Davey Madison
Our cooperative is primarily focused on the agricultural and indigenous spaces. We will be providing cooperative education, establishing processes and best practices, and also cooperative development for new projects.
Erik Forman
Erik Forman is a social entrepreneur, labor organizer, and housing finance and policy professional. As an entrepreneur, he pioneered the use of worker-owned high-growth tech-enabled startups as a tool for system change, co-creating The Drivers Cooperative, the first driver-owned rideshare platform cooperative in the United States, as well as People’s Choice Communications, an Internet Service Provider built with striking cable technicians to bridge the digital divide. Before turning toward cooperative development as a strategy for system change, Erik was active as a labor organizer for over a decade. He was a [...]
Kate “Sassy” Sassoon
Sassy Facilitation offers facilitation, training, and organizational design for innovative organizations.
Ed Potter
Ed is an international cooperative development practitioner with over 20 years of experience working in North American, Latin American, and Caribbean countries. He previously served as executive director of the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation’s Americas Regional Association (ICMIF/Americas), representing 67 cooperative and mutual insurers from Canada to Argentina. He co-founded the Cooperative Law and Regulation Initiative (CLARITY), which promotes cooperative legal and regulatory reform and advocacy with secondary and tertiary cooperatives in developing economies. Ed led a USAID Cooperative Development Program grant supporting ICMIF/Americas members’ capacity to develop and deliver affordable microinsurance financial [...]
Margaret Bau
USDA Cooperative Services focuses on co-op education, development, legal information, research, and farmer co-op statistics. We strive to connect co-ops with resources within USDA Rural Development and across the federal government. CW member Margaret Bau has been engaged in co-op development since 1998 across her home state of Wisconsin and nationally since 2015. Margaret has assisted in the formation of over 35 cooperatives in industries as diverse as homecare worker co-ops in long-term care, the forest products industry, distributing local foods into regional institutions, arts marketing and galleries, ownership conversions, disability services, [...]
Virginia Foundation for Agriculture, Innovation, and Rural Sustainability
The Virginia Foundation for Agriculture, Innovation and Rural Sustainability will assist rural Virginians in developing and advancing their agricultural, economic and social interests to enhance their quality of life. We provide technical assistance to new and existing rural cooperatives, mutually-owned businesses, farm and forestry associations and communities engaged in improving their economic condition for the mutual benefit of their members/owners/citizens. Technical assistance is provided organizational development and governance, strategic planning, feasibility analysis, business/enterprise/market planning, finance and grant assistance. We are a long standing USDA-funded rural cooperative development center. We assist individual farms, [...]
Rural Grocery Initiative
The Rural Grocery Initiative, housed within K-State Research and Extension, aims to sustain locally-owned rural grocery stores to enhance community vitality and improve access to healthy foods by identifying, developing, and sharing resources that support grocers and rural communities. The Rural Grocery Initiative supports rural grocers and communities through technical assistance, research, informational resources, and events. We provide support to communities across the country, however, currently have a foothold in Kansas and the midwest. One are of expertise is in alternative ownership models. In Kansas, in particular, this has included nonprofits, public-private [...]
NASCO
NASCO provides education, outreach and project management support to individuals, groups, and developers wanting to create resident-controlled, affordable housing co-operatives – usually student, youth, or campus-oriented. NASCO Development Services also assists new or existing co-ops in obtaining acquisition and gap financing, as well as permanent funding and refinancing packages, usually on a fee-for-service or success fee basis. The Development Services program aims to support proactively those groups who have been underserved – including low-income, minority, differently-abled, working, and re-entry students. We believe that cooperative development and cooperative living transform peoples’ lives [...]
National Cooperative Bank
National Cooperative Bank (NCB) provides comprehensive banking services to cooperatives and other member-owned organizations throughout the country. What makes NCB unique is that the bank was created to address the financial needs of an underserved market niche – people who join together cooperatively to meet personal, social or business needs, especially in low-income communities. Our Mission NCB’s mission is to help cooperatives grow by supporting and being an advocate for America’s cooperatives and their members, placing special emphasis on serving the needs of communities that are economically challenged. Our Customers NCB’s customers are cooperatives, [...]
Keystone Development Center
KDC’s mission is to sustain communities, economies, and resources through cooperatively owned businesses. As a provider of technical assistance (TA) to cooperatives and other agriculture-related businesses throughout the Mid-Atlantic, KDC is well positioned to provide support in the areas of technical assistance for businesses wishing to form as cooperatives. With over 20 years of cooperative development experience and a long-standing commitment to cooperatives in the agriculture and food business sector, KDC brings an extensive amount of relevant experience including technical assistance, capacity building, business planning, organizational analysis, IT assistance, education & training, [...]