Cooperatives (Co-ops)

Rural Utilities Service

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) is a series of programs that help utilities providers in rural areas expand and keep their facilities current. The RUS programs assist electric providers, water suppliers, telecommunications companies, and distance learning and telemedicine providers. In FY 2008, it received $655 million in budgetary authority and had $9.753 billion in loan authority. Read more about Rural Utilities Service...

National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), which was formed in 1970, is an independent federal agency that charters and supervises federal credit unions. Read more about National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) ...

Cooperation Works! & the USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program

Awarded under a competitive process by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Cooperative Development grants fund technical assistance centers that support the development of cooperative businesses. The majority of grant recipients are members of a national network of technical assistance centers known as Cooperation Works! Federal funding for rural cooperative development grants from FY 2003 to FY 2009 had been at a steady level of $6-6.5 million a year. In FY 2010, however, Congress increased funding to $11.8 million. Read more about Cooperation Works! & the USDA Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program...

Caroline Murray

In this edition, Caroline Murray, Organizing Director of Rebuild the Dream and former Executive Director of Alliance to Develop Power (ADP) in Springfield, Massachusetts, discusses ADP's work combining community organizing with community development of housing, food, and worker cooperatives. Murray also explains efforts at Rebuild the Dream to expand these new economy innovations from the grassroots level to the mainstream. Read more about Caroline Murray...

Rodney North

Rodney North has been a worker-owner of Equal Exchange for over a dozen years, where he serves as "the Answer Man" responsible for public relations and Vice Chair of its Board of Directors. The Massachusetts-based cooperative has 80 worker-owners and $34 million in annual sales, making it among the nation's leading worker co-ops. In this C-W.org Interview, North discusses the group's unusual funding model, its relations with consumer and agricultural co-ops, and current challenges faced by worker co-ops in the United States. Read more about Rodney North...

Ramón León

Ramón León is the founding Executive Director of Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC), a nonprofit organization serving the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. The group was founded by Latino community development leaders and is dedicated to creating economic opportunity for Latinos. Prior to joining LEDC, Mr. León was the founding President of Mercado Central, which today is a thriving marketplace with 47 businesses, with the market itself owned by the vendors as a cooperative. In this C-W.org Interview, León discusses the group's business development model as well as broader issues facing asset builders in the nation's growing Latino community. Read more about Ramón León...

Hilary Abell

Hilary Abell has served at Executive Director of Women's Action to Gain Economic Security (WAGES), an incubator of green housecleaning worker co-ops in the San Francisco Bay Area, since 2003. At present, the WAGES network includes five worker co-ops that provide living wages and business ownership for their largely Latina workforce of 85 worker-owners. WAGES is also working to expand the model beyond the Bay Area. In this C-W.org Interview, Abell discusses the challenges of putting the principles of worker ownership into practice and efforts underway to expand the WAGES model beyond its northern California base. Read more about Hilary Abell...

Melissa Hoover

Melissa Hoover, Founding Executive Director of the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, discusses the state of the worker cooperative movement in this wide-ranging C-W.org Interview. Among the topics covered: the challenges of building a member-financed trade association, the growing diversity within the movement, the search for ways to fill capital gaps, and the challenges of developing democratic workplaces in an economy dominated by non-democratic ownership forms.

Paul Hazen

In this edition, Paul Hazen, Executive Director of the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council, discusses his passion for co-ops, his time and achievements during his tenure at NCBA, and the possibilities for the cooperative movement in 2012, the International Year of the Cooperative, and beyond.

Fifth Community Solar Project Funded in Oakland

May 17th, 2012

Crowdsourcing enables cooperative projects in CA and AZ

April 20th represented a milestone for Solar Mosaic, Ella Baker Center and Green for All community, marking the fundraising conclusion of an exciting fifth solar panel project on the rooftop of St. Vincent de Paul in Oakland, CA. All of the funds were raised through community crowdsourcing, providing a local, zero-interest investment strategy for community solar projects.

USW and Mondragon Unveil Union Co-op

Apr 13th, 2012

Announce plan to develop hybrid worker co-ops

After more than two years in development, on March 26th, 2012, the United Steelworkers and Mondragón, along with the Ohio Employee Ownership Center revealed its hybrid union co-op model, which it hopes will create more sustainable jobs, by incorporating worker ownership and components of the collective bargaining process.

The United Steelworkers, the largest industrial labor union in North America, and Mondragón, the world’s largest federation of worker cooperatives, began this collaboration in October 2009. The Steelworkers have more than 1.2 million active and retired members. On the other hand, Mondragón is a system of more than 260 cooperative enterprises located in Basque country, Spain, employing approximately 85,000 people and generating annual revenue of nearly $20 billion.

Partnership Brings Community Solar to Edmonds, WA

Mar 14th, 2012

Cooperative, city, non-profit, and solar company team up

The first citizen owned solar cooperative in the state of Washington - Edmonds Community Solar Cooperative - was formed in Edmonds in 2011. That alone would be an achievement; however, this effort, spearheaded by community non-profit Sustainable Edmonds, is an extensive collaboration between the city of Edmonds, Seattle-based Tangerine Power and the residents of Washington State.

The innovative plan entails Tangerine Power installing a solar energy system on the roof of a city-owned community center which will then be owned by the community cooperative. In essence, the city provides the space for the solar array and agrees to purchase the power generated, Tangerine Power builds and maintains the array and organizes selling ownership shares for the cooperative, and the residents of Edmonds or any other locality in the state of Washington own the panels and supply the capital needed for this project by becoming members of this community co-op.

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