for what is called the "lifeblood of the American economy.”