When we survey the cooperative community about the challenges they face, one issue surfaces consistently: a lack of knowledge and resources about co-ops amongst the public (and sometimes even amongst co-ops’ own members!). As highlighted in the fifth cooperative principle, education and training are paramount to the health and growth of the cooperative movement. That’s
Cooperative development is so much fun, we’d almost do it for free. Too bad we all have those pesky living expenses. Here’s a breakdown of how CDI spent its money, and where that money came from, for our last fiscal year. An important note is that CDI’s overhead is very low, a little less than
CDI collaborates with many other groups to work toward our vision of a cooperative economy in the Northeast. Oftentimes our projects will require a team, such as the development of the Island Employee Cooperative, which included the Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative, Cooperative Fund of New England, and Coastal Enterprises, Inc. to bring to fruition.
CDI is a mission-driven organization. We want to see more and more co-op development in our region, so that we can all benefit from a cooperative economy. We’ve been fortunate to enlist funders in supporting our work and our vision. In September of 2014 we were awarded our 16th round of annual funding from the
In 2014, CDI worked with big and small cooperatives throughout the Northeast, as well as across a wide range of sectors: housing, worker, consumer, producer, and more. But perhaps some of our biggest achievements came not from starting new cooperatives, but from helping to transition existing communities and businesses into cooperative institutions. As the cooperative
2014 was a momentous year for the Cooperative Development Institute. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without you: our supporters and our community. That’s why we wanted to give you a recap of everything we accomplished together. In 2014, our work ranged from transforming manufactured home communities into resident-owned communities while also penning viral
Happy Black History Month! February is here and CDI is taking the opportunity to celebrate the history and contemporary reality of Black cooperation, particularly in connection to arts and culture. We are sponsoring a month-long interactive exhibit in Jersey City, NJ that will be the backdrop to information sessions, workshops and panels. This exhibit is designed to
In an effort to help people better understand what CDI does – and why our work is so crucial – we turned to the best asset we have. Our staff. The people who work at CDI are, if we may say so ourselves, brilliant at and passionate about what they do. They’re also proud of
Two nights ago, residents of Burlington’s only mobile home park, Farrington’s Mobile Home Park, took preliminary steps towards taking control of their own destiny and purchasing the community as a resident owned co-op. How did this come to fruition? Under Vermont law, when a park goes up for sale, residents have the option to either
October and November have been two incredibly active months for the Cooperative Development Institute! We have been out in communities, making waves in the co-op world, and working directly with allied movements and organizations to cultivate and support their co-op ambitions. For CDI, it’s important that in addition to the daily work we do to
