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Cooperative Development Institute

@coopdevinst

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Creating economic opportunities for our communities since 1994.

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We are grateful to @JPMorganChase for supporting the Northeast Transition Initiative (NETI), in which CDI is a leading partner, to expand services and awareness in Greater Boston of exit planning for business owners and employee ownership.

With this support, the NETI partnership will continue to build a skilled and informed network of service providers and community advocates to increase support for small business owners looking to retire and transition out of their businesses.

More than 30,000 small business owners in Massachusetts are nearing retirement age, and they employ more than 600,000 workers. Most of those owners do not have a plan for their business when they retire and they do not know who to turn to for assistance. This funding will help to address the growing threat of business closures, job losses, and the impact on our local economies.

We’re proud to be part of a broader effort to connect more Boston-area residents to good jobs, help small businesses grow, and strengthen financial stability across our communities.

Visit the link in our bio to read about the work.

@theicagroup @coopfundne by @coopdevinst

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2 days ago

Happy 20th anniversary to our colleagues at @fuerza_laboral_official! We are grateful for the many years of collaboration. Together we have worked to transform our economies so that workers not only have a job, but also the opportunity to own, make decisions, and live prosperous lives. Congratulations! by @coopdevinst

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4 days ago

Congratulations East Bay Fishermen's Cooperative on winning the national, highly competitive 2026 Co-op Innovation Award! Well deserved! We are proud to be supporting you in your journey and continue to root for your success!

Capital Impact Partners and @nationalcooperativebank announced the winners earlier this month, naming four organizations that will receive $135,000 to advance innovative cooperative models.

#cooperative #coopmonth #fishermen by @coopdevinst

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11 days ago

How do we move cooperatives from a small-but-growing sector to holding a larger share of our economy? That’s a question the panelists attending the Worker Cooperative Conference in Boston tried to answer last week in their plenary “Visions for the Future.”

CDI’s Rob Brown, who was a panelist, shared how strong partnerships across the Northeast region can bolster knowledge and skills to support increased demand for worker cooperative conversions. Worker cooperatives are proven to build stronger, more resilient businesses that keep quality jobs in our communities.

CDI is a proud partner of the Northeast Transition Initiative (NETI), an ecosystem-building partnership of organizations and lenders with deep experience in exit-planning and ownership transitions.

Thank you @usfwc and @wearedawi for organizing this conference and highlighting the power of cooperatives to change ownership of our economies!

#cooperatives #workerowned #smallbusinesses #wcc26 by @coopdevinst

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12 days ago

This October, tune in to the Cooperative Maine Business Alliance’s 2026 Co-op Month Webinar Series, Building Better Co-ops!

This free, three-part series will explore practical strategies for strengthening ownership, transparency, and engagement in cooperatives, with sessions on employee ownership, workplace culture, and financial transparency.

Visit the link in our bio to register for one or all three webinars for free. See you there!

#cooperative #workplaceculture #financialtransparency #employeeownership by @coopdevinst

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19 days ago

Last year, Wilton-based Earth Sky + Water founder Steven Lewers, 77, began thinking about retirement, but was concerned about the company he would be leaving behind.

"A part of my thinking was, of course, my legacy; I want the company to do well after I leave, and I also felt an obligation to my employees and to the community we’ve worked in all these years," Lewers says via email.

In early 2025, Lewers called the nonprofit Cooperative Development Institute, based in Northampton, Mass. CDI provides business, management, financial and workforce assessments to help owners understand company valuation, and connects prospective owners with lenders for financing and lawyers’ representation during the transaction.

Rob Brown, Director of CDI's Business Ownership Solutions Program, talked Earth Sky + Water employees through the process of becoming a worker-owned cooperative, helping them form a steering committee.

"We were opened up to a whole new world. We went through due diligence, and came up with a whole business plan and all the financials that the CFNE wanted. We started learning about bylaws, how we would structure ourselves legally and how co-ops work. Everyone took notes and did their homework," Lewers adds.

Visit the link in our bio and click on CDI Press to read the full story in the New Hampshire Business Review.

#workerowned #employeeownership #successionplanning #supportsmallbusinesses #cooperative by @coopdevinst

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25 days ago

Last night, the homeowners of Hidden Circle Residents Cooperative celebrated the purchase of their community with an event attended by Maine Gov. Janet Mills. Congratulations to these residents again for their amazing feat!

Hidden Circle in Jay is the first community to benefit from a strengthened ‘Right of First Refusal’ state law that went into effect last October, making it easier for residents to purchase their communities when they go up for sale.

