Ben & Jerry's Foundation to shut down after parent cuts funding

Co-founder says Magnum is trying to destroy brand’s social mission

The Ben & Jerry’s Foundation said Wednesday it will suspend operations as of Dec. 31, 2026, unless a court ruling restores its funding, after its corporate parent evicted the foundation’s three staff members and cut off its financial support.

The foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Vermont-based ice cream brand, distributed roughly $600,000 a year in grants to Vermont community organizations. Its closure would end four decades of grantmaking tied to the company’s progressive social-values mission.

“This is the other foot dropping in terms of the way Magnum is trying to destroy the social values of Ben & Jerry’s,” co-founder Ben Cohen said in an interview Wednesday.

The dispute is the latest chapter in a legal battle between Ben & Jerry’s Homemade and The Magnum Ice Cream Co., an ice-cream spinoff of Unilever, that began in November 2024. The brand alleges that the corporate parent overreached its control by pushing out the CEO and interfering with the company’s political stances.

MSI previously reported that Cohen had urged Magnum to sell Ben & Jerry’s in April, saying the parent company was a barrier to the brand’s activism.

A judge is now tasked with deciding whether Magnum had the authority to reshape the company’s governance and withhold funding from the foundation. The lawsuit’s outcome will determine whether the foundation can resume its grantmaking.

Amid the governance dispute, Unilever audited the foundation in April 2025, finding conflicts of interest and a lack of governance and financial control.

The foundation’s three staff members were evicted Wednesday as part of the funding cutoff.