National Cooperative Grocers Association
From the NCGA website:National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. We represent 125 food co-ops operating over 160 stores in 35 states with combined annual sales of over $1.4 billion and over 1.3 million consumer-owners. NCGA helps unify natural food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere.
www.ncga.coop
National Cooperative Business Association
From the NCBA website:The National Cooperative Business Association is the nation’s oldest and largest national membership association, representing cooperatives of all types and in all industries. We are democratically organized and operate according to internationally recognized cooperative principles. Our comprehensive programs helps co-ops strengthen their businesses so they can better serve their members and transform the global economy. NCBA also provides a strong, unified voice on Capitol Hill, and diligently works with lawmakers to enact cooperative-friendly legislation. NCBA offers a variety of programs and services to connect you to other co-ops; affording you many opportunities to develop partnerships that help attract and maintain your membership while growing your business.
www.ncba.coop
International Cooperative Alliance
From the ICA website:ICA is an independent, non-governmental association which unites, represents and serves co-operatives worldwide. Founded in 1895, ICA has 267 member organisations from 96 countries active in all sectors of the economy. Together these co-operatives represent nearly one billion individuals worldwide.”
www.ica.coop
Cooperative Grocer
From the Cooperative Grocer website:Cooperative Grocer is a bi-monthly trade magazine for food cooperatives in North America. Published since 1985 and edited by Dave Gutknecht since its founding, Cooperative Grocer is owned by the National Cooperative Grocers Association and is published by contract with NCGA in print and web versions by Triangle Park Creative of Minneapolis.
At Cooperative Grocer, our mission is to improve professionalism and mutual education among food cooperative directors, managers and staff, and key allies of food cooperatives. We aim to be a voice of practitioners, the people and organizations that are doing the work of governing and operating excellent food co-ops. The emphasis of Cooperative Grocer is on how to learn from others about improving co-op store operations and governance.”
www.cooperativegrocer.coop
Neighboring Food Co-op Association
From the NFCA website:The Neighboring Food Co-op Association (NFCA) is a network of more than 25 food co-ops that are working together toward a shared vision of a thriving regional economy, rooted in a healthy, just and sustainable food system and collaboration among co-ops.”
www.nfca.coop
Mid Atlantic Food Co-op Alliance
From the MAFCA website:The Mid-Atlantic Food Co-op Alliance exists for the mutual benefit of its members and the greater community in which we live. Our purpose is to grow the cooperative economy, provide education about co-ops, and build a sustainable and equitable system of healthy, local food production, distribution, and consumption.”
www.mafca.coop
Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation
From the TPCF website:Since 1964 TPCF has administered over $2.5 million dollars in grant programs going towards the development of many types of cooperatives. During its forty year history TPCF has successfully administered almost different fifty grants. The main sources of grants to TPCF have been: the federal government, the State of California, the University of California, the National Cooperative Bank Development Corporation, the Japanese Consumer Cooperative Union, the MSI Foundation, Blooming Prairie Foundation, the Cooperative Foundation and a number of other foundations.
With grants from many sources both public and private TPCF has developed not only food coops but credit unions, cable television cooperatives, health cooperatives and housing cooperatives. No matter the range of our cooperative development activities we always pay special attention to the educational and development needs of food cooperatives.”
www.community.coop/twinpines
Blooming Prairie Foundation
From the Blooming Prairie Foundation website:The Blooming Prairie Foundation is a self-sustaining non-profit organization. It was created by the members of the Blooming Prairie Warehouse Cooperative with the purpose of educating and enlightening buying clubs, cooperatives and privately owned businesses. In addition the Blooming Prairie Foundation makes grants to non-profit, charitable organizations that conduct any of the following activities:
- Developmental, research, and educational efforts in the organic industry and the cooperative community.
- The development of organic and natural products.
- Cooperative development in the natural products industry.”
www.bloomingprairie.org
Cooperative Development Foundation
From the CDF website:CDF’s mission is to promote self-help and mutual aid in community, economic and social development through cooperative enterprise. While CDF engages in educational programming and public outreach activities, a substantial amount of its work involves management of grant and loan funds.”
http://www.cdf.coop
National Cooperative Bank
From the NCB website:NCB, a federally- charted savings bank is the only bank in the United States dedicated to delivering nationwide banking products and solutions to cooperatives and other member-owned organizations throughout the country. Serving both rural and urban neighborhoods, NCB is a leader in supplying grocery, health care, education and housing solutions to the nation’s communities that are most in need. 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.”
www.ncb.coop
Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund
From the NCDF website:NCDF is a cooperatively owned community-development loan fund committed to fostering economic democracy by investing in cooperative enterprises. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, NCDF currently serves more than 170 co-op members in 30 states, including natural food, consumer, producer, housing and worker-owned cooperatives.
A federally certified Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI), NCDF creates opportunities for cooperatives and social investors to invest in the national cooperative movement, with an emphasis on community development within economically challenged and under served communities. Since its founding in 1978, NCDF has originated over $31 million in cooperative financing.”
www.ncdf.coop
Cooperative Development Fund of New England
From the CFNE website:CFNE is a community development loan fund that is a bridge between socially responsible investors and cooperatives, community oriented non-profits, and worker-owned businesses in New England (and parts of New York).”
www.cooperativefund.org
Food Co-op Initiative
From the FCI website:The Food Co-op Initiative Program is a support system that seeks to enable a faster and more efficient start-up process to develop new retail grocery co-ops.”
www.foodcoopinitiative.coop
CDS Consulting Co-op
From the CDS website:CDS Consulting Co-op specializes in providing consulting services to cooperatives in the areas of expansion and growth, improving retail operations, leadership development and governance, and starting new food co-ops. We understand both your cooperative organization and your business and work with you to integrate and strengthen both.
We are passionate about all cooperatives and are committed to cooperative development. CDS Consulting Co-op has provided services to hundreds of cooperatives of all sizes and is active in supporting the growing wave of new food co-ops. Our specialized databases allow us to identify best practices and make recommendations based on analysis of comprehensive data.”
www.cdsconsulting.coop
Cooperative Grocers Information Network
From the CGIN website:CGIN (Cooperative Grocers’ Information Network) is a membership organization founded to support the growth and development of food co-ops. Given the increasingly competitive climate all food co-ops operate in, CGIN aims to help co-ops maximize their collective resources and keep them, as independent groups, from being put at a competitive disadvantage.”
www.cgin.coop
Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive
From the CoFED website:CoFED is a national cooperative network and training program committed to empowering students to create ethically-sourced, cooperatively-run food enterprises on college campuses. CoFED provides week-long retreats and resources with our regional organizers to support student groups as they open up their own food co-ops on their campus. Our mission is to cultivate a more sustainable, community-oriented culture through college campuses.”
www.cofed.org
Cooperative Development Institute
From the CDI website:CDI is the Northeast’s center for cooperative business education, training and technical assistance. CDI’s mission is to build a cooperative economy through the creation and development of successful cooperative enterprises and networks in diverse communities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island and New York.
Our organization provides education, training and technical assistance to existing and start-up cooperatively-structured enterprises in all business sectors: food, housing, energy, agriculture, arts, health, forestry, fisheries, retail, service and more.”
www.cdi.coop
Cultivate.Coop
From the Cultivate.Coop website:Cultivate.Coop is an online hub for pooling knowledge and resources on cooperatives. It is a space to collect free information for those interested in cooperatives and where people can build useful educational tools for the co-op community.”
www.cultivate.coop
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“Chemicals, n: Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.”
~Author Unknown
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