The residents closed on the purchase of their community on July 30, 2026. Read their story by visiting the link in our bio and clicking on CDI Blog.

#affordablehousing #cooperative #maine by @coopdevinst

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2 months ago

As the cost of healthcare in the U.S. continues to rise, a group of local herbalists launched a co-op to help community members harness the power of herbs to support their health at home.

“Providence is a highly diverse urban city. A lot of communities lean on herbal remedies to support their health,” said Erin Soule, one of four worker-owners of @gentlestrength.shop, which sells its locally grown herbs, tea blends, and tinctures at the Armory Park Farmers Market in Providence and the Garden City Farmers Market in Cranston. They also host herb workshops at the @urbangreenscoopmarket in Providence.

“The healthcare system is being stripped away and it’s a crucial time to share education about herbalism that historically has been used by many cultures,” Erin continued.

The worker-owners of Gentle Strength – Narcissa Segura, Chandelle Wilson, Erin Soule, and Tammy Kim – began working on the idea for the business about three years ago. Then, they got the help of CDI to turn their vision into a reality, formally incorporating as a co-op, and setting up their governance structure and policies. The co-op soft launched in April.

Read the full story by visiting the link in our bio and clicking on CDI Blog!

#cooperative #healthcare #herbalremedies #herbalmedicine by @coopdevinst

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2 months ago

Today, the residents of The Hidden Circle Mobile Home Park in Jay, Maine can call themselves owners of the community. Please join us in congratulating these residents who met obstacle after obstacle with perseverance, and made what seemed impossible happen!

The Hidden Circle Residents Cooperative purchased its manufactured home community for $1 million, ensuring the land beneath 31 homes in Jay can remain locally owned and affordable for years to come.

“It hasn’t been an easy process, but we never gave up” said Travis, a resident of Hidden Circle Mobile Home Park and president of the cooperative’s volunteer board. “We had to purchase the park because the alternative could be worse. Someone could come in here and hike up the rents and eventually push people out of their homes. Now, people can feel financially safe and safe in their homes.”

Read their story by visiting the link in our bio and clicking on CDI Blog. by @coopdevinst

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3 months ago

In this third installment of our Cooperative Resilience video series, CDI’s Pável Uranga interviews Javier Ruiz Tagle, Ph.D, a cooperative housing expert and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Urban and Territorial Studies in the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Watch the video as Dr. Ruiz Tagle covers topics including:
1. How different countries finance housing co-ops
2. How the U.S. can support the creation of housing co-ops
3. How to expand support for co-op residents beyond housing
4. Importance of promoting successes far and wide

In this video series, Pável interviews members of cooperatives and experts in countries facing conflict to understand how they support their communities and thrive in times of adversity.

Visit the link in our bio and click on Cooperative Resilience Video Series to watch the latest video, and stay tuned in for future videos! by @coopdevinst

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3 months ago

"Over the next decade, roughly six million baby boomer small business owners are expected to exit their companies, according to a recent McKinsey study. Over one million of these businesses, representing $5 trillion in value, will enter the market.

"At a time when wealth inequality in the US just hit a 30-year high, some owners are converting into employee-owned cooperatives that transfer wealth to workers rather than selling to private equity firms or shutting down.

"'There’s a big opportunity for a racial wealth transfer as well as a generational one because of the demographics of who’s in the workforce versus who the owning group is,” said Carolyn Edsell-Vetter, program director at the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast (CFNE).'"
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Thank you NCRC for highlighting worker cooperatives as a solution for keeping jobs and small businesses alive and thriving in our communities -- not to mention giving wealth building opportunities for workers often left behind!

Read the full story by NCRC by visiting the link in our bio and clicking on CDI Press.

#cooperative #workerowned #wealthbuilding #successionplanning by @coopdevinst

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3 months ago

Meet Crystal! In our latest CDI Donor Spotlight, we chatted with Dr. Crystal L. Brandow, an entrepreneur from Upstate New York who donated to the Cooperative Development Institute last year.

Crystal believes that confidence, health and well-being are basic needs that are too often denied to communities. As her own business grows, she wants to give back to organizations that uplift black and brown people, women, children, and communities kept in poverty.

“A core belief of mine is that service to others is service to self,” she said. “All of CDI’s efforts to empower communities; transfer ownership to The People; and foster healthy, safe communities align with my values.”

To read more about Crystal and her unique way of finding organizations to support, visit the link in our bio and click on CDI Blog. by @coopdevinst

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3 months ago