Investing in co-op

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We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. Get Involved Financing Cooperative entrepreneurs report that access to financing is a key obstacle.

The scarcity of outside financing options has caused many cooperatives to remain undercapitalized. And that undercapitalization directly impedes business growth. Modern cooperatives have the potential to bring in outside investment from the millions of people looking to create a more equitable economy.

But there are major challenges for entrepreneurs to navigate. How to Invest in Co-ops Part 1 Part 1 of this two-part series provides context on why cooperatives need financing, the role of co-op loan funds, how undercapitalization slows cooperative ownership, and recent innovations in co-op financing.

Read: How to Invest in Co-ops Part 1 How to Invest in Co-ops Part 2 Part 2 of this two-part series provides a more hands-on look at the specific terms of what investing in cooperatives looks like, how investors are repaid, typical investor shares and voting rights, and how investors can connect to co-op investment funds.

Equal Exchange Case Study This case study details how Equal Exchange innovated co-op financing by creating non-voting investor shares for co-ops. Read: Equal Exchange Case Study Real Pickles Case Study This case study details how Real Pickles, a small, local food business in western Massachusetts preserved its social mission through transitioning to a worker-owned cooperative and using an innovative financing strategy.

It can guide the first one to two years of getting your organization off the ground and is informed by her experience raising capital as the co-founder of The Drivers Cooperative , a worker cooperative in New York State. The Equitable Economy Fund In , we launched and spun out The Equitable Economy Fund , an equity fund explicitly designed to invest in the growth of cooperatives and other shared ownership businesses.

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In other words, members who do business with other firms can just do buying or selling, but in order to do business with their cooperative, they must invest as well. Traditionally, cooperatives make the investment rather easy for members. However, if a cooperative is just being formed, the required member investment may be significant and needed up front to give the cooperative the money to build the business.

Why do cooperatives need this member investment? Like any business, a cooperative needs to have adequate funds to pay bills, make investments in assets and have reserves for risk management. In any standard business proprietary, partnership or corporate , the owners have to be ultimate providers of the funds that are needed, over and above what gets generated by the normal flow of internal business operations. In this sense, cooperatives are no different than other businesses.

The difference is that member-users are the only source of equity capital for a cooperative. We had worked so hard to get where we were, with lots of false starts. I was so nervous; I worried that no one would show up to invest, but quite the opposite happened. I was dumbfounded by the support; it was such a strong signal that the people in Menomonie and surrounding areas wanted a larger co-op with more amenities, more products, and a bigger connection to our local economy.

Now we are a larger co-op with 4, owners across the Chippewa Valley. Of the original investors, more than half of them want to remain invested to see this next project succeed, and many of them want to invest more. If you shop at the Menomonie store but joined since the last offering, this is your chance to say thank you to the owners who put up the cash for your store and to pay it forward to all of the folks who live closer to the Eau Claire store.

Many of you in Eau Claire have been waiting for this opportunity, and it is finally here. I know we can, but it does take each of us to consider an investment. We are committing ourselves to be in touch with all of you.

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