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, [...]
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, [...]
Food Co-op Initiative
Food Co-op Initiative envisions a world where every community has the power and ability to build a thriving cooperative food system that provides them with the food they need and want. We partner with communities to build a more just food system, providing critical support as they organize and open community-owned grocery stores. We work with communities across the country, so if you are wondering if a food co-op might be a good way to meet your community's needs, or if you've been trying to start a food co-op and need a [...]
Democracy at Work Institute
The mission of the Democracy at Work Institute is to expand the worker cooperative model to reach communities most directly affected by social and economic inequality, specifically people of color, recent immigrants, and low-wage workforces. We are a movement-based think-and-do tank supporting worker cooperatives to grow to a scale that creates meaningful change in the economy. The Institute brings a birds- eye view of the national stage and a hands-on understanding of cooperative business and its benefits, making sure that our growing worker cooperative movement is both rooted in worker cooperatives themselves and [...]